BS 15643-1:2010 pdf download – Sustainability of construction works — Sustainability assessment of buildings Part 1 : General framework

BS 15643-1:2010 pdf download – Sustainability of construction works — Sustainability assessment of buildings Part 1 : General framework
The principles given in Clause 4 are developed into general requirements for the assessment methods in Clause 5. Specific requirements for assessments of the environmental, social and economic performance of buildings are defined in Clause 6 in prEN 15643-2, prEN 15643-3 and prEN 15643-4.
The assessment methods shall be credible, transparent and systematic in order to achieve verifiability, transparency and comparability in the results of the assessment.
The general requirements for communication of the assessment results are given in 5.6. The assessment methods for environmental, social and economic performance of buildings given in the standards under this framework take into account performance aspects and impacts that can be expressed with quantitative and qualitative indicators, which are measured without value judgements and which lead to a clear result for each indicator.
4.2 Objectives of assessment of the building The objectives of assessments are:
⎯ to determine the impacts and aspects of the building and its site,
⎯ to enable the client, user and designer to make decisions and choices that will help to address the need for sustainability of buildings.
4.3 Approach to assessment of environmental, social and economic performance According to the general principles of sustainability in building construction described in ISO 15392, all three dimensions of sustainability of buildings (environmental, social and economic) are necessary elements in a systemic approach. Statements on the sustainability performance of a building shall address all three dimensions. This implies that when dealing with the sustainability assessment of a building all three dimensions of sustainability shall be included in an assessment of the building’s performance, and communication shall be made accordingly. However, assessment of the individual dimensions of sustainability may also be undertaken separately, depending on the scope of assessment, in which case statements shall only be made for the separate assessment(s)
− environmental, social, economic
− actually carried out. To link the results from the environmental, social and economic performance assessments requires that their functional equivalent (see 5.3) is the same. By reference to the functional equivalent the results of assessments can be presented in a systematic way. The functional equivalency (see 5.3) forms the basis for comparison at the building level.
4.4 Relevance of technical and functional requirements The technical and functional requirements become fixed when they are prescribed in the client’s brief or in the project specification. These requirements influence the results of the assessment and therefore need to be taken into account. How the technical and functional requirements of the building are taken into account in the description of the functional equivalent is given in 5.3.
NOTE The technical and functional requirements can include, for example, requirements on structural safety, fire safety, indoor air quality, security, adaptability, energy efficiency, accessibility, de-constructability, recyclability, maintainability, durability and service life of a building or an assembled system (part of works). Some of these technical and functional requirements are included in the social performance assessment categories.
4.5 Consideration of the building life cycle In fulfilling the technical and functional requirements, environmental, social and economic impacts (which may be adverse or beneficial) and aspects are incurred which extend over the entire life cycle.
The impacts and aspects of a building that relate to its environmental, social and economic performance are influenced by actions taken throughout the entire life cycle of the building. These actions begin with the consideration of the need for a building and continue beyond the decommissioning and de-construction of the building (i.e. the legacy that is left behind once the building has been demolished/disposed of).
NOTE In economic considerations the planning and design stage is regarded as the beginning of the building life cycle, whereas the acquisition of raw materials is regarded in environmental considerations as the beginning of the building life cycle.