Module B1 Study Book - the Graduate School of the Environment

9. Community
10. Business
A series of questions on each issue are rated according to environmental,
economic and social relevance, and the answers compared to good or best
practice. 11
• Environment Key Performance Indicators – Developed by DTI
and Constructing Excellence the following Sir John Egan’s report,
“Rethinking Construction”, which challenged the construction industry
to meet ambitious improvement targets and to measure its performance
over a range of its activities. The Environment KPIs address ten key
areas of environmental performance in the construction industry:
1. Impact on the environment of the product and construction process
2. Energy use (designed) of the product
3. Energy use of the construction process
4. Mains water use (designed) of the product
5. Mains water use of the construction process
6. Waste produced by the construction process
7. Commercial vehicle movements produced by the construction
process
8. Impact on biodiversity of the product and construction process
9. Area of habitat created by the product
10. Whole life performance of the product
Most of these indicators are assessed using data, however no’s 1, 8 and 10
are assessed using measures of client satisfaction that the issues have been
taken into account. 12
3. Whole building environmental assessment methods
There are growing numbers of environmental assessment methods intended
for use at the design stage of a building. Developed by different countries,
they may be applied by independent assessors or in-house. They may be
linked to legislation, standards or funding, or may be used merely for image
and marketing purposes.
The impacts that are assessed by each method also vary. Some are limited
to the evaluation of the energy use and associated carbon dioxide emissions
of a building. Others assess a range of environmental impacts, while some
attempt to quantify social and economic impacts, also.
On the next page is a table examining some assessment methods. An attempt
has been made to identify the issues assessed by each method.
Lecture: Building performance assessment methods 25