Azcarate Aguerre, J F (2023) Facades-as-a-service: A cross-disciplinary model for the (re)development of circular building envelopes. PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
Accelerating strategic investment in an energy- and material resource-efficient built environment The de-carbonisation of the built environment hinges on the use of clean, renewable energy and the conservation of materials and components within circular reprocessing loops. The Façades-as-a-Service research concept aims to accelerate the rate and depth of building energy renovations – while safeguarding long-term responsibility over material resources – by creating a new value-chain based on the provision of integrated building envelopes under a performance contract. The built environment is a major contributor to the resource management and sustainable development challenges we currently face on a global scale. The rate at which the building stock is improving, in terms of resource efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), is far below what is needed to meet even the most conservative climate change and environmental impact mitigation goals (European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy 2020). The strategic investment of limited resources – energetic, material, and financial – which dictates the development of the built environment, is largely driven by individual decision-makers with particular fields of knowledge, specific interests, and acting within diverse time-scales. Improving the resource-efficiency of the built environment, in terms of the quality of new constructions and the rate and depth of technical building retrofits, is not only a question of technological readiness, but rather of business and economic incentives. Emerging theoretical frameworks, such as the Circular Economy (CE) and Product-Service Systems (PSS), aim to realign or create these incentives by operationalising the value of better individual decision-making processes, internalising soft values and costs, and developing long-term collaborative project execution mechanisms. In line with these frameworks, the research elaborates a multi-perspective analysis for a new performance-based investment model to promote the energy transition through the accelerated implementation of high-performance building envelope technologies. Boundaries for the research scope are established, in both technological and managerial ranges, to enhance the applicability of the model and the scientific relevance of the results. Reference is made to specific case-studies, organisations, and regional characteristics, followed by discussions on the implications of such focus groups for the extrapolation of universally applicable conclusions. Finally, the model is evaluated to determine its rate of success at addressing the resource management and environmental impact challenges previously identified. Results show that, while the implementation of potentially Circular Business Models such as Product-Service Systems is technically possible within the current economic, legal, and managerial landscape, it is by no means a simple or standardised process. Significant systemic changes must take place in order to enable and incentivise the mainstream implementation of performance-based models capable of aligning stakeholder incentives towards more energy-efficient and resource-regenerative building procurement practices. The main bottlenecks towards such innovation are highlighted, and cross-disciplinary recommendations are made regarding the validity, up-scalability, and future development of the proposed methodology.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | circular economy; building envelopes; product-service systems; energy renovation; performance contracts; sustainable construction; business models |
| Index terms: | decision-making process, energy renovation, circular economy, validity, efficiency, implementation, conservation, resource management, building envelope, resource efficiency, collaborative project, built environment, business model, face, building stock, sustainable development, economic incentive, building procurement, focus group, sustainable construction, boundaries, climate change, renewable energy, strategic investment, performance-based, greenhouse gas emission, methodology, environmental impact, mitigation |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, property law, economic analysis, environmental policy, psychology, environmental impact, climate science, evaluation and assessment methods, asset management, health safety and environment, sustainable design, sustainable construction, financial risk, architectural elements, research methods, energy systems, financial and cost management, control systems, data collection methods, business, infrastructure and transport systems, environmental health, decision analysis, performance measurement, management, renovation and retrofit, performance management |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Quality Management, Legal Issues, Sustainability, Procurement, Risk Management, Project Management, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here