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63-438: BREEAM is an assessment undertaken by independent licensed assessors using scientifically-based sustainability metrics and indices which cover a range of environmental issues. Its categories evaluate energy and water use , health and wellbeing, pollution , transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes. Buildings are rated and certified on a scale of 'Pass', 'Good', 'Very Good', 'Excellent' and 'Outstanding'. It

126-463: A Sample Policy Framework , which proposed that a sustainability index "...would give decision-makers tools to rate policies and programs against each other" (1996, p. 9). Ravi Jain (2005) argued that, "The ability to analyze different alternatives or to assess progress towards sustainability will then depend on establishing measurable entities or metrics used for sustainability." The International Institute for Sustainable Development has produced

189-491: A " Dashboard of Sustainability ", "a free, non-commercial software package that illustrates the complex relationships among economic, social and environmental issues". This is based on Sustainable Development Indicators Prepared for the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UN-DSD)DECEMBER 2005. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), founded in 1995, has formulated

252-571: A concern about conceptual and technical challenges. At the heart of the debate over different indicators are not only different disciplinary approaches but also different views of development . Some indicators reflect the ideology of globalization and urbanization that seek to define and measure progress on whether different countries or cultures agree to accept industrial technologies in their eco-systems. Other approaches, like those that start from international treaties on cultural rights of indigenous peoples to maintain traditional cultures, measure

315-576: A focus on language, has devised a sert of measures with UNESCO for measuring the survivability of languages and cultures in given eco-systems. The Lempert–Nguyen indicator of sustainable development, developed in 2008 by David Lempert and Hue Nhu Nguyen, is one that incorporates and integrates these cultural principles with international law. A number of agencies including the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, World Vision and Metropolis have since 2010 begun using

378-606: A human population demands for producing the biological resources the population consumes, for absorbing its waste, and for accommodating its built infrastructure, all under prevailing technology. This amount then is compared to available biocapacity , in the world or in that region. The biocapacity represents the area able to regenerate resources and assimilate waste. Global Footprint Network publishes every year results for all nations captured in UN statistics. The algorithms of ecological footprint accounts have been used in combination with

441-410: A robust way. A scheme for non-housing refurbishment and fit out was launched as "RFO 2014". BREEAM Communities focuses on the masterplanning of whole communities. It is aimed at helping construction industry professionals to design places that people want to live and work in, are good for the environment and are economically successful. BREEAM includes several general sustainability categories for

504-490: A set of overarching requirements laid down in the Code for a Sustainable Built Environment. They can be produced from scratch by adapting current BREEAM schemes to the local context, or by developing existing local schemes. A growing body of research evidence is challenging the perception that sustainable buildings are significantly more costly to design and build than those that simply adhere to regulatory requirements. Research by

567-786: A stable of indices that provide a more nuanced perspective on development than economic aggregates such as GDP. Some of the most prominent of these include the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme ;(UNDP); the Ecological footprint of Global Footprint Network and its partner organizations; the Environmental Sustainability Index  (ESI) and the pilot Environmental Performance Index  (EPI) reported under

630-452: A study of the effect of BREEAM certification on office buildings in London from 2000–2009. It found, for example, that these buildings achieved a 21% premium on transaction prices and an 18% premium on rents. Sustainability metrics and indices Sustainability metrics and indices are measures of sustainability , using numbers to quantify environmental, social and economic aspects of

693-403: A unique resource on which to base decisions on investing in their buildings. A key purpose of ISA is the provision of robust benchmarking services based on a very extensive and detailed body of data. ISA also promotes research on sustainability in the built environment. Production of an Annual Report for each Founding and General Member, containing an assessment of the property data placed in

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756-583: A whole. In using sustainability indicators, it is important to distinguish between three types of sustainability that are often mentioned in international development: The following list is not exhaustive but contains the major points of view: University of Maryland School of Public Policy professor and former Chief Economist for the World Bank Herman E. Daly (working from theory initially developed by Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and laid out in his 1971 opus "The Entropy Law and

819-579: Is "the continuation of benefits after major assistance from the donor has been completed" (Australian Agency for International Development 2000). Ensuring that development projects are sustainable can reduce the likelihood of them collapsing after they have just finished; it also reduces the financial cost of development projects and the subsequent social problems, such as dependence of the stakeholders on external donors and their resources. All development assistance, apart from temporary emergency and humanitarian relief efforts, should be designed and implemented with

882-494: Is a good thing, 96% would use the scheme again and 88% would recommend BREEAM to others. The greater efficiency and quality associated with sustainability are also helping to make such building more commercially successful. There is growing evidence, for example, that BREEAM-rated buildings provide increased rates of return for investors, and increased rental rates and sales premiums for developers and owners. A Maastricht University document, published by RICS Research, reported on

945-628: Is itself a measure of sustainability and it is also one that has been codified by international agreements and treaties like the Rio Declaration of 1992 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to maintain a cultural group's choice of lifestyles within their lands and ecosystems. Terralingua , an organization of anthropologists and linguists working to protect biocultural diversity, with

1008-411: Is open to various interpretations. International Sustainability Alliance (ISA) The International Sustainability Alliance (ISA) is a global network of corporate occupiers, property investors, developers and owners of commercial buildings, who share best practice in the sustainable management of their property portfolios. ISA is dedicated to achieving a more sustainable built environment through

1071-575: Is possible for the concepts of sustainable development and competitiveness to merge if enacted wisely, so that there is not an inevitable trade-off. This merger is motivated by the following six observations (Hargroves & Smith 2005): Life-cycle assessment is a "composite measure of sustainability." It analyses the environmental performance of products and services through all phases of their life cycle: extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, re-use, maintenance; recycling, and final disposal. Building on

1134-560: Is the BREEAM standard against which the sustainability of new, non-residential buildings in the UK is assessed. Developers and their project teams use the scheme at key stages in the design and procurement process to measure, evaluate, improve and reflect the performance of their buildings. BREEAM International New Construction is the BREEAM standard for assessing the sustainability of new residential and non-residential buildings in countries around

1197-539: Is widely used by members of the International Sustainability Alliance (ISA), which provides a platform for certification against the scheme. The newest version v6, available from 2020 includes also Residential programs. BREEAM Refurbishment provides a design and assessment method for sustainable housing refurbishment projects, helping to cost-effectively improve the sustainability and environmental performance of existing dwellings in

1260-608: The Circles of Sustainability approach that sets up a four-domain framework for choosing appropriate indicators. Rather than designating the indicators that have to be used like most other approaches, it provides a framework to guide decision-making on what indicators are most useful. The framework is arranged around four domains - economics, ecology, politics and culture - which are then subdivided into seven analytically derived sub-domains for each domain. Indicators are linked to each sub-domain. By choosing culture as one of its key domains,

1323-500: The Sweett Group into projects using BREEAM, for example, demonstrates that sustainable options often add little or no capital cost to a development project. Where such measures do incur additional costs, these can frequently be paid back through lower running expenses, ultimately leading to saving over the life of the building. Research studies have also highlighted the enhanced value and quality of sustainable buildings. Achieving

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1386-560: The UN Secretary-General 's Global Compact. In 1956 Dr. Howard T. Odum of the University of Florida coined the term Emergy and devised the accounting system of embodied energy. In 1997, systems ecologists M.T. Brown and S. Ulgiati published their formulation of a quantitative Sustainability Index (SI) as a ratio of the emergy (spelled with an "m", i.e. " embodied energy ", not simply "energy") yield ratio (EYR) to

1449-571: The World Economic Forum  (WEF); or the Genuine Progress Index  (GPI) calculated at the national or sub-national level. Parallel to these initiatives, political interest in producing a green GDP that would take at least the cost of pollution and natural capital depletion into account has grown, even if implementation is held back by the reluctance of policymakers and statistical services arising mostly from

1512-437: The emergy methodology (S. Zhao, Z. Li and W. Li 2005), and a sustainability index has been derived from the latter. They have also been combined with a measure of quality of life , for instance through the " Happy Planet Index " (HPI) calculated for 178 nations (Marks et al., 2006). The Happy Planet Index calculates how many happy life years each country is able to generate per global hectare of ecological footprint. One of

1575-555: The 2010s, there has been an expansion of interest in Sustainable Development Index (SDI) systems, both in industrialized and, albeit to a lesser extent, in developing countries . SDIs are seen as useful in a wide range of settings, by a wide range of actors: international and intergovernmental bodies; national governments and government departments; economic sectors; administrators of geographic or ecological regions; communities; nongovernmental organizations; and

1638-581: The BREEAM process. In 2012, a scheme for domestic refurbishment was introduced in the UK, followed by a non-domestic version in 2014 that was expanded to an international scope the following year. In 2015, the Building Research Establishment announced the acquisition of CEEQUAL following a recommendation from their board, with the aim of creating a single sustainability rating scheme for civil engineering and infrastructure projects. The 2018 update of BREEAM UK New Construction

1701-531: The Bruntland Definition. In this view, the Bruntland Definition and the Daly Rules can be seen as complementary—Bruntland provides the ethical goal of non-depletion of natural capital, Daly details parsimoniously how this ethic is operationalized in physical terms. The system is rationally complete, and in agreement with physical laws. Other definitions may thus be superfluous, or mere glosses on

1764-538: The Economic Process") suggested the following three operational rules defining the condition of ecological (thermodynamic) sustainability: Some commentators have argued that the "Daly Rules", based on ecological theory and the Laws of Thermodynamics , should be considered implicit or foundational for the many other systems that are advocated, and are thus the most straightforward system for operationalization of

1827-772: The GRI measures behavior, it fails to calculate supply constraints the emergy methodology aims to calculate. In 2004, a joint initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of Columbia University , in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (European Commission) also attempted to construct an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). This

1890-615: The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was started as a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission has been "to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines". The GRI uses ecological footprint analysis and became independent in 2002. It is an official collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and during the tenure of Kofi Annan , it cooperated with

1953-638: The ISA database by members, which can help them to reduce CO 2 emissions , preserve water resources and make well informed investment decisions. KPI Benchmarking – the Annual Report contains an analysis of current ISA key performance indicators (KPIs), which include energy, CO 2 , waste and water – at site, building and asset level – by country and sector. This enables members to benchmark their property portfolio within their organisation and against other companies that have provided data. Reporting –

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2016-697: The KPIs are aligned to the Global Reporting Index Commercial Real Estate Sustainability Supplement (GRI CRESS) and the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) standards. This enables ISA members to incorporate their results into both their Annual Reports and Corporate Social Responsibility reports in a standardised way. Certification – ISA provides a gateway for access to certification of

2079-513: The SL principles, as well as six governance issues developed by Khanya-aicdd. A wide range of information resources on Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches can be found at Livelihoods Connect. Some analysts view this measure with caution because they believe that it has a tendency to take one part of the footprint analysis and I = PAT equation (productivity) and to focus on the sustainability of economic returns to an economic sector rather than on

2142-546: The UK's Institute for Development Studies. This was championed by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), UNDP , Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as NGOs such as CARE , OXFAM and the African Institute for Community-Driven Development, Khanya-aicdd. Key concepts include the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) Framework, a holistic way of understanding livelihoods,

2205-524: The ability of those cultures to maintain their traditions within their eco-systems at whatever level of productivity they choose. The Lempert-Nguyen indicator, devised in 2008 for practitioners, starts with the standards for sustainable development that have been agreed upon by the international community and then looks at whether intergovernmental organizations such as the UNDP and other development actors are applying these principles in their projects and work as

2268-668: The aim of achieving sustainable benefits. There are ten key factors that influence development sustainability. The definition of sustainability as "the continuation of benefits after major assistance from the donor has been completed" (Australian Agency for International Development 2000) is echoed by other definitions (World Bank, USAID). The concept has however evolved as it has become of interest to non grant-making institutions. Sustainability in development refers to processes and relative increases in local capacity and performance while foreign assistance decreases or shifts (not necessarily disappears). The objective of sustainable development

2331-498: The approach takes into account the emphasis of the 'Anthropological' approach (above), but retains a comprehensive sense of sustainability. The approach can be used to map any other sustainability indicator set. This is foundationally different from the Global Reporting Initiative Index (below) which uses a triple-bottom-line organizing framework, and is most relevant to corporate reporting. In 1997

2394-421: The assessment of sustainability was by Swedish cancer scientist Karl-Henrik Robèrt . Robèrt coordinated a consensus process to define and operationalize sustainability. At the core of the process lies a consensus on what Robèrt came to call the natural step framework. The framework is based on a definition of sustainability, described as the system conditions of sustainability (as derived from System theory ). In

2457-667: The assessment: Home Quality Mark was launched in 2015 as part of the BREEAM family of schemes. It rates new homes on their overall quality and sustainability, then provides further indicators on the homes impact upon the occupants 'Running costs', 'Health and wellbeing' and 'Environmental footprint'. BREEAM is used in more than 70 countries, with several in Europe having gone a stage further to develop country-specific BREEAM schemes operated by National Scheme Operators (NSOs). There are currently NSOs affiliated to BREEAM in: Schemes developed by NSOs can take any format as long as they comply with

2520-412: The better measurement, benchmarking and understanding of building performance. With 40% of carbon emissions coming from the built environment, real estate owners, occupiers, developers and funders around the world are facing ever increasing demands concerning the need for greater sustainability in the use of existing buildings. ISA is a response to the growing legislative and economic pressure across

2583-448: The business case for sustainable development and argues that "sustainable development is good for business and business is good for sustainable development". This view is also maintained by proponents of the concept of industrial ecology . The theory of industrial ecology declares that industry should be viewed as a series of interlocking man-made ecosystems interfacing with the natural global ecosystem . According to some economists, it

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2646-463: The business community has measured from a perspective of energy and resource efficiencies and consumption, the discipline of anthropology is itself founded on the concept of sustainability of human groups within ecological systems. At the basis of the definition of culture is whether a human group is able to transmit its values and continue several aspects of that lifestyle for at least three generations. The measurement of culture, by anthropologists,

2709-523: The construction stage to encompass the whole life cycle of buildings from planning to in-use and refurbishment. Its regular revisions and updates are driven by the ongoing need to improve sustainability, respond to feedback from industry and support the UK's sustainability strategies and commitments. Highly flexible, the BREEAM standard can be applied to virtually any building and location, with versions for new buildings, existing buildings, refurbishment projects and large developments: BREEAM New Construction

2772-451: The environmental loading ratio (ELR). Brown and Ulgiati also called the sustainability index the "Emergy Sustainability Index" (ESI), "an index that accounts for yield, renewability, and environmental load. It is the incremental emergy yield compared to the environmental load". Writers like Leone (2005) and Yi et al. have also recently suggested that the emergy sustainability index has significant utility. In particular, Leone notes that while

2835-556: The environmental performance of buildings in use through schemes such as BREEAM In-Use . Research – ISA promotes scientifically based research into sustainability in the built environment for the benefit of members and the wider community. ISA is hosted by BRE Global Limited. The day-to-day running of the organisation is coordinated by BRE with Task Teams, drawn from the Membership, established to carry out specific activities as and when required. Current members include some of

2898-495: The immutable thermodynamic reality. There are numerous other definitions and systems of operationalization for sustainability, and there has been competition for influence between them, with the unfortunate result that, in the minds of some observers at least, sustainability has no agreed-upon definition. Following the Brundtland Commission 's report, one of the first initiatives to bring scientific principles to

2961-412: The introduction of mandatory post-construction reviews, minimum standards and innovation credits. International versions of BREEAM were also launched that year. Another major update in 2011 resulted in the launch of BREEAM New Construction, which is now used to assess and certify all new UK buildings. This revision included the reclassification and consolidation of issues and criteria to further streamline

3024-399: The largest corporations, developers, property owners and investors with worldwide interests. There is a range of membership categories designed to suit the varying requirements of ISA members. Membership details are available online. An organisation wishing to apply for ISA membership can contact the ISA team using the contact details given. For further information on the organisation, visit

3087-482: The natural step framework, a sustainable society does not systematically increase concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust , or substances produced by society ; that does not degrade the environment and in which people have the capacity to meet their needs worldwide. Ecological footprint accounting, based on the biological concept of carrying capacity , tracks the amount of land and water area

3150-549: The private sector. SDI processes are underpinned and driven by the increasing need for improved quality and regularly produced information with better spatial and temporal resolution. Accompanying this need is the requirement, brought in part by the information revolution, to better differentiate between information that matters in any given policy context versus information that is of secondary importance or irrelevant. A large and still growing number of attempts to create aggregate measures of various aspects of sustainability created

3213-524: The shift toward sustainable enterprise, many business schools are leading the research and education of the next generation of business leaders. Companies have introduced key development indicators to set targets and track progress on sustainable development. Some key players are: Another application of the term sustainability has been in the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, developed from conceptual work by Amartya Sen , and

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3276-461: The standards required by BREEAM requires careful planning, design, specification and detailing, and a good working relationship between the client and project team—the very qualities that can produce better buildings and better conditions for building users. A survey commissioned by Schneider Electric and undertaken by BSRIA examined the experiences of a wide range of companies that had used BREEAM. The findings included, for example, that 88% think it

3339-536: The striking conclusions to emerge from ecological footprint accounting is that it would be necessary to have 4 or 5 back-up planets engaged in nothing but agriculture for all those alive today to live a western lifestyle. The Footprint analysis is closely related to the I ;= PAT equation that, itself, can be considered a metric. Though sustainable development has become a concept that biologists and ecologists have measured from an eco-system point of view and that

3402-402: The sustainability of the entire population or culture. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization  (FAO) has identified considerations for technical cooperation that affect three types of sustainability: Some ecologists have emphasised a fourth type of sustainability: Sustainability is relevant to international development projects. One definition of development sustainability

3465-499: The work of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development , businesses began to see the needs of environmental and social systems as opportunities for business development and contribution to stakeholder value. This approach has manifested itself in three key areas of strategic intent: 'sustainable innovation', human development , and ' bottom of the pyramid ' business strategies. Now, as businesses have begun

3528-514: The world to address building sustainability. It helps members to develop a common understanding of how their buildings perform, what measures can be taken to improve them and what this means in terms of value and return on their investment. ISA has a database of commercial building assets comprising information gathered from members with retail, office and other commercial buildings in more than 50 countries. The diversity and breadth of data acquired from members – and in turn available to them – provides

3591-593: The world, except for the UK and other countries with a national BREEAM scheme (see below). This scheme makes use of assessment criteria that take account of the circumstances, priorities, codes and standards of the country or region in which the development is located. BREEAM In-Use is a scheme to help building managers reduce the running costs and improve the environmental performance of existing buildings. It has two parts: building asset and building management. Both parts are relevant to all non-domestic, commercial, industrial, retail and institutional buildings. BREEAM In-Use

3654-550: The world. There are multiple perspectives on how to measure sustainability as there is no universal standard. Intead, different disciplines and international organizations have offered measures or indicators of how to measure the concept. While sustainability indicators, indices and reporting systems gained growing popularity in both the public and private sectors, their effectiveness in influencing actual policy and practices often remains limited. Various ways of operationalizing or measuring sustainability have been developed. Since

3717-639: Was created to educate home owners and designers of benefits involved in taking its approach, which has a long term focus, and to let these parties make further decisions along the same line. A major focus of the method is on sustainability: It aims to reduce the negative effects of construction and development on the environment. Work on creating BREEAM began at the Building Research Establishment (based in Watford , England ) in 1988. The first version for assessing new office buildings

3780-591: Was formally released in Davos , Switzerland, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 28 January 2005. The report on this index made a comparison of the WEF ESI to other sustainability indicators such as the Ecological footprint Index. However, there was no mention of the emergy sustainability index. In 1996 the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) developed

3843-575: Was launched in 1990. This was followed by versions for other buildings including superstores, industrial units and existing offices. In 1998, there was a major revamp of the BREEAM Offices standard , and the scheme's layout, with features such as weighting for different sustainability issues, was established. The development of BREEAM then accelerated with annual updates and variations for other building types such as retail premises being introduced. A version of BREEAM for new homes called EcoHomes

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3906-758: Was launched in 2000. This scheme was later used as the basis of the Code for Sustainable Homes , which was developed by BRE for the UK Government in 2006/7 and replaced Eco Homes in England and Wales . In 2014, the Government in England signalled the winding down the Code for Sustainable Homes. Since then BRE has developed the Home Quality Mark, which is part of the BREEAM family of schemes. An extensive update of all BREEAM schemes in 2008 resulted in

3969-532: Was launched in March 2018 at Ecobuild . The BREEAM UK New Construction V6 was released on 24 August 2022 following the updates to building regulations in England that came into force on 15 June 2022 and V6.1 (to incorporate changes to the building regulations for energy performance in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) on 14 June 2023. BREEAM has expanded from its original focus on individual new buildings at

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