Developing a multicriteria approach for the measurement of sustainable performance

In Australia, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the conventional tools used widely by the public and the private sectors in the appraisal of projects. It measures and compares the total costs and benefits of projects that are competing for scarce resources in monetary terms. Growing concerns that the values of environmental goods and services are often ignored or underestimated in the CBA approach have led to the overuse and depletion of environmental assets. A model of a sustainability index as an evaluation tool that combines economic, social and environmental criteria into an indexing algorithm is presented and described. The sustainability index uses monetary and non-monetary approaches to rank projects and facilities on their contribution to sustainability. This process enables the principle of trade-off to occur in the decision-making process and thereby allows environmental values to be considered when selecting a development option. This makes it possible to optimize financial return, maximize resource consumption and minimize detrimental effects to the natural and man-made world. A case study is used to demonstrate the model.     

高速公路建设项目可持续发展指标体系研究

介绍了高速公路建设项目可持续发展的内涵,对高速公路建设项目可持续发展的评价内容进行了分析,并建立起可持续发展评价指标体系的框架,以使高速公路建设项目走真正的可持续发展之路。     

新建铁路项目可持续发展指标体系及综合评价

阐述了新建铁路项目可持续发展的内涵 ,建立了新建铁路项目可持续发展指标体系 ,并建议采用层次分析法作为评价新建铁路项目可持续发展水平的方法     

Pushing the envelope: market mechanisms for sustainable community development

This paper introduces market mechanisms for sustainable community development, an interdependent planning and implementation framework encompassing strategic directions, strategies, actors and instruments for municipal policy making. It examines how the economy influences the unsustainable development of local jurisdictions and how a coherent typology of strategies, actors and policy levers can move communities toward complementary environmental, social and economic outcomes. The paper illustrates a dichotomy between municipal decision making and embraces economic, social and environmental criteria for development of the built environment. It defines sustainable community development and analyzes research findings from senior decision makers in government, academic institutions, industry and non-profits. After critiquing ‘the market mechanism’ and identifying preferred approaches, the authors propose a typology that systematically aligns market signals with implementing sustainable community development policies.     

Assessing the performance of sustainable technologies: a framework and its application

A recently developed framework to provide a logical structure for the a priori assessment of a particular technology with regard to sustainability concepts, performance, and relevancy to a project's construction process and operation is introduced. The framework is designed to assist project stakeholders and policy-makers in systematically identifying and evaluating the implications and relative merits of a range of alternative sustainable technologies. Building professionals were consulted throughout the development of the framework: to test the completeness of the framework; to capture the value systems of various industry participants in order to reflect them in the framework; and to gather information on the advantages and disadvantages of the green roof technology. The framework is applied to the example of the green roof technology, and the order-of-magnitude estimates are developed for performance measures identified as important from the perspective of industry professionals. The technology is evaluated for different configurations of the same building type to demonstrate the effect of building context on performance. The framework can be used to assist in the assessment of the positive and negative implications of a particular technology with respect to value systems and context, and, therefore, may be used to explain market behaviour, assist policy-makers in developing meaningful regulations and incentives, and provide feedback regarding a new technology in an objective manner.

L'auteur présente un cadre qui a été récemment développé pour offrir une structure logique destinée à l'évaluation a priori d'une technologie particulière en ce qui concerne les concepts de durabilité, les performances et la pertinence eu égard au processus de construction et à l'exploitation d'un projet. Ce cadre est conçu pour aider les acteurs d'un projet et les décideurs à identifier et évaluer de manière systématique les implications et les avantages relatifs d'une panoplie de technologies durables alternatives. Durant toute la période de développement du cadre, on a consulté des professionnels de la construction; l'objectif était de tester l'aspect complet du cadre, de capturer les systèmes de valeur des divers participants industriels pour qu'ils soient présents dans le cadre et de collecter des informations sur les avantages et les inconvénients de la technologie des terrasses végétalisées. Ce cadre s'applique à la technologie des terrasses végétalisées et les estimations de l'ordre de grandeur sont calculées pour des mesures de performances importantes aux yeux des professionnels de cette industrie. Cette technologie est évaluée pour différentes configurations d'un même type de bâtiment afin de démontrer les effets du contexte du bâtiment sur les performances. Le cadre peut servir à aider à évaluer les implications positives et négatives d'une technologie donnée par rapport aux systèmes de valeur et au contexte et peut donc être utilisé pour expliquer le comportement du marché, pour aider les décideurs à formuler des règlementations et des incitations significatives et pour fournir de manière objective un retour d'information sur une nouvelles technologie.

Mots clés: terrasses végétalisées, mesures de performances, gestion des risques, implication des intervenants, développement durable, technologie durable évaluation de la technologie     

建设项目可持续发展能力评估模型研究

本文根据可持续发展的一般原理和建设项目的特点,对建设项目在其生命周期内的可持续发展能力进行了定义,提出了一个可用于评估建设项目可持续发展能力的定量模型,并通过一个实际案例的应用,对模型中使用的各种指标参数作出了说明。     

建设项目综合评价体系及模型研究

建设项目的社会-经济-生态环境综合评价对政府宏观经济调控,科学地制定相关政策法规,合理规划,实现社会可持续发展具有重要影响,也是我国环境评价法的要求。提出了基于建设项目社会-经济-生态环境综合评价体系的基本结构及要素处理思路,利用AHP方法对设计了项目方案分析与优选模型,提出了对优选方案进一步的优化模型设计方法,对整个评价体系模型系统建立和应用进行了综合分析和说明。     

An assessment technique for the evaluation and promotion of sustainable Olympic design and urban development

A response is presented to the dilemma of hosting resource-intensive large-scale sporting events at a time when requirements for sustainability and sustainable development must also be met. A framework was devised for judging development and design issues for future planning, one which is based upon extant historic evidence from host city experiences as well as previous event outcomes. It offers potential to compare plans against best/optimal practice. The technique for appraisal arises from a detailed analysis of Olympic Games held since 1896. Data associated with venue design, construction and usage, athletes' accommodation, and the facilities for officials, the media and visitors/spectators, were amassed and reviewed. An evaluation technique was produced which demonstrates how the organizers of a modern Olympic Games can assess and reflect upon planning, design and development decisions associated with their own city from an early outline stage. This should permit less wasteful, more appropriate and more sustainable Games' infrastructures to be considered before complex detailed development occurs.     

Development of a model to estimate the benefit‐cost ratio performance of housing

A simulation model based on classical population dynamics is developed to estimate the benefit‐cost ratio performance of different typologies of housing with the purpose of identifying potential reductions in the total costs and hence resources used to sustain housing. A typical New Zealand dwelling constructed of lightweight timber framing is used as an example. Dwellings within the simulation model undergo periodic cycles of refurbishment based on best practices. When the simulated housing stock expands at the rate of 1.5% per year, an annual expenditure equivalent to the costs to construct one dwelling sustains the services provided by 26.7 dwellings after adjustment for economic depreciation. This benefit‐cost ratio performance improves by 32.4% when the housing stock is stationary. Further improvements of 5.3% can be achieved by deferring refurbishment and accepting a higher level of economic depreciation of dwelling services. The results of all scenarios indicate that structural systems with a service life of only 50 years should not be used unless the costs of such systems are substantially less than the costs of traditional structural systems and that lightweight timber framed dwellings should not be sustained well beyond a service life of 90 years.     

暖通空调制冷系统环境性能评价方法研究

通过对HVAC＆R系统环境性能评价方法的回顾,提出了一种新的评价方法。该方法基于专家问卷调查和层次分析法,确定各种环境影响因素的权重系数,根据各类污染物的排放总量和权重系数,计算各类污染物的当量值,将HVAC＆R系统对环境的各类影响转化为一个统一的指标--黑点,从而直观、准确地表达HVAC＆R系统对环境影响的大小。利用新方法对某办公楼空调系统的环境性能进行了模拟计算,结果表明该方法简单直观、切实可行。     

Sustainability assessment of cities: SDGs and GHG emissions

ABSTRACT

The United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs), the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Paris Agreement, were adopted in 2015. Involvement of not only national governments but also all other stakeholders including local governments is important to promote sustainable development and to achieve the goals. The question arises, therefore, of what methods should be used to best implement and assess sustainability issues at a local level. In this light, a new version of Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE), CASBEE for Cities, is introduced for assessing the sustainability of cities and communities around the world based on SDG indicators and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The tool allows users to understand the sustainability of cities and communities based on quality (Q) and environmental load (L) perspectives. The sustainability assessments show that cities in developed countries tend to have good grades for Q, but bad grades for L, while cities in developing countries tend to have the opposite trend. This will assist cities and communities in both developed and developing countries to understand urgent problems and to identify effective solutions for sustainable development.     

节约型城市可持续发展监测评价指标体系研究

介绍了节约型城市的研究背景,探讨了节约型城市的研究现状,提出了我国节约型城市可持续发展监测评价指标体系的构建思路及基本框架,以促进我国节约型城市的建设,从而推动城市的可持续发展。     

Introducing the qualitative performance gap: stories about a sustainable building

ABSTRACT

In the design and operations industries, the performance gap is a common discrepancy found between predicted building energy performance and actual energy performance. The performance gap is considered to have negative impacts for the brand of ‘green’ buildings, designers and operators. A socially based analogue is proposed here: the qualitative performance gap, defined as the perceived gap between what inhabitants expect and their actual experience of the building environment. This concept is explored at a regenerative Living Lab: the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) in Vancouver, Canada. ‘Official’ and ‘lived’ stories about the building were interpreted from sources of building information and interviews. Expectations about and forgiveness of building performance were gained from pre- and post-occupancy evaluations and interviews. The solution to the qualitative performance gap is not to eliminate it, but, in line with the concept of interactive adaptivity, to use the gap to generate new stories and new consequences for human wellbeing. The qualitative performance gap is thus conceived as positively generative, of new stories of place and identity. This work recommends crafting an ‘official story’ of social aspirations, and a communication feedback loop amongst designers, operators and building inhabitants, transparently sharing successes and failures.     

Assessing the environmental performance of buildings: trends,lessons and tensions

ABSTRACT

Since the 1970s, intense discussions have occurred within the research and practitioner communities on how to assess and influence the environmental performance of buildings. Many different methods, criteria and tools were developed to raise awareness, enable goal formulation, support design and decision-making processes, and evaluate a building’s environmental performance. This development can be retraced through the example of the works of Raymond J. Cole, who made an important contribution to this scientific debate. The integration of environmental performance into a sustainability assessment, the ongoing development of life cycle assessment (LCA) methods, and clients’, financiers’ and assessors’ different demands for environmental performance assessment, raise additional questions and highlight the conflicting goals. Six topics are examined in relation to current developments: the further development of the classic ‘three pillars’ sustainability model; the suitability of assessment criteria and indicators; the handling of technological progress; the discounting of environmental impacts; the environmental assessment of existing buildings; and the further development of legal requirements. ‘Time’ is a key factor relating to LCA, weighing current versus future emissions, ecological value and recycling potential of existing buildings or ‘options’ for different ways to use the building in future. Recommended actions are provided for key stakeholders.