Finch, E (1992) Environmental assessment of construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 10(1), pp. 5-18. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Building designers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of building projects. Coupled with this is the heightened demand of client organizations for environmentally 'jiriendly' buildings. Commercial buildings are often the most tangible expression of an organization’s values; values it wishes to convey to employees and customers. The complexity of issues injuencing a building’s 'greenness' does present a problem for the designer. To address this problem the Building Research Establishment (BRE) produced an assessment framework entitled the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). The purpose of this method is to monitor designs and raise the awareness ofdesigners to environmental issues. It is not intended for use as a comparative basis for competing designs. Instead, it provides technical guidance on the issues which need to be addressed in an environmental assessment. The author considers that thisjiamework should be extended to assess explicitly the values of the client and the priorities of the environmental community. The methodology advocated in this paper is based on multi-attribute utility theory (MA LIT). This allows the combining of information obtained from experts, with values elicitedfrom the eventual building users and owners. It provides a tool to assist the designer in the briejng stage as a negotiation mechanism, and at the proposal stage as a device for advocacy.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | appraisal; environmental assessment; green buildings; risk |
| Index terms: | client organization, BREEAM accreditation, building research, environmental issue, proposal, environmental assessment, complexity, appraisal, environmental impact, green building, construction project, methodology, commercial building, designer, owner, multi-attribute utility theory, negotiation |
| Subjects: | project planning, environmental policy, environmental issues, environmental impact, profession, construction type, client relations, decision-making and optimization, systems engineering, conflict resolution, sociology, research management, production management, factor and component analysis, design practice, research methods |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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