How Is Building Sustainability Understood?—A Study of Research Papers and Sustainability Reports

Raine Isaksson (), Max Rosvall, Maximilian Espuny, Thais Vieira Nunhes and Otávio José de Oliveira
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Raine Isaksson: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 752 37 Uppsala, Sweden
Max Rosvall: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 752 37 Uppsala, Sweden
Maximilian Espuny: Production Department, São Paulo State University, Guaratinguetá 12516-410, Brazil
Thais Vieira Nunhes: Production Department, São Paulo State University, Guaratinguetá 12516-410, Brazil
Otávio José de Oliveira: Production Department, São Paulo State University, Guaratinguetá 12516-410, Brazil

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: The global process of providing shelter plays an important role in sustainable development. Buildings are estimated to be responsible for up to 50% of global carbon emissions, which makes building a major issue for climate change. The common saying is that what “we cannot measure, we cannot improve”. This assumes that we know what to measure, which requires that we have a common understanding. The indication is that there could be problems in how we understand building sustainability, which, if true, will reduce change towards sustainable building. The purpose of this paper is to assess how building sustainability is understood in building research and building practice. The research approach is to review how building researchers and building companies have interpreted sustainability in leading articles and in leading sustainability reports. These are assessed by studying how sustainability is described and then in more detail applying two maturity matrices on the articles and the reports. The preliminary results indicate that there could be a major problem in understanding sustainability among both building researchers and building company managers, which could constitute a significant obstacle to improving building sustainability. This might not only be related to building sustainability but could be a general problem.

Keywords: building value chain; defining building sustainability; measuring building sustainability; sustainable construction; understanding building sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12430-:d:929486

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