BRE EP86 PDF

INTRODUCTION

To drive the sustainability agenda in the construction sector, various voluntary schemes and design tools have been developed over the past two decades. These are now increasingly supported by regulations. In order to respond to our developing understanding of sustainability, these schemes, design tools and regulations are becoming more detailed.

Of the three aspects of sustainability – social, economic and environmental – the latter is more easily measured and quantified. However, even for this aspect there is a difficulty. Different environmental impacts are measured in different units and how to compare and weight these is a matter of debate. Therefore, even before the less measurable social and economic indicators are incorporated into design tools, schemes or regulations, developing these for the environmental aspect alone is problematic.

Therefore, in addressing the question of what is sustainable design, even after twenty years of development of tools and regulations, it is useful to consider it more fundamentally, free of the impulse to weight and score different impacts. To do this, the paper firstly identifies what different members of the traditional design team bring in terms of sustainability to the multi disciplinary design team for a client who seeks a sustainable project, and secondly suggests what concrete can offer.