Sustainability, and how to Measure it

Envirotecture takes a global view of sustainability, with high aims for improvement, but these must be set in the real world, so pragmatic solutions must also be found. Sustainability as a science is still evolving. We do not yet know exactly what a sustainable building will be like, so all buildings we currently call “sustainable” are really just more sustainable than average. But that puts them in a very important position: they are trend-setters, landmarks, beacons to all others.

There are a number of possible motivations for being part of a sustainable building project. They are cheaper to run while costing little or nothing more to build; they are safer to live and work in; they are nicer, healthier and happier places; they make you feel better about what you have done; and they will make everybody else feel better about it in the long run, too.

Sustainability can be measured, to varying extents of accuracy. We can predict thermal performance with some accuracy, although personal preferences will always override this.

Thermal comfort is an issue for any society which has the ability to create artificial comfort at the push of a button. Behind that button lies the inevitable pollution from greenhouse gas.
AccuRate is our normally preferred software tool for measuring thermal comfort energy demand in domestic buildings, but cannot be used in other types.
AGBR (Australian Building Greenhouse Rating tool) is a most useful means of predicting energy use in commercial and public buildings.

Other energy uses such as lighting, appliance etc, can also be predicted, often quite accurately. Putting all the energy used in one basket – called operational energy – allows us to compare different buildings under the same predictive parameters.
BASIX has some useful (if approximate) ways of measuring this in residential buildings. ABGR is useful in commercial buildings.
Green Star, and ABGR, are powerful tools for measuring the total energy (and many other) impacts of commercial buildings.

Water consumption can also be predicted, with limited accuracy – once again user choices make all the difference. What can be achieved is a building and landscape which minimise the amount of water used by any occupant.
BASIX also has some useful approximations which allow comparisons between design options in domestic projects.
Green Star is arguably the most useful tool for non-residential projects.

Materials used in construction have an enormous effect on a project’s sustainability. This can be a consideration of what it takes to create a construction material, to erect it, its lifespan and maintenance, and its potential for reuse or recycling. This includes a measure of the embodied energy in each material used in a project. This life-cycle analysis has several tools which measure these impacts, including:
LCAid and SimaPro – these provide a wealth of information in the hands of specialists.
Green Star also provides a way of measuring material issues.

The ecological impact of materials at source, during manufacture, and at end of service-life must also be considered. Rainforest timbers, for instance, may be perfect for the task on site, but their logging has catastrophic consequences for local people, causing massive social disruption and dislocation, destruction of habitat for endangered species, and reduced green ballast. All these are unsustainable, and must be avoided.
Tools like Ecopsecifier enable us to select materials with all these considerations in place.
Green Star enables good selections to be rewarded in its rating system.

The health of the building in use must also be considered. “Sick building syndrome” is well documented, and can apply to homes and offices alike. Off-gassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by many synthetic materials is to be seriously avoided.
Ecopsecifier also provides important information to help avoid such problems.

Some rating systems set out to measure all of the above impacts, and more. Green Star is one such system in Australia, and although it only applies to commercial and public buildings, it contains an extremely useful set of standards that tell us how well a building has been designed and built.

From the parameters discussed above, it is obvious that much depends upon the occupant of any building. Therefore, sustainability can most accurately be measured once a building is occupied. There are several tools which do this, including a version of Green Star (mentioned above). The Australian Building Greenhouse rating Scheme (ABGR) is a useful and scientifically defensible tool for measuring the greenhouse impact of commercial buildings.
NABERS is a tool for all building types.

Many other issues affect sustainability, but generally apply at a societal level (such as transport, community amenity etc).

If you would like to discuss any of these concepts further, please don’t hesitate to contact our office!