Evaluating building sustainability involves assessing a building's environmental, social, and economic performance throughout its lifecycle, typically measured against established criteria and benchmarks.
Evaluating building sustainability is a comprehensive process that goes beyond simple energy efficiency. It assesses a building's impact from design and construction through its use and eventual demolition or refurbishment. The primary methods involve using recognized standards, rating systems, and performance metrics across various categories.
One widely used approach is through building certification schemes. These systems provide a structured framework for evaluating sustainability performance and awarding ratings based on compliance with set criteria.
The Role of Building Certification Schemes
Building certification schemes like BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) are key tools in evaluating sustainability. They provide a standardized way to measure and benchmark performance.
According to the reference provided: A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building's specification, design, construction and use. These measures cover a wide array of aspects, as the reference states: The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology.
This means that evaluating a building's sustainability involves looking at multiple factors, not just one area like energy consumption.
Key Areas Evaluated
Sustainability evaluation typically covers several core categories to get a holistic view of a building's impact and performance. These often align with the criteria used in certification schemes.
Common evaluation categories include:
- Energy Performance: Measuring energy consumption, efficiency, and the use of renewable energy sources.
- Water Management: Assessing water use reduction, efficiency of fixtures, and rainwater harvesting.
- Materials and Resources: Evaluating the use of sustainable, recycled, or locally sourced materials and managing construction waste.
- Health and Wellbeing: Considering indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, and access to natural light.
- Land Use and Ecology: Assessing the impact on the site's biodiversity and ecological value.
- Pollution: Addressing issues like air and water pollution, noise, and light pollution.
- Transport: Evaluating the accessibility of sustainable transport options for occupants.
- Waste Management: Planning for operational waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.
- Management: Looking at project management, commissioning, and building handover processes to ensure sustainability goals are met.
The Evaluation Process
The evaluation process often involves:
- Setting Goals: Defining sustainability objectives for the project.
- Assessment: Gathering data and evidence related to the building's design, specifications, and performance against the chosen criteria (e.g., a BREEAM assessor collects evidence).
- Benchmarking: Comparing the building's performance to established standards or similar buildings.
- Rating: Assigning a sustainability rating or score based on the assessment results (e.g., 'Pass', 'Good', 'Very Good', 'Excellent', 'Outstanding' in BREEAM).
- Reporting: Documenting the findings and providing recommendations for improvement.
By evaluating performance across these diverse categories, stakeholders can gain a comprehensive understanding of a building's sustainability profile, identify areas for improvement, and work towards creating structures that are better for both people and the planet.
