Sustainable Building Assessment Tools Research Articles

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

Sustainable buildings can save 36% of total energy use, 65% of electricity consumption, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of raw materials use, 30% of waste output, and 12% of potable water consumption. Several sustainable building assessment tools were used by both developed and developing countries. However, Ethiopia’s buildings were not critically assessed and evaluated from a sustainability point of view because there was no such type of study conducted so far. This paper aims to explore the most significant and widely used tools as well as the basis for other sustainable 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), and Green Mark and Green Star. The methodology employed is the selection of the 10 most commonly and widely utilized sustainable building assessment tools (SBATs) from the 57 SBATs based on desk review and document analysis. The results of the study identified that all 10 SBATs have their own assessment categories and criteria based on many factors, such as climatic conditions and availability of resources, plus methods employing 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 suitable for Ethiopia.

Developing a Green Building Assessment Tool for Ethiopia

Sustainable/green building rating systems are utilized by both developed and developing countries based on their local context. This paper aims to develop an assessment tool that considers the triple bottom line sustainability of buildings. In Ethiopia, buildings of various types and purposes are constructed at an alarming rate with inadequate resources and wasteful uses, so this tool is in urgent need. Developing such a tool is highly appreciated due to the diversified and complicated ecological and socio-economic issues in the building construction sector. This research has developed new green building assessment categories and criteria depending upon consensus reached with 93 experienced experts working on the construction sectors. This research reviewed a total of 10 widely and repeatedly used tools that were critically studied, for instance, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen, Sustainable Building Tool, and so on. The Analytic Hierarchy Process technique was applied for weighting and prioritizing after selecting these assessment categories and criteria. The outcomes of the research with the relative priority values were materials and resources (18.66%), sustainable sites and ecology (16.92%), energy efficiency (16.78%), indoor environmental quality (12.60%), economic aspects (10.41%), management (10.30%), water efficiency (8.06%) and location and transportation (6.27%). Thus the proposed sustainable building assessment tool that best suits Ethiopian settings was developed.

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 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.

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.

Integration of advances in sustainable technologies for the development of the Sustainable Building Assessment Tool

The construction sector is a resource-driven and resource-dependent industry. A rising global interest to incorporate sustainability principles in the policy-making means a careful balancing of economic growth with sustainability. To achieve this end in the Indian building sector, a triple-bottom-line-based building assessment tool like GRIHA and IGBC was introduced for assessing building sustainability. However, to revitalize the ideas of Reduce, Replace, Reuse, Recycle and Renovate (the ‘5Rs’) into implementable solutions, the technological dimension is introduced to form a quadruple bottom line (QBL) approach, i.e., social, environmental, economic and technological (SEET), for achieving sustainable construction. This study aims to address the necessity to add a new dimension, viz. technological advances in the sustainability arena of the construction industry. The objective of the study is to include technological advances in building materials, construction processes and techniques and design philosophies in the developed SBAT framework. In this extended and upgraded SBAT 2.0, advances in sustainability (AS) criterion accounts for 11.5 per cent showing its significance in achieving building sustainability. The use of discrete reinforcement, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, design based on packing density and rheological properties of concrete, use of alkali-activated materials in the mix-design and performance-based design concepts that affect future sustainability are successfully brought into the fold of SBAT framework.

Sustainable building rating systems: A critical review for achieving a common consensus

Rising detrimental global environmental statistics and measurable effects have caused the sustainable building concept to gain momentum. As a result, many sustainable building rating systems and assessment tools have been conceived and are being put into practice around the world. However, with different regions producing their own different interpretations on how to measure sustainability in buildings, a fragmented market has been produced. This study carries out a quantitative and qualitative literature review to systematically analyze 10 leading rating systems, exploring their rating categories, subsets of sustainability, innovation considerations, and rating mechanisms, in order to derive key common themes for a common global consensus. The results of this study were used to propose a framework and rating mechanism to reduce the heterogeneity within the market.

Comparative Study on the Malaysian Sustainable Building Assessment Tools

Green Building Index (GBI) and Green Real Estate (GreenRE) are the two existing green building assessment tools specifically design and developed for Malaysian tropical weather, environmental and development context, cultural and social needs. GBI developed 15 assessment tools and GreenRE have 4 assessment tools therefore, only four assessment tools were compared. The total credits allocation are 100/154Cr, 100/183Cr and 100/184Cr and total parameters of 39Pr/24Pr, 51Pr/29Pr and 44Pr/30Pr for RNB, NRNB, NREB assessment tools for GBI/GreenRE respectively. Among the criteria, energy, water, indoor and outdoor environmental qualities were given high priority with high credit and parameters allocation. GreenRE give more priority in EEF and WEF category as compared to GBI with putting more priority over GreenRE in the remaining as it consider more categories of buildings, parameters in the remaining criteria and higher rating grade. It is easier to score credits and attain high ratings in the GreenRE assessment tools than GBI assessment tools even though in both the sustainability issues considered are similar. The results from GBI and GreenRE assessment exercise are solely dependent on the personality, quality and experience of the assessor. All the tools developed by GreenRE and GBI are pointing to a single similar objective that is the implementing the principle of sustainability in the Malaysian build environment and hence they are both suitable for assessing Malaysian building.

A thermodynamic method to calculate energy & exergy consumption and CO2 emission of building materials based on economic indicator

Due to the data deficiency in developing countries like China, the calculation of the building production phase only considers a few major materials. To solve this problem, three indexes are put forward, which are cost-based energy, cost-based exergy and cost-based carbon, and a new concept, the equivalent coefficient of thermodynamic cost, is presented based on social economic indicator, energy intensity. Then a thermodynamic method is built up to estimate the energy, exergy consumption and CO2 emission of building materials in production phase. Compared to the conventional calculation, this thermodynamic method takes full account of every material in the BOQ (bill of quantity), and the data used in the method, energy intensity, can be found in government publications. The production phase of the case building is analyzed using this method, and results show that the production phase accounts for 12.34% of the life cycle energy consumption, also contributes 15.48% towards the life cycle CO2 emissions. The embodied energy of the case building is about 4.995 GJ/m2 which matches the results from other LCA research, thus verifies the validity of the proposed calculation. This method is practical and significant in improving sustainable building assessment tools and enacting energy policies in building sector.

Sustainable building assessment tool for project decision makers and its development process

The primary purpose of Sustainable Building Assessment (SBA) tools is for behavioral changes in public building practice. In the Web 3.0 era, even non-experts may have the capacity to select and use Information & Communication Technology (ICT) tools to solve complicated problems in sustainable building decision making without any expert help. It is clear that the R&D of these tools which directly target project decision makers is a significant project for researchers and policy makers who are tasked with the challenge of changing individual building practice for regional sustainability. The purpose of the study is to suggest a tool and its development process for sustainable building assessment by project decision makers, especially targeting non-expert groups. This study defines an SBA tool for project decision makers based on a typology and suggests a “3-layer development process framework”. For the theoretical Background, we integrate interdisciplinary methods and principles such as cognitive problem-solving and sustainable building delivery, including long-term community benefits in a region and an information system development process. This framework is based on Boehem's spiral model for information system development processes and especially emphasizes the first cycle to develop a core set of indicators fit for the non-expert user's problem solving process. This presents an iterative and gradual process with the aim of approaching the tool type from passive tools such as checklists and guidelines, to interactive software, especially interactive DSS (Decision Support Systems) online ICT platforms. The development process is comprised of 8 stages: This includes the use of mixed-method sequential design, including interviews, workshops, the Delphi survey technique, FD-AHP weight analysis, and scenario analysis. In addition, the study presents a case study of the application of the first cycle to develop a core set of indicators and discusses its effectiveness. This study may help researchers by providing a clear and effective method to understand interdisciplinary approaches to develop appropriate tools for sustainable building practice in a regional context.

Sustainable Building Assessment Tool in Slovakia

In recent years, the evaluation of building performance in terms of environmental, social and economic aspects has become a topic of discussion in the Slovak Republic. A new Building Environmental Assessment System (BEAS) has been developed at the Institute of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Košice. The main fields and indicators of BEAS are proposed on the base of available information analysis from particular fields and also on the base of our experimental experiences. The proposed indicators respect Slovak standards and rules. Percentage weight of fields and indicators are determined on the basic their significance, according to multi-criteria decision analysis.

First and second law analysis applied to building envelope: A theoretical approach on the potentiality of Bejan’s theory

Abstract Especially in the last decade, efforts have been made in developing the sustainable building assessment tools, which are usually performed based on fundamentals of the First Law of Thermodynamics. However, this approach does not provide a faithful thermodynamic evaluation of the overall energy conversion processes that occur in buildings, and a more robust approach should be followed. The relevance of Second Law analysis has been here highlighted: in addition to the calculation of energy balances, the concept of exergy is used to evaluate the quality of energy sources, resulting in a higher flexibility of strategies to optimize a building design. Reviews of the progress being made with the constructal law show that diverse phenomena can be considered manifestations of the tendency towards optimization captured by the constructal law. The studies based on First and Second Principle of Thermodynamics results to be affected by the extreme generality of the two laws, which is consequent of the fact that in thermodynamics the “any system” is a black box with no information about design, organization and evolution. In this context, an exploratory analysis on the potentiality of constructal theory, that can be considered a law of thermodynamics, has been finally outlined in order to assess the energy performance in building design.

Enhancing staff's satisfaction with comfort toward productivity by sustainable Open Plan Office Design

Several sustainable building assessment tools have been developed globally to manage sustainability in building's indoor environment. The sustainable building assessment tools (SBATs) measure the user's satisfaction and comfort, independently. However, staff's physical and psychological satisfaction with comfort was not dependently investigated by SBATs, particularly, incorporating with staff's performance and productivity in open-plan office buildings. The current research aimed to determine the Open Plan Office Design (OPOD) features and sub-features meet the staff's satisfaction with comfort toward productivity enhancement. The research was designed in two phases. Phase one was to identify OPOD features and sub-features within positive and negative approaches. Through a systematic review process and content analysis, the research identified twenty seven OPOD sub-features involved in eight features. Phase two was to determine the Factor Actual Weight Consensus (FAWCai) of those identified OPOD sub-features through pre and final weight-value analysis stages. The research expresses the ‘Flexible Space’ (F.P.5) received the weight-value 0.215 which is the highest amongst other positive OPOD sub-features. In the negative category, the ‘Auditory Distraction’ (F.N.2) got the highest weight-value 0.591. In contrast, there are OPOD sub-features have received very low weight-values; such as, the ‘Thermal Discomfort’ (F.N.7), ‘Exposure to Viruses’ (F.N.11), and ‘Sick Building Syndrome’ (F.N.12) have received 0.040. Undertaking the FAWCai of OPOD sub-features aids open-plan office building assessment auditors to benchmark the strengths and weakness of their design in comparison with the ideal one. As future works, the FAWCai of OPOD sub-features will be formulated as the open-plan office building assessment indexing.

Development of a systematic model for an assessment tool for sustainable buildings based on a structural framework

There has been much progress in recent years in the development of sustainable building assessment tools as a means to promote sustainable buildings. However, many assessment tools face issues with assessment methods and system frameworks, which greatly undermine their credibility and applicability. If these problems persist, the role of sustainable building assessment tools as decision making aids during the design stage will be greatly limited. The objective of this study is to suggest a systematic model for sustainable building assessment tools by establishing a logical performance assessment framework. For this purpose, analysis of performance assessment tools for sustainable buildings was conducted using the EIA framework. Based on the results of the analysis, a framework for the performance assessment of sustainable buildings was established. According to the structural framework, a sustainable building assessment model was developed.

A Comparative Analysis of Performance Assessment Tools for Establishing Evaluation Framework for Sustainable Buildings

Recently, the development of sustainable building assessment tools as means to invigorate the dissemination of sustainable buildings has been actively progressed. However, many assessment tools involve various problems in terms of assessment method and system framework, which greatly impede their credibility and applicability. If these problems persist over time, the role of sustainable building assessment tools as decision making measures during the design stage will be greatly limited. The objective of the study is to suggest a systematic model for sus- tainable building assessment tools by establishing a logical system of performance assessment framework. For this purpose, the Environmen- tal Impact Assessment(EIA) framework used in selected and modified to fit the building performance assessment. The analysis of performance assessment tools for sustainable buildings was conducted using the EIA framework. Based on the results of the analysis, a framework for the performance assessment of sustainable buildings was established.

Correlation Study on User Satisfaction from Adaptive Behavior and Energy Consumption in Office Buildings

Sustainable Building Assessment Tools have not yet measured the association between user satisfaction with adaptive behavior and energy efficiency. The current research aims to rectify this problem by testing the hypothesis that user satisfaction with adaptive behavior affects building energy consumption. To test the hypothesis, the staff’s overall satisfaction with adaptive behavior in response to tenant energy-efficiency features was used as the independent variable, while office unit energy consumption was used as the dependent variable. A set of conceptual variables and measured variables were identified for both the dependent and independent variables. A total of nine possible combinations of measured variables were investigated through a survey fielded in ten office units. The survey analysis determined that the building users are not satisfied with the tenant energy efficiency features and that they may adapt the indoor environment cooling and lighting qualities. An expert input study was conducted to validate the results with respect to the hypothesis. Seven experts who had experience in building assessments were invited to participate in the input study. Grounded group decision making analysis method confirmed the hypothesis testing results. The research results indicated that user adaptive behaviors directly affect building energy performance. Sustainable Building Assessment Tool developers along with energy efficient building design consultants and contractors could make use of these research findings.

User satisfaction adaptive behaviors for assessing energy efficient building indoor cooling and lighting environment

Abstract Many techniques for managing sustainability including sustainable building assessment tools and standards have been developed globally. The sustainable building assessment tools measure the user satisfaction dependent to environmental and economic aspects of energy efficient building practices. However, these tools have not yet measure energy efficiency index by involving user satisfaction from adaptive behaviors dependently, which can determine the actual energy consumption versus the planed energy consumption of the building. Hence, this research aimed at providing a comprehensive list of adaptive behaviors for assessing energy efficient building indoor environment in design phase of building lifecycle. The study focused on identifying and establishing adaptive behaviors that are in response to indoor conditions provided by Cooling and Lighting systems in energy efficient office buildings. This research involves adaptations across Technological and Personal. The research was conducted in two phases. Phase one identified the list of user satisfaction adaptive behaviors through a systematic approach. Next, an expert input study was conducted to validate the findings of the literature review. Expert input data was collected using Delphi structured close group discussion method, and then analyzed through Grounded Group Decision Making (GGDM) method. Eight experts were involved in four sessions of the GGDM application procedure. The research established 18 adaptive behaviors relevant to cooling system in energy efficient indoor environments, and 18 adaptive behaviors relevant to the lighting system. The comprehensive list of user satisfaction adaptive behaviors can be applied in both current and future sustainable building assessment tools׳ energy efficiency indexes. This aids architects, engineers, facility managers, building owners, consultants, authorities, contractors, and academic researchers in accreditation of building users, building design and reduction of building׳s energy consumption.

Sustainable Building Assessment Tool: Indian Leading Architects’ Perceptions and Preferences

As ‘sustainable development’ has become a global focus, “Green Building” or “Sustainable Building (SB)” is the need of the day. These buildings not only reduce negative environmental impact but also improve human comfort and safety. Sustainable Buildings need to be assessed by ‘Assessment tool’ for checking its overall contribution towards achievement of ‘sustainability’. In this paper an attempt is made to know Indian Architects ‘perceptions’ and ‘preferences’ regarding the framework of “Sustainable Building Assessment Tool (SBAT)” for India. Feedbacks were collected from the Architects of major metro cities of India. Total 81 responses were analyzed with SPSS 12 statistical analysis software. Indian Architects’ gave an opinion that ‘SBAT’ for India should be prepared firstly for commercial buildings. It should target ‘Architects’ first and must be applied at the building level. ‘SBAT’ should be a comprehensive one with flexible and easy to calculate scoring system. ‘SBAT’ must cover non-controllable factors along with negative scoring system. Results can be utilized in the coming years to prepare a comprehensive ‘SBAT’ for developing country like India.

Exergy-based index for assessing the building sustainability

Over the past decade, efforts have been made in developing the Sustainable Building (SB) assessment tools which enable all stakeholders to be aware of the consequences of various design choices and to assess the building performance. Currently, a large variety of existing SB tools, approaches, rating systems, indices and methods of assessment are available and used in the construction industry. Despite usefulness of existing assessment methods in contributing towards a more sustainable building, some limitations have led towards a scientifically-based SB assessment tool. This paper proposes an exergy-based definition of a sustainable building, the calculation method of a new Exergy-based Index of building Sustainability (ExSI), and the rating scale. Finally, the results from five case studies are presented.

Sustainable building assessment tool development approach

Following expansion in the field of environmental assessment methods, existing methods cannot be applied to all regions for a number of reasons, one of which is regional variation. This paper investigates the most important and globally widespread environmental assessment methods: BREEAM, LEED, SBTool, and CASBEE. It identifies areas of convergence and distinction in order to enable the consolidation of environmental criteria into new potential schemes. As well as considered a starting point for the procedure of consensus-based process, it also provides a generic model for the development of an effective environmental assessment method intended for the establishment of environmental assessment method suited to Saudi Arabia.