Lu Aye, Charters, B, Chiazor M, Fandiņo, A & Robinson J 2004, 'The performance of environmentally sustainable design features in commercial buildings', CIB World Building Congress 2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2-7 May 2004, pp.1-10.
Abstract
Many of the controversies surrounding the terms "sustainable building" and "environmental or green building" relate to the attempt by many groups to interpret sustainable property development in a self-interested or ideological based manner. It seems that most of the new significant building projects claim sustainable credentials without a comprehensive impact assessment of the building environmental performance. Although there is a wide range of building codes, schemes, rating systems and building design guides available around the world, which attempt to measure and promote the merits of sustainable construction, no benchmark or guideline on the assessment of the environmental performance of commercial buildings with regard to their operational energy, carbon footprint and occupant's adaptive behaviour and thermal comfort, has been developed. This represents a need gap in the knowledge required to assess to what extent commercial buildings can be regarded as sustainable when taking into account the above aspects. This paper describes a project which upon completion has the potential to facilitate a wider acceptance of environmentally sustainable construction and property development.
Keywords: Sustainability, energy, life cycle costing, carbon footprint, occupant's adaptive behaviour, environmental performance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.