Ströbele, B and Lützkendorf, T (2019) Communicating environmental information: Rethinking options for construction products. Building Research & Information, 47(6), pp. 681-696. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
A need exists for robust environmental and health-related information to support decisions about construction products and the design of new construction and refurbishment projects. This need arises in order to protect resources and the natural environment. The relevant information can be provided from, for example, a life cycle assessment in the form of impact indicators. However, the large, complex data can overburden individual actors in construction and property (real estate). Hence, the question arises as to whether and how the complexity of communicating environmental information for construction products can be simplified. This paper explores various approaches to grouping the different impact indicators and to determining proxy indicators and impact indices as single scores within these indicator groups. No appropriate single proxy indicator is appropriate for all impact indicators. However, a cluster of indicators can be formed and proxy indicators or impact indices can be determined within these groups. An application of the approaches to the impact indicators according to the currently discussed product environmental footprint approach is presented. With a series of single scores, an existing multi-criteria decision problem can be reduced and a basis for business-to-consumer communication can be formed.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | buildings; construction products; environmental assessment; environmental impacts; environmental indicators; environmental information; life cycle assessment |
| Index terms: | life cycle assessment, environmental impact, environmental assessment, complexity, construction product, real estate, option, refurbishment project |
| Subjects: | environmental impact, economic analysis, real estate economics, infrastructure engineering, systems engineering, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Sustainability, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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