Sustainability Certification Systems Research Articles

Environmental Certifications in Architecture in Southeast Asia

The present textual work focuses on the significant role of certifications such as LEED and BREEAM in the context of architecture in Southeast Asia. LEED and BREEAM are widely recognized sustainability certification systems that assess and promote environmentally friendly and energy-efficient building practices. These certificates serve as valuable guides for sustainable construction projects and have a positive impact on the promotion of sustainability principles. The findings indicate that the demand for environmentally friendly buildings in this region is continuously growing. This has led to an increased application of certifications as instruments to achieve sustainability goals. Despite this positive development, some challenges persist. In particular, the disparity between claimed sustainability and the actual sustainability achieved in certain construction projects requires critical examination. This underscores the urgent need for more effective monitoring and regulation regarding certification procedures. Another crucial insight is that the adaptation of certificates to the cultural and climatic peculiarities of the region is of great importance. The present work emphasizes the importance of close collaboration between government authorities, architects, and the construction industry to effectively promote sustainable architecture in Southeast Asia. It concludes with an outlook on future developments and the potential role of regional materials and construction methods in the architecture of this region. In summary, it becomes evident that certifications play an indispensable role in promoting sustainability, but their effectiveness depends on a variety of factors. The aspects of monitoring and adaptation to regional conditions prove to be crucial for achieving the goals of sustainable architecture in Southeast Asia in the long term.

Sustainable Design Approaches of Leed-Certified Healthcare Buildings

Rapidly advancing technology and increasing consumption habits in human needs have increased production and construction. Natural resources and raw materials have been rapidly consumed and the natural environment has been destroyed. The deteriorating ecological balance has caused environmental problems. Realizing that today's humanity and future generations are under threat, the scientific world has turned to environmentalist and sustainable studies in order to prevent environmental problems. For these reasons, in this study, healthcare buildings with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certificate, which is a sustainability certification system, were examined and compared under the main headings of management, energy and atmosphere, material, indoor environmental quality, water, transportation, land and ecology, innovation, pollution, waste management. As a result of the study, it was seen that LEED certified healthcare buildings prioritize materials and water and indoor quality criteria, while the use of natural resources and transportation criteria remain in the background.

Sustainability Assessment of Buildings Indicators

The building sector is responsible for a high environmental impact, namely during construction, maintenance, demolition, and lifetime. It is then urgent to develop tools for guiding all stockholders to make buildings more sustainable. In order to make the sustainability assessment of a building, it is necessary to make a survey of the most appropriate parameters for this analysis and organize them hierarchically. The first sustainability certification rating tools were developed in the 90′s of the last century, namely Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), which allow for the quantitative sustainability assessment of different types of buildings. After the first developments, many authors joined in the endeavor of producing easier-to-use and more accurate sustainability assessment systems using sustainability indicators and their respective weights. This work provides a rational pathway throughout the relevant literature on sustainability indicators, comparing indicators proposed by different authors and different sustainability certification systems.

Social equity in sustainability certification systems for the built environment: understanding concepts, value, and practice implications

Sustainability certification systems play both an agenda-setting and practical role for a variety of architecture, planning, and engineering project types. The evolution of existing systems and the creation of new certification systems to address a broader set of social sustainability topics provide a unique opportunity to explore the different ways the industry is thinking about and applying social equity ideas to varied projects. We explore this diversity by conducting a content analysis of the guidance documents from eight sustainability certification systems to better understand how social equity is defined, the context in which the concept is applied, and how systems value the idea. The manner and degree to which systems engage with recognitional, procedural, and distributional aspects of social equity varies. Consequently, there is no guarantee that certification leads to real-world equitable outcomes. Moreover, sustainability professionals seeking to use certification systems to address unequal social impacts or benefits still need to bring a clear set of goals regarding equity of what and for whom, as well as ideas of how to measure and evaluate the distribution of social costs/benefits in order to put social equity into practice.

Toward Regenerative Sustainability: A Passive Design Comfort Assessment Method of Indoor Environment

The fact that people spend a major part of their lifetime indoors, together with the lethal COVID-19 pandemic which caused people to spend even more time inside buildings, has drawn attention to the significance of achieving Agenda 2030 SD goal number three: good health and well-being, in reference to the indoor environment. The research subject is the health and well-being of building users explored through the sustainable (passive) design principles having an impact on the comfort and quality of the indoor environment. It is set within a regenerative sustainability framework encompassing the physiological, biophilic, psychological and social aspects of comfort. The Comfort Assessment Model’s categories, to some extent, rely on the first author’s doctoral thesis, with further modifications regarding the passive design criteria and indicators. A comparative analysis of the model with international sustainability certification (rating) systems has been performed, proving the significance of introducing more passive design comfort (health) related criteria into sustainability assessment models. In addition, a focus group of expert architects contributed to the research conclusions by responding to a questionnaire addressing the issues of sustainability, comfort and passive design, in terms of the health and well-being of building users, which confirmed the relevance of applied passive design measures for providing comfort indoors and fulfilling sustainable development goals.

Challenges in the adoption of sustainable criteria in the Swedish property development industry

The construction industry is facing an increased focus on sustainability and climate neutrality, causing property developers to implement new requirements into the procurement documents, which are also driven by the national agenda. This study explores the current state of sustainability practice among Swedish property developers and identifies the main obstacles to expand further the implementation of the sustainability criteria. How the property developers define and implement sustainability requirements has been assessed through qualitative semi-structured interviews, focusing on sustainability certification systems, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and social sustainability. The results show usage of sustainability certification systems for marketing purposes and high awareness and practice of LCA, even though the accuracy of LCA was questioned. This study also identified guideline gaps for circular economy and social sustainability measurements, which could relate to low initiatives from the certification systems.

Sustainable development of destination Bulgaria through alternative forms of tourism

The idea of sustainable development of tourism is among the most significant trends in this sector globally. In Bulgaria, it is included in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of Tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria. In the current economic, health and social situation, interest in the sustainable development of destination Bulgaria has strengthened. The current situation creates conditions to update and improve the product portfolio of destination Bulgaria, focusing efforts on using the possibilities of alternative forms of tourism, which find their interpretation in the tourist regionalization of the country and the formation of tourist routes with specialized destinations. The research aims to confirm the possibility of sustainable development of destination Bulgaria through the use of products related to alternative forms of tourism. The study object is the tourism destination Bulgaria’s sustainable development. For the needs of the research, standard scientific methods are used. The stated research tasks support the thesis that the use of specialized forms of tourism in the formation of the product portfolio of destination Bulgaria can contribute to its sustainable development. As a result, the need to use the potential of destination management organizations and the importance of sustainability certification systems is confirmed.

生物质燃料发展及可持续认证体系建设研究

生物质燃料发展及可持续认证体系建设研究

Circularity evaluation as guidance for building design

Resource scarcity and global warming call for ambitious strategies in the construction sector to meet the ever-growing demand for indoor spaces with minimal resource consumption and positive environmental impacts. In line with the need to introduce circular economy in the construction sector, the German Public Sustainability Certification System (BNB) is revising its indicator for disassembly, separation and reuse. The proposed assessment is intended to guide in the planning process and to point out challenges and potentials of the circular economy by making the complex interactions and requirements comprehensible in detail. The continuity of the assessment from the building material to the building component to the entire building allows users to track the impact of changes made at each level of aggregation. Based on extensive background research, end-of-life categories are assigned to building materials according to their reusability, taking into account assembly techniques and adjacent, associated materials. Example building components illustrate the method and show the impact of design changes. At the building level, the quantity determination of materials in the end-of-life condition allows transparent comparison of different design variants and documents in detail the material inventory for use in building material passports. Future developments envision the inclusion of building services in the circularity assessment, benchmarking of circularity at the building level, and integration of circular qualities into life cycle analysis calculations.

Impact of a leaf‐cutting ant (Atta sexdens L.) on a Pinus taeda plantation: A 6 year‐long study

AbstractLeaf‐cutting ants are the most economically important pest of plantation forests in the Neotropics. These social insects can defoliate whole trees, reducing their growth ability and occasionally causing tree mortality. Control of leaf‐cutting ants in plantations is mainly carried out by using insecticides such as sulfluramid or fipronil. Foresters that adhere to voluntary sustainability certification systems are requested to implement integrated pest management programmes that reduce the use of insecticides. However, this approach is much delayed since it requires a better understanding of ant ecology, including quantitative data on the long‐term impact that leaf‐cutting ants have on tree plantations. In this study, we show, for the first time, the results on the long‐term impact of Atta sexdens L. on a Pinus taeda L. plantation in NE Argentina. The annual growth in diameter, height, volume and mortality of P. taeda trees in two 11 ha stands were evaluated up to the middle of the harvest cycle (i.e. 6 years). One of the stands had no control of A. sexdens nests, and in the other stand, all ant nests were removed (total control). After six years since planting, P. taeda trees show significant reductions in total height (19%), diameter at breast height (4.4%) and wood volume (21%) in sites with A. sexdens present. Moreover, tree mortality reached 31.2% when ants were present. Forest managers could use these results to improve their integrated management programmes, by better adjusting their economic damage threshold parameters.

Qualitative Analysis of Sustainability Certification Systems Based on ISO 21929-1

Sustainability certification systems are parameters used to measure the extent to which the building meets the necessary sustainable requirements. Currently, there are several types of sustainability certificates, in addition to regulatory standards. Therefore, this work sought to analyze the most influential sustainability certificate systems in the market, using the qualitative analysis of content created by Bardin and based on ISO 21929-1, with fourteen aspects, as a parameter for comparison, the focus of the study was adapted to this method to have a better understanding of the behavior of these systems. Some conditions were imposed to narrow down the number of certification systems, four systems were selected to be analyzed. After the qualitative analysis, it was possible to identify that DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen) is the only one that addressed all the fourteen aspects brought by ISO 21929-1, HQE (Haute Qualité Environnementale) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) addressed fewer aspects, HQE highly addresses them. However, LEED has a more detailed and clear approach to the aspect related to the Internal conditions and air quality. Lastly, BREEAM addresses thirteen of the fourteen aspects of ISO 21929-1, and most of its content addressed is from the environmental area.

Palm Oil Plantation in Indonesia: A Question of Sustainability

The soaring price of cooking oil and the shortage of supply in Indonesia since December 2021 have brought the Indonesian palm oil industry back into the spotlight. Indonesia is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world. Although oil palm plantations are recognized as having a major role in alleviating poverty in Indonesia, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the Indonesian palm oil industry, both in terms of poverty alleviation itself and in terms of environmental damage it caused. Using exploratory qualitative method, this paper argues that the palm oil industry controversy stem from different eco-centric and technocentric views of producer and importer countries on how to achieve sustainable agriculture. Using Indonesia as a case, the results shows that arguing palm oil’s role in alleviating poverty and efforts in reducing environmental impact in Indonesia is not enough to quell palm oil industry controversies. The existing sustainability certification system such as RSPO and ISPO are seen as a technocentric solution that is ineffective and inadequate, whereas eco-centric unclear concept of sustainability and the complexity of the palm oil industry production chain is seen as contradictive. The results shows Indonesia needs to further strengthen its perspective on sustainability with more openness of data and improvement of systems in order to overcome the polarization of the narrative that has grown distrust of the palm oil industry. Negative sentiment toward the palm oil industry will not only harm Indonesia's socio-economic status but can also harm the environment, because importing countries may have to abandon palm oil even though they yet have an alternative that is more sustainable than palm oil.

Global and local sustainable certification systems: Factors influencing RSPO and Thai-GAP adoption by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand

This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certification by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand. A random sample of 77 RSPO certified, 108 non-certified RSPO, 87 Thai-GAP certified, and 67 non-certified Thai-GAP smallholder farmers were interviewed to investigate the factors explaining the RSPO and Thai-GAP scheme adoption, respectively. The logit model was used to analyse the relationships between the adoption and the decision-making factors of the farmers. The results show that membership of farmer groups, the goal of the scheme, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption of RSPO certification. Scheme payments have a negative influence on adoption. In case of Thai-GAP, the results show the scheme payment, the image, concerns about the quality of land and water, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption. Finally, these findings suggest new factors may be attributed to several issues, including trust in the scheme, membership of farmer groups, the scheme’s goal, and trust in the scheme are the most significant. Designing and extension in influencing factors may play multiple roles in driving smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable certification schemes. This finding repeats that the usability of sustainable certification schemes in developing countries needs to be mobilised around a particular socio-cultural context. Including, understanding the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ intention to adopt Thai-GAP or RSPO certification is very important to plan and promote these schemes among other farmers and transform the current cultivation practices into more sustainable palm oil production.

Low-carbon processes advance in Europe

Three recent initiatives demonstrate the diverse methods chemical companies are exploring to reduce the carbon footprint of the products they make in Europe. DSM and Neste have formed a partnership to replace a “significant” portion of the fossil fuel used to make some of DSM’s polymers with feedstock Neste derives from waste plastics, oils, and fats. The partners aim to substitute several thousand metric tons (t) of feedstock with fossil-derived feedstock in the near term. The chemically recycled and biobased materials used will be certified by ISCC, an international sustainability certification system for feedstocks. The partners say the initiative is a response to consumer demand for more sustainable and circular products. DSM plans to offer versions of its full range of polymers made using sustainable feedstock by 2030. Separately, the catalyst firm Haldor Topsoe and the petrochemical maker Braskem say they have achieved demonstration-scale production of biobased ethylene glycol in

Data-Informed Urban Design: An Overview of the Use of Data and Digital Tools in Urban Planning and Design

This article aims to map how different digital tools can be useful for architects and how they might affect their work processes. Researchers and professionals were interviewed to investigate what they found valuable to measure, which methods they used within their analyses, as well as the opportunities and risks they see for the future of the field with regards to digital tools. As part of the survey, a workshop was held with architects and project managers examining the possibilities of connecting existing methods and tools to the sustainability certification system, City Lab Action Guide, and through that, to achieve a more ambitious set of sustainability goals for the projects. Findings from the study indicate that there are risks associated with giving data an increasingly important role in the design work. A working model never provides the full truth but is inherently limited by its constraints. It is important to acknowledge that all angles and aspects of a problem can never be represented in a model. Another possible risk identified lies in the quality of, and access to, data. In a scenario where data plays an increasingly important role, it is not only the quality of the datasets that is of utmost importance, but it is equally important that the urban planners who request the analyses ask the questions first, and then collect the necessary data, instead of vice versa.

Does oil palm certification create trade-offs between environment and development in Indonesia?

Environmental and social problems triggered by rapid palm oil expansion in the tropics have spurred the proliferation of sustainability certification systems such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). While the RSPO aims to improve the impact of oil palm production on people and environments, its effect on local development, environmental quality, and, especially, potential trade-offs between these outcomes remain unclear. Here, we evaluate whether RSPO certification of large-scale industrial concessions has promoted village development and supported environmental quality in Indonesia, the top global palm oil producer. Using a panel dataset with observations from 11 000 villages in Kalimantan and Sumatra from 2003 to 2014, we apply rigorous quasi-experimental methods to quantify the RSPO’s impacts on village development and environmental outcomes. In the short-run, RSPO contributed to environmental conservation, but had limited development outcomes. On average, relative to villages with non-certified concessions, RSPO certification reduced deforestation and protected primary forests in Sumatra and lowered the incidence of village-reported land pollution in Kalimantan. RSPO certification also increased the number of private educational facilities in Kalimantan, but had no statistically significant impacts on other development indicators. However, the trade-offs and complementarities between conservation and development vary by slope, a proxy for ecosystem fragility and oil palm profitability. On gentler slopes, we generally find complementarities between conservation and development outcomes. In Kalimantan, certification increased the number of private educational facilities and reduced deforestation and the incidence of land pollution on slopes < 2°. In Sumatra, certification retained more primary forests, decreased deforestation and the incidence of water pollution on slopes < 1°, along with a decrease in population density. Higher slopes in both locations were associated with environment and development trade-offs. We highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO and emphasized how the outcomes of certification depend on the communities’ bargaining power and the profitability of the land for oil palm production. Thus, we provide insights into understanding these mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO, which is a prerequisite for improving the design of certification systems and their impacts on the ground.

Impact of palm oil sustainability certification on village well-being and poverty in Indonesia

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has emerged as the leading sustainability certification system to tackle socioenvironmental issues associated with the oil palm industry. However, the effectiveness of certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in achieving its socioeconomic objectives remains uncertain. We evaluate the impact of certification on village-level well-being across Indonesia by applying counterfactual analysis to multidimensional government poverty data. We compare poverty across 36,311 villages between 2000 and 2018, tracking changes from before oil palm plantations were first established to several years after plantations were certified. Certification was associated with reduced poverty in villages with primarily market-based livelihoods, but not in those in which subsistence livelihoods were dominant before switching to oil palm. We highlight the importance of baseline village livelihood systems in shaping local impacts of agricultural certification and assert that oil palm certification in certain village contexts may require additional resources to ensure socioeconomic objectives are realized. A study of over 36,000 villages in Indonesia shows that palm oil eco-certification reduces poverty in market-oriented villages but increases it in subsistence villages.

Combining Environmental Footprint Models, Remote Sensing Data, and Certification Data towards an Integrated Sustainability Risk Analysis for Certification in the Case of Palm Oil

Monitoring the potential impacts of the growing Bioeconomy (BE) is a crucial precondition for the development of viable and sustainable strategies. Potential environmental consequences from resource production for the German Bioeconomy can be assessed with the concept of environmental footprint modelling. Furthermore, remote sensing and sustainability certification are tools that can support risk assessment and mitigation i.e., regarding land use (change), biodiversity, carbon stocks, and water consumption. Thus, they can complement the results of footprint models and produce assessment results with a much higher resolution. Among other things, this can enable the development of strategies for more sustainable production practices in high-risk areas and avoid potential bans of biomass imports from entire countries/regions. The conducted case study on palm oil in this paper shows intersections between indicators used in sustainability certification systems and in footprint modelling considering processes on plantation and mill levels. Local best practices for the sustainable production of biomass are identified through a literature review and are extended by a survey, which evaluates the feasibility and conditions of implementing the selected practices on plantations. The conceptual approach outlined in this paper can be seen as a first step towards an integrated sustainability risk analysis of processes and products used within the BE that might be further developed from this starting point. It takes into account footprint modelling data, the use of sustainability certification systems, and data and results from remote sensing analyses. This will enable low-risk producers of renewable resources, who are located in regions generally flagged as high-risk when using environmental footprint modelling, not to be excluded from market activities but to set best practice examples that can then be expanded into these regions.

Considering sustainability in cruise vessel design and construction based on existing sustainability certification systems

Interest towards sustainability in cruise industry has increased during recent years. This article focuses in the ship design and construction phase and what sustainability indicators can be collected – and adapted - from certification systems in other sectors. Certificates in land-based construction and hospitality sectors, as well as a general reporting scheme called Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), serve as a benchmark in this study. The indicators that can be collected already during the design and construction phase are categorized, the categories are linked to the phase in which the indicators have effect on, and the applicability of each category for cruise industry is considered. The certificates for land-based construction are more detailed than GRI and more thorough than certificates in hospitality sector. From the indicators affecting design and construction phase, indicators in general management of the project, material selection and waste management categories can be utilized in cruise industry similarly to existing sustainability systems. While social sustainability is seen important in cruise industry, in land-based construction sector the social sustainability indicators are scarce, whereas GRI or even hospitality sector certificates have more comprehensive set of indicators. In indicators affecting the operation time, modification and additions are required before usage in cruise industry. The environmental effects should be redefined taking into account especially the air pollution and waste management. In well-being effects and encouraging sustainable lifestyle there are plenty of unsuitable indicators due to the operational environment, but new indicators could be developed on the crew premises. Building efficiency and commissioning are suitable for cruise industry. Although there are only a few indicators affecting the deconstruction phase, they can be considered suitable.

Comparing generational preferences for individual components of sustainability schemes in the Californian wine market

ABSTRACT Millennials are the largest demographic segment in the USA and have gained market share of high-frequency wine drinkers while Baby Boomers and Gen-X generations share has fallen. This demographic evolution focuses attention on understanding Millennial wine drinkers’ preferences. At the same time the wine industry has seen significant establishment of sustainable certification systems as preferences for sustainability have developed and been recognized as an avenue for product diversification. This paper reports on a discrete choice experiment with the objective of comparing generational preferences for individual components of sustainability schemes active in the Californian Sauvignon Blanc market. We find significant attribute preference differences over age cohorts. Millennial consumers are willing to pay significantly more for sustainability attributes than both Gen-X and Baby Boomers. While Baby Boomers place more emphasis on country-of-origin attributes than either Gen-X or Millennials.