Urban Sustainability Audits and Ratings of the Built Environment

Constantinos A. Balaras, Kalliopi G. Droutsa, Elena G. Dascalaki, Simon Kontoyiannidis, Andrea Moro and Elena Bazzan
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Constantinos A. Balaras: Group Energy Conservation, Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
Kalliopi G. Droutsa: Group Energy Conservation, Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
Elena G. Dascalaki: Group Energy Conservation, Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
Simon Kontoyiannidis: Group Energy Conservation, Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
Andrea Moro: iiSBE Italia, International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment, I-10138 Torino, Italy
Elena Bazzan: iiSBE Italia, International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment, I-10138 Torino, Italy

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-36

Abstract: Buildings and the built environment in cities are seen as both a source of, and solution to, today’s economic, environmental and social challenges. The audit process to collect data and rate their sustainability levels is a demanding process given the complexity of the issues involved. Stakeholders often lack advanced knowledge on the sustainability issues involved, access to practical tools that match the local priorities and the overall resources to diagnose and evaluate the current state, analyse, assess and rank different scenarios, and monitor implementation and progress towards meeting sustainable development goals and local priorities. A new multicriteria European built environment assessment method that is supported by practical tools was developed in a transnational collaborative effort to support the assessment, planning, monitoring and overall decision-making process for rating the sustainability at the building or neighbourhood scale. The assessment system addresses the main sustainability issues (e.g., site and infrastructure, urban systems, energy and natural resources, emissions and environment, service quality, social aspects, economy), which are described and quantified with an “exhaustive” list of ~180 sustainability criteria and indicators, and a manageable number of common mandatory key performance indicators. The assessment system can satisfy the public administrations’ needs for being easy to use, open access, flexible and adaptable tools in order to facilitate their efforts for developing effective sustainability plans.

Keywords: sustainability; buildings; neighbourhoods; decision-making process; key performance indicators; KPIs; built environment; audit; assessment tools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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