Life-cycle analysis as an indicator for impact assessment in sustainable building certification systems: the case of Swedish building market

Turk, Suheyla; Quintana, Samer; Zhang, Xingxing

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2018.10.025

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Like with the LBC, the Miljöbyggnad also requires compliance with all its assessment criteria but provides different degrees for these to be implemented, awarding a bronze, silver or gold category accordingly [19]. In this sense the Miljöbyggnad might have labels looking like the LEED or BREAM ones but their meaning is different as this rating system is not based on a product of weighted key performance indicators avoiding certain criteria to be chased for the sake of increasing credit value [20]. The focus of the Miljöbyggnad is clearly on buildings and construction and its scope is complementary to the Swedish regulations.…”

Section: The Miljöbyggnad Sustainability Standard and The Swedish Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?

Forsberg¹,

Souza

2021

Sustainability

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This paper focuses on understanding the place for regenerative building standards within the context of politically green Nordic social welfare states. To this end, it examines the particular case of adopting the Living Building Challenge (LBC), an iconic example of regenerative design standard, in Sweden. An extensive document analysis comparing the Swedish building and planning regulations as well as the Miljöbyggnad national certification system with the LBC, shows overlaps and barriers the standard can face when adopted in the country. Barriers are validated and further discussed in interviews with one of the few architects trying to achieve a certified LBC building in Sweden and Swedish public authorities from the Boverket (Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning). Results from the document analysis and interviews show barriers to implement the LBC in Sweden are a product of a conscious political and ideological decision from the welfare state which considers infrastructure, and all its potential sustainable versions, a public good to be provided to all and funded by all. This premise contrasts with the self-sufficient approach promoted by the LBC, which in this particular aspect, can be interpreted as a threat to the welfare state.

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Section: The Miljöbyggnad Sustainability Standard and The Swedish Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?

Forsberg¹,

Souza

2021

Sustainability

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“…[50][51][52][53] For example, builders receive certification points for using recycled building materials in these certification systems. 54 LEED also offers credits for life cycle impact reduction by encouraging building and material reuse, renovation of abandoned or blighted buildings, and GHG reduction through LCA. CASBEE requires life cycle information for recycled building materials to ensure the alleviation of environmental impacts.…”

Section: Building Design and Materials Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Life Cycle Thinking Framework to Mitigate the Environmental Impact of Building Materials

Huang

Gao

et al. 2020

One Earth

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Urbanization and population growth have contributed to a tripling of building material consumption from 2000 to 2017. Building materials have a range of environmental impacts throughout their life cycle, from extraction, processing, and transport of raw materials to building construction, use, and eventual demolition and waste. Mitigation measures that target specific materials or value chain stages may therefore have incremental or even adverse net environmental effects. In this perspective, we develop a framework for applying life cycle thinking to identify key impacts and corresponding mitigation approaches, inform building design and material selection, and ensure effective treatment and recycling of construction and demolition wastes. Life cycle evaluation can also be used to assess and avoid environmental trade-offs among life cycle stages. Challenges for implementing these life cycle principles include collecting and integrating inventory data for products, managing multiple stakeholders within the construction industry, and monitoring end-of-life impacts; measures for overcoming such challenges are discussed.

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“…This is, however, only part of a larger problem, as the building industry also uses significant resources throughout the life-cycle of the building, from construction to eventual demolition. In fact, very often nowadays efforts on sustainability, including those related to the building industry, tend to look much more at a full and holistic life-cycle analysis rather than more specific operations oriented building sustainability [2][3][4]. In this context a number of countries have strengthened their building industry regulations at various project phases, to ensure the implementation and delivery of sustainable projects [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Sustainably: A Pilot Study on the Project Manager’s Contribution in Delivering Sustainable Construction Projects—A Maltese and International Perspective

2020

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Despite ample technological advancements, the building industry is still seen as an unsustainable activity. To counteract this, building development is now being requested to be more sustainable. Due to the increasing complexity of sustainable projects’ criteria, the project manager’s role, tasked with the overall management of a building’s different development phases, is changing, becoming increasingly crucial for the attainment of pre-established sustainability goals. Based on this premise, the research presented in this paper is a pilot study set to preliminarily establish and identify a set of project management processes and supporting practices from existing literature, and gauge their significance and possible added value provided. This was done via a purposely designed questionnaire distributed locally, in Malta, and globally amongst established project managers. Notwithstanding the preliminary nature of the study some interesting results were obtained. Among the main outcomes of the study, it is observed how all respondents are very aware about sustainability issues and that their decision-making role places them in an optimum position to bring forward a sustainability agenda for a particular project. In terms of intervention, pre-construction (43%) and construction (28%) were considered to be the main stages were a project manager usually gives the highest input. However, various challenges were also highlighted by the respondents, including clients’ refusal to commit increased capital (34%), the requirement for further training (33%), and the lack of incentives aimed towards increasing the sustainability of projects (22%).

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Life-cycle analysis as an indicator for impact assessment in sustainable building certification systems: the case of Swedish building market

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?

Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?

A Life Cycle Thinking Framework to Mitigate the Environmental Impact of Building Materials

Building Sustainably: A Pilot Study on the Project Manager’s Contribution in Delivering Sustainable Construction Projects—A Maltese and International Perspective

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