Building environmental assessment methods: assessing construction practices

Abstract

This paper focuses on the environmental issues associated with the building construction process and the way in which they are currently represented in building environmental assessment methods. The primary goal is to identify the practical and methodological reasons for their scant inclusion and to offer arguments to redress this situation. Despite the difficulties of assessing management practices, their inclusion within building environmental assessment methods is critical from the standpoint of reinforcing the relationship between building design and building operation. Similar arguments relate to the importance of including construction processes. The paper argues that construction issues should be included, organized into consistent categories (e.g. resource use, ecological loadings and health issues) and clearly partitioned within the structure of assessment methods. If there are environmental benefits in engaging a broader range of players earlier in the design process, then this notion can logically be extended to include the contractor.