Abstract
It is well established that the existing building environmental assessment methods and sustainability assessment methods are intended to foster detailed design stage while there is a need to support early design stages. This research intends to develop a framework that actively supports design development at the formative design stages. The paper reviews the well-established building environmental assessment methods: CASBEE, LEED, BREEAM and GRIHA, and the existing sustainability assessment methods: iiSBE’s Sustainable Building Tool (SB Tool), German Sustainable Building Council’s Certificate Program (DGNB), Living Building Challenge (LBC) and ARUP’s Sustainable Project Assessment Routine SPeAR®. Further, well-known theories of ecological Sustainability are reviewed. The critical points of convergence and divergence of anthropocentric and biocentric approaches are identified to articulate the parameters of sustainability assessment. Specialists in the sustainable built environment assigned weights for assessment parameters (criteria) by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Their specialist opinions manifest the particular features of the Indian context. The paper delineates the Biocenosis, a novel framework for sustainability assessment of the built environment rooted in the concept of the synergy of nature with social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits for the context of India. It is intended to aid building professionals in the formative design phases as it enables an integrated and comprehensive assessment of the level to which the requirement of a sustainable built environment is satisfied.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
RBI 2018 Handbook of statistics on the Indian economy. Reserve Bank of India. https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Publications/PDFs/0HSIE_F.PDF (accessed 31 July 2019)
Reed B 2006 The trajectory of environmental design. http://www.integrativedesign.net/images/Trajectory_EnvironmentallyResponsibleDesign.pdf. (accessed 31 Oct 2012)
Moffatt S and Kohler N 2008 Conceptualizing the built environment as a social-ecological system. J. Build. Res. & Inf. 36: 248–268
Mang P and Reed W 2012 Designing from Place: A Regenerative Framework and Methodology. J. Build. Res. & Inf. 40: 23–38
Saaty T L 1994 How to make a decision: the analytic hierarchy process. Interfaces 24: 19–43
ASHRAE 2006 Green Guide: the Design, Construction, and Operation of Sustainable Buildings. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-conditioning Engineers Inc, Butterworth-Heinemann, Amsterdam
Gowri K 2004 Green building rating systems: an overview. ASHRAE Journal. 26: 56–58
BRE 2008 A Discussion document comparing international environmental assessment methods for buildings. Building Research Establishment. J. Build. Res. & Inf. 36: 248–268
Robinson J B 2004 Squaring the Circle? Some Thoughts on the Idea of Sustainable Development. Ecological Economics. 48: 369–384
BRE 2016 BRE Environmental Assessment Method, Building Research Establishment. Homepage [Online]. The UK. Available: https://www.breeam.com/BREEAMInt2016SchemeDocument/#resources/output/10_pdf/a4_pdf/nc_pdf_printing/sd233_nc_int_2016_print.pdf (accessed March 2019)
Horvat M and Fazio P 2005 Comparative Review of Existing CertificationPrograms and Performance Assessment Tools for Residential Buildings. Architectural Science Review. 48: 69–80
GBCI 2018 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Green Business Certification Inc. USA. https://www.usgbc.org/help/what-leed
JSBC 2014 Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) Japan Sustainable Building Consortium, Japan. http://www.ibec.or.jp/CASBEE/english/index.htm
GRIHA Council 2021 Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, 2019, GRIHA Council and The Energy Resources Institute. https://www.grihaindia.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Manuals/griha-manual-vol1.pdf
ILFI 2010 Living building challenge version 3.1. International Living Future Institute, Seattle, WA. https://living-future.org/lbc/
IISBE 2016 SBTool, International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment. https://www.iisbe.org/system/files/private/SBTool%202016%20description%2021Jul16.pdf
ARUP Sustainable Project Assessment Routine (SPeAR®). https://www.arup.com/projects/spear
DGNB The DGNB System, The German Sustainable Building Council. https://www.dgnb-system.de/en/system/index.php
Leopold A 1949 A Sand County Almanac. The Oxford University Press
McHarg I L 1992 Design with nature. John Wiley & Sons, New York
Wells M 1982 A Regeneration-Based Checklist for Design and Construction. Gentle Architecture, McGraw-Hill
Todd N and Todd J 1984 Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the basis of design. Sierra club books San Francisco
McDonough W 2005 The Wisdom of Designing Cradle to Cradle. https://www.TED.com
Vale B and Vale R 1991 Green Architecture: Design for a Sustainable Future. Thames and Hudson, London
Lyle J T 1994 Regenerative Design for Sustainable development. John Wiley & Sons, New York
Van der Ryn S and Cowan S 1996 Ecological design. Island Press, Washington
McDonough W 2002 Buildings like trees, cities like forests. The Catalogue of the Future, Pearson Press
Kellert S 2004 Beyond LEED: From low environmental impact to restorative environmental design. Keynote address Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities conference, Sponsored by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Toronto, CA and City of Portland, Portland: OR, 4 June
Reed B 2007a A livings systems approach to design. AIA National Convention May– Theme Keynote Address
BIS 2016 National Building Code of India. Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi
BEE 2017 Energy Conservation Building Code. Bureau of Energy Efficiency, New Delhi
ISO 2011 ISO/CD 21929–1 Sustainability in building construction: Sustainability indicators—Part 1: Framework for the development of indicators and a core set of indicators for buildings. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva
McDonough W and Braungart M 2002 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, New York
Birkeland J ed 2002 Design for Sustainability: A sourcebook of integrated, ecological solution. Earthscan
Reed B 2007 Shifting from “sustainability” to regeneration. J. Build. Res. & Inf. 35: 674–680
Couchman A 2007 Environmentally Restorative Architecture: Designing buildings for the 21st century. 2nd International Conference on Sustainability Engineering and Science. Auckland, New Zealand
Benyus J 1997 Biomimicry – Innovation inspired by nature. Harper Collins Publishers, New York
Zari M P 2008 Bioinspired architectural design to adapt to climate change. World Sustainable Building Conference. SB08. Melbourne, Australia
Zari M P and Storey J B 2007 An ecosystem based biomimetic theory for a regenerative built environment. Lisbon Sustainable Building Conference. Lisbon, Portugal
Graham P 2003 Building Ecology: First Principles for a Sustainable Built Environment. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford
Kibert C J, Sendzimir J and Guy G B 2002 Construction Ecology. Spon Press, New York
Van Der Ryn S and Pena R 2002 Ecologic analogues and architecture. In C. J. Kibert, J. Sendzimir, G. B. Guy (eds), Construction Ecology. Spon Press, London
Natural Logic Inc. 2003 Brattleboro Food Co-op: Preparing the ground for a regenerative market and marketplace: preliminary report prepared for the Brattleboro Food Co-op. Unpublished
Cole R J, Charest S and Schroeder S 2006 Beyond Green: Drawing on nature (for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's "Beyond Green: Adaptive, Restorative and Regenerative Design" course – SDCB 305). The University of British Columbia
UNCED 1992 The Global Partnership for Environment and Development: A guide to Agenda 21 (Ch 10). United Nations Publication, Geneva
Jenkin S and Zari M P 2009 Rethinking our built environments: towards a sustainable future, a research document. Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand Government
Holmstedt L, Brandt N and Robèrt K H 2017 Can Stockholm Royal Seaport be part of the puzzle towards global sustainability?-from local to global Sustainability using the same set of criteria. J. Clean Prod. 140: 72–80
Abdul-Rahman H, Wang C and Ebrahimi M 2016 Integrating and ranking sustainability criteria for housing. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Eng. Sustain. 169: 3–30
Ali H H and Al Nsairat S F 2009 Developing a green building assessment tool for developing countries a case of Jordan. J. Build. Environ. 44: 1053–1064
Bakar A H A and Cheen K S 2011 sustainable housing practices in Malaysian housing development: Towards establishing sustainability index. IJ Tech. 1: 84–93
Turcu C 2013 Re-thinking sustainability indicators: Local perspectives of urban Sustainability. J. Environ. Plan. Manag. 56: 695–719
Mulliner E, Smallbone K and Maliene V 2013 An assessment of sustainable housing affordability using a multiple criteria decision making method. Omega 41: 270–279
Chandratilake S R and Dias W P S 2013 Sustainability rating systems for buildings: comparisons and correlations. Energy 59: 22–28
Alyami S H, Rezgui Y and Kwan A 2013 Developing sustainable building assessment scheme for Saudi Arabia: Delphi consultation approach. Renew. Sustain Energy Rev. 27: 43–54
Mateus R and Bragança L 2011 Sustainability assessment and rating of buildings: Developing the methodology SBToolPT–H. J. Build. Environ. 46: 1962–1971
Braganca L, Mateus R and Koukkari H 2010 Building sustainability assessment. Sustainability 2: 2010–2023
Nilashi M, Zakaria R, Ibrahim O, Majid M Z A, Zin R M, Chugtai M W, Abidin N I Z, Sahamir S R and Yakubu D A 2015 A knowledge-based expert system for assessing the performance level of green buildings. Knowledge Based System 86: 194–209
Burdova E K and Vilcekova S 2015 Sustainable building assessment tool in Slovakia. Energy Procedia 78: 1829–1834
Alwaer H and Clements-Croome D J 2010 Key performance indicators (KPIs) and priority setting in using the multi-attribute approach for assessing sustainable intelligent buildings. J. Build. Environ. 45: 799–807
Yu W, Li B, Yang X and Wang Q 2015 A development of a rating method and weighting system for green store buildings in China. Renewable Energy 73: 123–129
LNTPA Lithunian Real Estate Developers Association, available online http://lntpa.lt/darnios-pletros-akademija/konkursai-uz-darnia-pletra-ir-darni-aplinka/
Shen L Y, Tam V W Y, Tam L and Ji Y 2010 Project feasibility study: The key to successful implementation of sustainable and socially responsible construction management practices. J. Clean. Prod. 18: 254–259
Pearce A R, Hastak M and Vanegas J A 2012 A decision support system for construction materials selection using Sustainability as a criterion. In: Proc. of 2012 Symp. on simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (Sim AUD'12), Society for Computer Simulation International, San Diego, CA, USA, 28-31, October. 1-5
Wallbaum H, Ostermeyer Y, Salzer C and Zea E 2012 Escamilla, Indicator based sustainability assessment tool for affordable housing construction technologies. Eco. Indic. 18: 353–364
Kang H, Lee Y and Kim S 2016 Sustainable building assessment tool for project decision makers and its development process. Environ. Impact Assess. Rev. 58: 34–47
Ceron-Palma I, Sanye-Mengual E, Oliver-Sola J, Montero J, Ponce-Caballero C and Rieradevall J 2013 Towards a green sustainable strategy for social neighbourhood in Latin America: Case from social housing in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Habitat Int. 38: 47–56
Lai A C K, Mui K W, Wong L T and Law L Y 2009 An evaluation model for indoor environmental quality (IEQ) acceptance in residential buildings. Energy Build. 41: 930–936
Zavadskas E K, Cavallaro F, Podvezko V, Ubarte I and Kaklauskas A 2017 MCDM assessment of a healthy and safe built environment according to sustainable development principles: A practical neighbourhood approach in Vilnius. Sustainability 9: 702
Higham A and Stephenson P 2014 Identifying project success criteria for UK social housing asset management schemes. In: Proceedings of the 30th Annual ARCOM Conference, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Portsmouth, UK, 1–3 September. 33–42
Zavrl M S, Zarnic R and Selih J 2009 Multicriteria sustainability assessment of residential buildings. Technol. Econ. Dev. Eco. 15: 612–630
Lee W L and Burnett J 2006 Customization of GBTool in Hong Kong. Building and Environment 41: 1831–1846
Chew M Y L and Das S 2008 Building Grading Systems: A Review of the State-of-the-Art. Architectural Science Review 51: 3–13
Berardi U 2012 Sustainability Assessment in the Construction Sector: Rating Systems and Related Buildings. Sustainable Development 20: 411–424
Wong S C and Abe N 2014 Stakeholders’ perspectives of a building environmental assessment method: The case of CASBEE. Building and Environment 82: 502–516
Markelj J, Kuzman M K, Grošelj P and Senegačnik M Z 2014 A simplified method for evaluating building sustainability in the early design phase for architects. Sustainability 6: 8775–8795
BMSG 2017 https://bpmsg.com/academic/ahp.php
Bhatt R, Macwan J E M, Bhatt D and Patel V 2010 Analytic hierarchy process approach for criteria rankings of sustainable building assessment: A case study. World Applied Sciences Journal 8: 881–888
VYAS G S and Jha K N, 2019 Development of Green Building Rating System Using AHP and Fuzzy Integrals: A Case of India. Journal of Architectural Engineering. 25: 04019004–04019009
Lazar N and Chithra K 2022 Green Building Rating Systems from the prospect of sustainability dimensions through the building life-cycle Local and global priority weight for dimensions and categories. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 29: 1–11
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
KUMAR, P., CHARIAR, V. & KABRE, C. BIOCENOSIS: a novel framework for sustainability assessment of built environment in the Indian context. Sādhanā 48, 12 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-022-02062-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-022-02062-3