Building Sustainability Assessment Research Articles

Building passport for the sustainable conservation of built heritage

PurposeThis research presents the development of a Building Passport for Sustainable Conservation (BPSC) as a questionnaire with a set of 23 core indicators, for a baseline assessment of heritage buildings. The aim of this tool is to identify priorities for future interventions, by recognising the contributions of heritage buildings to sustainability that should be preserved and the fragilities that need to be improved.Design/methodology/approachThe BPSC uses a selection of core indicators for sustainability observable on heritage buildings. It was applied to four different case studies of modern heritage in the Netherlands, to verify its applicability and limitations.FindingsThe results suggest that this tool has the potential to contribute to an expedite assessment, reaching consensual evaluations of priorities for sustainable conservation, while reducing the time and cost of the process, contributing to support informed redesign decisions.Originality/valueRecently, existing building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools have been adapted and new BSA tools developed for heritage buildings. Some tools target existing buildings, but seldom cover cultural significance and heritage values. Others target the after-redesign situations – aiming at assessing how sustainable the redesign is. Often BSA tools are complex and time-consuming, with extensive indicators and data requirements. The BPSC developed in this research covers the main aspects of sustainability and related heritage values, in a simpler tool for a baseline assessment.

Sustainability Study of a Residential Building near Subway Based on LCA-Emergy Method

In the context of ecological building and green building popularity, building sustainability assessment is becoming more and more important. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation platform by coupled LCA method and energy method was designed, verified, and analyzed to assess the sustainability of the building system. The main results illustrated that the construction stage is the most critical stage in terms of emergy angle. From a sustainability perspective, the Emergy Sustainability Indicator was at a moderate level (1.0141), which can be considered to increase the proportion of renewable energy and reduce the proportion of non-renewable resources to improve the sustainability degree. Of the three scenarios designed, the second scenario has the best sustainability in the building system. The unit emergy value of the whole building was also shown to demonstrate the unit emergy of an individual. In order to verify the accuracy of the data, a sensitivity analysis was conducted. Finally, two types of positive measures are proposed to ameliorate the environmental sustainability in the building system, containing the increasing proportion of renewable energy and using recycled building materials.

Sustainable building evaluation: a case study

ABSTRACT The building sector is one of the leading contributors to global climate change. In recent decades, sustainable building assessment systems have been introduced in developed countries to improve the overall performance of buildings and to prevent greenhouse gas emissions, the main culprit of human activities in the current climate change. SBTool is a sustainable building evaluation system that can be calibrated according to the region, project type and phase of development, making SBTool a tailormade assessment system for a specific project. In this study, SBTool was adapted for the first time to an educational facility in Marmara/Turkey climate. The assessment parameters and their weights are arranged according to climate zone, building type, and accommodation characteristics. The created assessment tool was applied analytically to the Engineering Faculty Building of Yalova University/Turkey as a case study. The study showed that the government-run educational facilities could be evaluated with a tool that has 7 Issues, 21 Categories and 45 Criteria after adjustments made to follow its specific regional and local conditions. The assessed building got a Weighted Score of 3.30 points compared to the Target Weighted Score established at 3.08 points. The relative performance score was assigned to “B” which means an acceptable standard for a sustainable building. The methodology of assessment is presented step by step ending up with a graphical interpretation of the evaluation.

User-centric sustainability assessment of single family detached homes (SFDH): A BIM-based methodological framework

Traditionally, green building rating systems have used a building-centric sustainability evaluation. This research challenges the status-quo of building sustainability assessment with a user-centric approach. A user-centric sustainability evaluation can provide a comprehensive assessment of building from a user's perspective. An ideal user-centric building sustainability evaluation should extend from traditional building rating systems and should encompass the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of sustainability and resiliency with a life cycle thinking lens. This paper proposes a user-centric sustainability assessment method for Single Family Detached Homes (SFDH). Building Information Modeling (BIM) was used as the implementation platform for this method. The proposed framework was used to compare the sustainability performance of a certified and non-certified SFDH. Results indicated that certified SFDH performs poorly in the resiliency dimension and outperforms non-certified SFDH in environmental, social, and economic categories. User-centric evaluation provides a more granular building sustainability evaluation and will be a piece of the puzzle in developing an individualized sustainability evaluation system.

Selection of the Most Appropriate Sustainable Buildings Assessment Categories and Criteria for Developing Countries: Case of Ethiopia

Sustainable/green buildings can save for 36% of total energy use, 65% of electricity consumption, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of raw materials use, 30% of waste output, and 12% of potable water consumption. Several sustainable/green building assessment tools were existed and used by both developed and developing countries. However; Ethiopia's buildings were not critically assessed and evaluated from sustainability points of view because there was no such type of studies conducted so far. This paper aims to explore the most significant and widely used as well as the basis for other sustainable/green building assessment tools such as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE), Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool), Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (CEPAS), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB), Green Mark and Green Star. The methodology employed for this paper is the selection of the 10 most commonly and widely utilized SBATs from the 57 SBATs based on desk review and document analysis. The results of the study identified that all these 10 SBATs have their own assessment categories and criteria based on many factors like climatic conditions, availability of resources plus methods employed demographic dynamics, and legal aspects of the sector for assessing the sustainable/green buildings. It distinguishes the most commonly and repeatedly used assessment categories and criteria and uses a consensus-based approach with experts in the building sectors, a four-quadrant model, and a Circular and Helical flow model, to develop a new sustainable building assessment tool (SBAT) suitable for Ethiopia.

A framework for dynamic life cycle sustainability assessment and policy analysis of built environment through a system dynamics approach

Sustainability is gaining attention, particularly in the building sector, owing to its significant influence on economy, society and environment. However, most assessment methods/frameworks available for this sector focus solely or dominantly on the environmental dimension of sustainability. Hence, a sustainability assessment framework for buildings that accounts for the interdependencies amongst social, economic and environmental aspects is essential. Further, buildings also undergo several time-induced changes in their characteristics, such as changes in electricity consumption, material properties, surrounding infrastructure and energy mix that can influence their sustainability. Therefore, this paper introduces a system dynamics-based methodological framework for Dynamic Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (D-LCSA) capable of incorporating the dynamic changes in the building characteristics with time and capturing the interactions amongst different sustainability indicators. The usability and utility of the framework is demonstrated using a case study residential project in India. The case study results show that ignoring time-dependant dynamic aspects in sustainability assessment of buildings leads to underestimating the overall sustainability impacts by about 50 per cent and specific environmental impacts by about 12 per cent. Therefore, the study reinforces the need to adopt dynamic thinking through modelling and simulation to predict sustainability performance in the built environment.

Building information modelling and building sustainability assessment: a review

PurposeThe construction sector is increasingly engaged to explore the potential application of building information modelling (BIM) for the sustainability of the buildings. BIM can be applied conjugated to certification methods to evaluate the sustainability of the buildings, and it is known as building sustainability assessment (BSA). This article aims to explore applications of BIM in the sustainability analysis of buildings, including five types of BSA.Design/methodology/approachA literature review from 2009 to 2020 considering a combination of search terms related to BIM and BSA complemented the analysis. The bibliometric analysis indicates an increase in the number of publications on this topic of study in the last five years. A peak occurred in 2015 and 2020, with 51 and 66 publications, respectively.FindingsThe results showed that BIM contributes to achieving part of the sustainability requirements from BSA, especially quantitative requirements that are related to material and resources. However, a complete analysis between BIM and BSA is still a challenge since part of BSA's have a lack information in their requirements and BIM softwares present interoperability problems that difficult an integrated analysis to extract information directly from the software to attend BSA's requirements.Originality/valueThe results contribute to analysing the evolution of studies about BIM and to understand the limitation in the applicability with sustainability rating systems. Future directions of research indicate the necessity to improve the use of BIM in the sustainability analysis of the buildings, but with a good perspective regarding the application of BIM in material and resources requirements, and waste management in construction sites.

A REVIEW OF MALAYSIAN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING ASSESSMENT TOOLS: THE SOCIAL DIMENSION

Building assessment tools have been introduced for nearly two decades to specifically recognize buildings performance towards sustainable development goals. However, the requirements to achieve sustainability in buildings are mainly focused on the environmental and economic aspects, while the significance of social aspects has been scarcely emphasized in many building assessments tools. This paper presents a review of social aspects in the sustainable building assessment tools adopted in Malaysia. In total, four building assessment tools are selected and discussed with the aim to identify to what extent the building assessment tools cover the social dimension. The results of the content analysis indicate that the assessment tools have included partial criteria of social aspects but the scope could further expand to preserve the key features of the social aspects including quality of life, human health, and environmental satisfaction. The findings provide a valuable overview of the building assessment tools and address gaps in existing building assessment tools from a social aspect perspective.

Linking the Development of Building Sustainability Assessment Tools with the Concept Evolution of Sustainable Buildings

With the rapid development of materials science and construction technology, the concept of sustainable building (SB) and the Building Sustainability Assessment Tool (BSAT) have also evolved and developed. Understanding the development of BSAT and SB is of great significance to the sustainable development of the construction industry. This research used the bibliometric method to analyze the development and evolution in the relevant literature on SB and BSAT from 1990 to 2021, and the correlations and differences between them were investigated. We found that there are many common trends in the development of research efforts in SB and BSAT: (1) they focused solely on the environment, in the early days, and only later considered economic and social impacts; (2) the scales with which they are concerned continue to expand, from individual buildings to communities and even cities; (3) key areas, such as energy, materials, resources, indoor environmental quality, high-tech applications, adaptability, and concern for people are being given more attention by both SB and BSAT. On the other hand, the difference between them is that SB research focuses on more macro aspects, such as policy, culture, climate change, while BSAT research is more concerned with micro aspects, such as its system of tools. Furthermore, some current research gaps in the BSAT field are identified, clarifying its future research directions. By linking the evolution of the SB concept and the development of the BSAT research field, this review provides a new and valuable perspective for the sustainable assessment of the construction industry, which, itself, is conducive to the sustainable transformation of this industry, which could contribute greatly to the mitigation of global climate change.

Benchmarking critical criteria for assessing sustainability of residential buildings in tropical climate

The efforts made in the building industry for accomplishing sustainability are well recognized as Green Building Rating Systems involving multiple sustainability criteria with predetermined benchmarks and scores. Even though numerous Green Building Rating Systems have been developed, most systems are criticized for non-scientific benchmarks and not addressing the regional requirements effectively. Therefore, the current research attempts to determine the maximum and minimum benchmarks corresponding to critical sustainability criteria focusing on residential buildings in the tropical climatic region of India. An extensive review of published literature and existing Green Building Rating Systems establishes the sustainability indicators and the corresponding scoring system. Subsequently, the consensus of experts from the building industry is sought through a questionnaire survey to establish the maximum and minimum benchmarks using the Delphi technique involving multiple rounds. The established minimum and maximum benchmarks represent the best and worst performance possible corresponding to each critical sustainability criteria specific to residential buildings in the tropical climatic region of India. The minimum and maximum benchmarks derived are different from the existing Green Building Rating Systems and indicate the importance of establishing region-specific benchmarks in sustainability assessment. The outcome of current research is beneficial while enhancing and developing a building sustainability assessment system for residential buildings. The current research is the first of its kind, which establishes benchmark values for sustainability assessment of residential buildings in the tropical climatic region of India that could be replicated in other regions as well.

Cloud-based sustainability assessment (CSA) system for automating the sustainability decision-making process of built assets

Digital tools help facilitate the implementation of sustainability practices in the built environment in the era of rapid urban developments. However, the extant literature revealed salient gaps in the use of cloud-based systems and digital tools to evaluate buildings' sustainability performance. Consequently, the current study aims to develop and implement a cloud-based sustainability assessment (CSA) system to evaluate and compare the sustainability performance of buildings based on the Building Sustainability Assessment Method (BSAM) scheme green rating system. A design science research (DSR) approach was adopted in designing, developing, and validating the CSA system. The developed CSA system is based on the SaaS model of cloud computing. The methods evaluation validation of the CSA system when compared with other systems revealed that the developed CSA system would result in higher time and learning efficiency for the users. The findings from the case study validation of the CSA system, using four building projects, indicate that the developed artefact offers a better secured, automated, reliable, and value-adding tool for the building sustainability assessment process. It also eases the automated process of updating data, evaluating, and comparing building projects towards improving the overall building sustainability profile. More so, the CSA system has a great potential to assist stakeholders in their buildings’ sustainability decision-making process and enhancing sustainable development.

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT PERMIT ACQUISITION (ARMENIA)

Introduction: Sustainability is becoming more integrated into different fields in many countries. Architecture and urban development are no exception. International agreements, charters, and national strategies have already been adopted around the world. Nonetheless, the relevant procedures and applications are just as important. In Armenia, despite the existence of several National Standard upgrades and the development of the Buildings’ Energy Passport, there is still no building sustainability assessment system. Methods: This article analyzes development documentation, particularly the application form and acquisition of design permits, in terms of its sustainability, based on legal research, the Developers Guide, and the author’s own professional experience. Results and discussion: This analysis shows that generally, applications and permits include sustainable aspects, but need several improvements in order to make development more sustainable. In turn, the main issues affecting the process are timing, communication, and project presentation capacity.

Net zero adaptation—a review of built environment sustainability assessment tools *

Abstract In the context of the built environment there has been a greater focus of research and policy on climate mitigation efforts, compared with adaptation. Buildings designed today will likely need upgrades within their lifetime if adaptation is not adequately considered. There is currently no widely adopted system for assessing building adaptation in design and clearer guidance is needed. By way of example, a review of three established, geographically diverse building sustainability assessment tools (BREEAM, Green Star and LEED) demonstrates the extent that adaptation to climate change and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions have been integrated. Despite recent assessment updates, emphasis on action pertaining to climate issues is heavily weighted towards mitigation; the integration of adaptation considerations is limited and in most cases not mandatory. This state of play in assessment tools is reflective of wider shortfalls in meaningfully addressing climate change risk in asset design. To ensure that asset investment considers climate-related impacts in a holistic manner, better mechanisms for achieving an integrated perspective of mitigation and adaptation are required.

Building Information Modeling Based Building Sustainability Assessment Framework for Kazakhstan

The use of building information modeling (BIM) for building sustainability assessment (BSA) is a thriving topic within the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Despite the various research approaches to employing BSA with BIM support, the research is limited to the BIM implications of BSA methods in developing countries. This paper presents how BIM can assist the BSA processes in Kazakhstan, using a previously developed building sustainability assessment framework for Kazakhstan (KBSAF). This framework has 46 assessment indicators grouped into nine assessment categories. The categories and assessment indicators of KBSAF were derived considering the regional variations and country-specific differences in the assessment factors. In this paper, BIM functions for BSA were identified through literature review; their applicability for KBSAF was evaluated by mapping the functions with the assessment indicators of KBSAF and a BIM-based BSA framework (BIM-KBSAF) was proposed. The proposed framework was validated through a three-round Delphi survey. One of the results demonstrates that for KBSAF, BIM can assess 24 out of 46 assessment indicators. The proposed framework could serve as a systematic guide to the application of BIM for BSA. Furthermore, it can facilitate the BSA process and save considerable time and effort.

The DEMATEL approach for integrating resilience indicators into building sustainability assessment frameworks

Resilience to natural and manmade hazards is rarely included in sustainability assessment frameworks. Despite their diverging principles, sustainability and resilience should be accounted for in conjunction with one another. This research proposes the integration of resilience indicators into preexisting sustainability assessment frameworks to create a combined building assessment framework. Given that sustainability assessment tools have been around for more than three decades, this study uses them as a basis for the integration process. Integrating resilience indicators into sustainability assessment frameworks to ensure green buildings withstand the disturbing forces of weather events or other disasters requires some tradeoffs between the two concepts. To better understand whether and to what extent the integration of resilience into sustainability assessment tools contributes or competes against the overall sustainability of buildings, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was used. The findings suggest that Efficient Operation and Maintenance, and Energy Efficiency are the factors that contribute the most to the sustainability of buildings. Among resilience indicators, Flexible Systems, and Avoidance of Building in Hazard-Prone Areas are among the cause-factors and can impact other factors to enhance the overall sustainability of buildings. Plan and Design for Site-specific Hazards or Extreme Events was identified as the strongest factor in compromising the sustainability of buildings. Design for Durability and Structural Robustness was also noted to have the highest impact on other sustainability detractors. Furthermore, this manuscript presents data to illustrate the proposed framework's proof-of-concept and discusses the benefits and limitations of this approach along with future research opportunities.

BIM-Based Energy Analysis and Sustainability Assessment—Application to Portuguese Buildings

Buildings are responsible for several negative impacts on the environment, most of them related to nonrenewable energy consumption, increasing the concern regarding buildings energy efficiency. In this context, computer software has been used to estimate the energy needs of the built environment, and the Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology can be used to simplify this process. This study aims to validate a BIM-based framework to streamline the energy analysis of Portuguese buildings, based on the method of the national regulation for the thermal performance of residential buildings. Currently, designers need to spend considerable time assessing all the building characteristics and performing the mandatory calculations for energy performance analysis. It is also intended to link the results of the energy simulation with a Building Sustainability Assessment method—SBToolPT-H. The purpose is to demonstrate how it is possible to benefit from this approach to simultaneously improve building sustainability during the design stage. To do so, different case studies were modelled in Autodesk Revit and exported to a BIM energy tool to perform energy simulation analysis. The results were validated against the official assessment method of the Portuguese thermal regulation and were successfully used to assess the SBToolPT-H energy efficiency category. The research outcomes provide design teams with a reliable BIM-based framework to improve building energy performance and to develop thermal projects while enhancing building sustainability. It also increases the knowledge about the integration of sustainability assessment in the BIM environment, providing new insights for complete integration.

Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption?

This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen). An EPD is a standardized and third-party certified label to communicate product-specific environmental data based on LCA. Some green building rating systems consider it a robust LCA data source and encourage its use over generic data. This work evaluates the environmental profile of the envelope of an office building in the context of level(s) and DGNB adopting EPD as a data source. The results indicate that the EPDs did not cover the mandatory scope of the schemes. Furthermore, there was a lack of EPDs appropriate to the geographical context of the case study, leading to the adoption of EPDs of products from places other than the building site and an overestimation of the environmental impacts of transportation. Moreover, the need for EPDs considering suitable and comprehensive scenarios as well as life-cycle stages beyond the product stage is highlighted. This gap, in fact, hinders the performance of a complete LCA within the analyzed building assessment schemes when relying solely on EPDs as a data source. With this paper, we wish to encourage the further development of EPDs related to the integration of more life-cycle modules and more comprehensive scenarios, considering the direction of the latest amendment of the ISO 15804 for EPDs of construction products.

Assessing interdependency among sustainable criteria and indicators for developing a building assessment tool

ABSTRACT The unplanned and rapid growth of urbanisation and energy demand leads to environmental degradation, social inequalities, and economic instability. These global problems have forced society to rethink infrastructure development to evolve the concept of sustainable development in the construction industry. Technological advances have always been the cornerstone in mitigating the unavoidable side effects of development. To rejuvenate ideas of Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, Renew, and Regenerate (5 R’s) into implementable solutions, the technological dimension is necessary to form a Quadruple Bottom line (QBL) approach i.e., Social, Environmental, Economic and Technological (SEET) for achieving sustainable construction. To tackle and monitor the enormous changes in urban transformation in developing countries, it is important to assess the sustainability of building performance. The objective of the study is to establish the interdependency between criteria and indicators for assessing building sustainability. The findings reveal that the criteria Materials & Waste Management (MW) and Energy Efficiency (EE) secured the highest weight among the eight criteria in the Technological aspect. The study facilitates to understand the interrelationship between the criteria and indicators and will be useful for the development of a new sustainable building assessment tool.

Selection of Core Indicators for the Sustainable Conservation of Built Heritage

ABSTRACT This paper presents and discusses the selection of a set of core indicators for the sustainable conservation of built heritage. This core set of indicators was selected by following a two-step methodology: 1) first, a comparative analysis of indicators of two building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools with different approaches was performed by using content analysis to identify common priorities; 2) second, a selection of the indicators according to scale, stage of the life cycle, and coverage of core aspects for sustainable development, following the criteria established by the International Organization for Standardization. The results show that even if current methodologies have different structures, terminology, and priorities, they share common principles that promote a more sustainable built environment. However, by being mostly oriented to the intervention and operation phases, these methods do not have direct application as an assessment framework for the sustainable conservation of the built heritage. To overcome this situation, this research presents a concise set of indicators that can support the development of an assessment tool to ensure the sustainable conservation of existing buildings.

Sustainable building design: Analysing the feasibility of BIM platforms to support practical building sustainability assessment

Due to the time-consuming and complicated process of performing Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA), this is usually incompatible with construction companies’ deadlines. With the emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry, the opportunity for BSA methods to adopt and benefit from BIM arises. Following a previous study, this paper aims to put in practice a proposed theoretical approach to facilitate the implementation of the BSA since the preliminary design stages using, as an example, the Portuguese SBToolPT-H method. Therefore, this paper analyses how BIM platforms can contribute to optimising the BSA evaluation. To achieve this goal, a case study was modelled and characterised in Autodesk Revit and, tailored parameters were created to support the assessment. The results show that Autodesk Revit can support the evaluation of 13 SBToolPT-H sustainability criteria, in a faster and automated way when faced with the traditional assessment process. The capabilities of BIM platforms and its wider use by designers can significantly contribute to the integration of BSA methods in the BIM collaborative process, thus contributing to a more sustainable built environment.