Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the overall performance of sustainable construction works should include
the assessment of all three sustainability aspects in addition to technical and
functional requirements. The inclusion of social and economic aspects is
considered as a step from 'green' to 'sustainable'.
The social aspects are related to wellbeing and comfort. These are the
most subjective aspects, but for certain types of construction work such as
buildings, they are fundamental to the perception of the user. The social
aspects are already integrated in some rating systems. For example, the
following categories and indicators are integrated in the Portuguese version
of SB Tool - SB Tool
PT
(Bragança and Mateus, 2011):
∑ occupant's health and comfort (indicators: natural ventilation efficiency,
toxicity of finishing, thermal comfort, lighting comfort, acoustic
comfort);
∑ accessibility (indicators: accessibility to public transportations and
accessibility to urban amenities);
∑ awareness and education for sustainability (indicator: education of
occupants).
The economic aspects are related to the cost, but the cost analysis should
comprise all phases of the life cycle. as with social aspects, the cost analysis is
already included in some rating systems. in SB Tool
PT
(Bragança and Mateus,
2011) for example, this category is called life-cycle costs, and the indicators
are capital cost and operation cost. on the other hand, the diversity of so
far proposed environmental and sustainability assessment methods makes
the comparison between results obtained by different tools and especially,
rating systems not comprehensively based in LCa methodology, practically
impossible. To overcome this problem at the European level, the European
Commission mandated the CEn (European Centre of normalization) to
develop a standard method for the assessment of construction works. For
this purpose, the Technical Committee CEn/TC 350, 'Sustainability of
Construction Works', was created in 2005. The standards being developed
by this committee are to provide a voluntary, harmonized and horizontal
(applicable to all products/building types) method for the environmental
assessment of new and existing construction works across their entire life
cycle. in addition, CEn/TC 350 aims at developing the standards for the
environmental product declarations of construction products. in the meantime,
the scope of these standards has been extended to include all sustainability
aspects as social and economic performance of buildings. To date, following
CEn/TC 350 standards and prestandards have been produced (Dias and
ilömaki, 2011):
∑ En 15643-1:2010, Sustainability of construction works - integrated
assessment of building performance. Part 1: General Framework;
