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Purpose Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is today an important methodology to quantify the life cycle based environmental impacts of products, services or organisations. Since the very first LCA studies, the cumulative energy demand CED (also called 'primary energy consumption') has been one of the key indicators being addressed. Despite its popularity, there is no harmonised approach yet and the standards and guidelines define the cumulative energy demand differently. In this paper, an overview of existing and applied life cycle based energy indicators and a unifying approach to establish characterisation factors for the cumulative energy demand indicator are provided. The CED approaches are illustrated in a building's LCA case study. Methods The five approaches are classified into two main concepts, namely the energy harvested and the energy harvestable concepts. The two concepts differ by the conversion efficiency of the energy collecting facility. A unifying 'energy harvested' approach is proposed based on four theses, which ensure consistent accounting among renewable and non renewable energy resources. Results and discussion The indicator proposed is compared to four other CED indicators, differing in the characterisation factors of fossil and biomass resources (upper or lower heating value), the characterisation factor of uranium and the characterisation factors of renewable energy resources (amount harvested or amount harvestable). The comparison of the five approaches is based on the cumulative energy demand of a newly constructed building of the city of Zürich covering the whole life cycle, including manufacturing and construction, replacement and use phase, and end of life.The cumulative energy demand of the life cycle of the building differs between 336 MJ oil-eq/m 2 a ('CED uranium low') and 836 MJ oil-eq/m 2 a ('CED energy statistics'). The main differences occur in the use phase. The main reason for the large differences in the results are the different concepts to determine the characterisation factors for renewable and nuclear energy resources. Conclusions The energy harvested approach 'CED standard' is a consistent approach, which quantifies the energy content of all different (renewable and non-renewable) energy resources. The 'CED standard' approach and the impact category indicator results computed with this approach reflect the safeguard subject 'energy resources' but not (no other) environmental impacts. The energy harvested approach proposed in this paper can readily be implemented in different contexts and applied to various data sets.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explain the rationale for integrating sustainability issues into property valuation theory and practice and to provide initial suggestions for valuers on how to account for sustainability issues within valuation reports. Design/methodology/approach -The authors emphasise the key role of valuation professionals and of the valuation process itself in achieving a broader market penetration of sustainable construction. It is explained that, on the one hand, property valuation represents the major mechanism to align economic return with environmental and social performance of property assets, and thus to express and communicate the advantages and benefits of sustainable buildings. On the other hand, it is explained that gradual changes in market participants' perceptions in favour of sustainable buildings must be reflected within the property valuation and associated risk assessment process (otherwise valuers would produce misleading price estimates). The authors identify both the financial benefits and risk reduction potential of sustainable design as well as valuation input parameters that would allow these benefits to be reflected in property price estimates. Findings -The authors show that the main reasons for immediately and rigorously integrating sustainability issues into property valuation are as follows: more sustainable patterns of behaviour are urgently necessary to sustain the viability of the Earth's ecosystems; a huge untapped market potential exists for sustainable property investment products and consulting services; sustainable buildings clearly outperform their conventional competitors in all relevant areas (i.e. environmentally, socially and financially); neglecting the benefits of sustainable design leads to distorted price estimates; and reflecting sustainability issues in property price estimates is already possible and the validity of this decision depends solely on the valuer's capability and sophistication to explain and justify his/her assumptions within the valuation report. However, it is also shown that efforts need to be undertaken to improve the description of property assets in transaction databases in order to provide the informational databases necessary to empirically underpin a valuer's decision to assign a "valuation bonus" to a sustainable building or a "valuation reduction" to an unsustainable/conventional one. Originality/value -The paper postulates that valuation reports should be extended to include the following additional elements: a clear description of the availability of certain sustainability-related property characteristics and attributes; a statement of the valuer's opinion about the benefits of these characteristics and attributes; and a statement of the valuer's opinion about the impact of these benefits and/or risks on property value.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a survey conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to discuss the extent to which qualified valuers have adapted their valuation practices in the light of guidance published by RICS in respect of sustainability and commercial property. The findings are placed within a wider debate between assessment of market value and investment value (worth). Design/methodology/approach The paper is a theoretical discussion incorporating the results from an empirical survey of valuation practitioners. Findings The paper reveals that guidance published by RICS in 2011 has achieved limited, but variable, impact in terms of impacting on valuation practice due to a combination of factors including lack of knowledge of the guidance, non-requirement of clients to request sustainability reporting within valuations, paucity of data. It found that where worth (investment value) is required, sustainability factors are more likely to impact the calculation than where an estimate of market value is prepared. The paper identifies theoretical problems and practical barriers hindering an integration of sustainability aspects into valuation practice. Research limitations/implications The empirical work was conducted prior to the embedding of guidance within the mandatory provisions of the “Red Book”; the study therefore reports on a direction of travel rather than the current position. The implications for research are the requirement to enhance data capture and to seek ways to break down the barriers to more comprehensive integration of such data so that worth and market values may begin to converge. Practical implications The paper has practical implications for both the education of valuers which is proposed through the RenoValue project discussed in the paper and for the RICS in monitoring progress towards more specific integration within valuers’ calculations. Further, the paper identifies that clients and lenders have a key role to play through the instructions given to valuers. Social implications There is now widespread recognition that properties which are not resource efficient and which are not equipped to flex to changing occupier needs may not currently be “future proofed” in investment value terms and are likely to see value erosion over time. Further, buildings have a key role in terms of climate change policy. Whilst new buildings can be mandated to meet improved efficiency standards, the ways in which buildings owners can be encouraged to upgrade will be important moving forward. One way is through a value chain response. Originality/value The survey is the most comprehensive investigation of valuer’s practice in relation to sustainability and the assessment of market value and worth undertaken. This provides a unique insight into the effectiveness of professional guidance and enables an informed discussion as to appropriate ways to enhance guidance moving forward.

Building-related embodied impacts are growing and should not be ignored.  Ways of improving transparency in embodied impact assessments are proposed.  Actor-specific guidelines can foster integration of embodied impacts into practice.  The availability of quality-checked databases can support the entire process.  A number of strategies for the reduction of embodied impacts are demonstrated.

The shift from 'green building' to 'sustainable building' entails a number of great challenges and opportunities for the developers and users of planning and building assessment tools. The current assumption is that a new generation of building assessment tools is required to meet the current and forthcoming requirements associated with the description and assessment of each building's contribution to sustainable development. Existing design and assessment tools do not address the many economic, social and performance facets over the life span of a building, and do not provide building assessment results for all dimensions of sustainable development. Different assessment tasks within the design process are analysed, and approaches for the further development of building assessment tools are considered. The integration into a 'job-sharing approach' with other instruments and measures of the design, construction and management phase are proposed. A proposal for a comprehensive system for the description and assessment of 'integrated building performance' is offered. Recommendations are given for its implementation within the next generation of building assessment tools.Le passage du 'bâ timent écologique' au 'bâ timent durable' implique un certain nombre de défis majeurs et offre aux promoteurs et aux utilisateurs l'opportunité de planifier et de développer des outils d'évaluation. Dans l'hypothèse actuelle, il faut mettre au point une nouvelle génération d'outils d'évaluation des bâ timents pour répondre aux exigences actuelles et futures relatives à la description et à l'évaluation de la contribution de chaque bâ timent au développement durable. Les outils de conception et d'évaluation actuels négligent de nombreux aspects économiques, sociaux et fonctionnels qui jalonnent la durée de vie d'un bâ timent et ne fournissent pas les résultats de l'évaluation des bâ timents pour toutes les dimensions du développement durable. Dans cet article, l'auteur analyse différentes opérations d'évaluation dans le cadre du processus de conception et envisage des méthodologies permettant d'améliorer le développement des outils d'évaluation des bâ timents. Il propose l'intégration dans une approche 'partage des travaux' avec d'autres instruments et mesures de la phase de conception, construction et gestion. L'auteur propose un système global de description et d'évaluation des 'performances de bâ timents intégrés'. Il fait également des recommandations relatives à la mise en oeuvre dans le contexte de la nouvelle génération d'outils d'évaluation des bâ timents.Mots clés: outils d'évaluation, bâ timent écologique, performance des bâ timents intégrés, durée de vie, bâ timent basé sur les performances, bâ timent durable, développement durable

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