TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citieslack of an agreed structure that can help decision-making processes achieve greatersustainability is a major problem (Brandon and Lombardi, 2005).2. THE EVOLVING NATURE OF SUSTAINABLEDEVELOPMENT IN CONSTRUCTIONSince the milestone publication of Bruntland Report that read development issustainable when it "meets the needs of the present without compromising theability of future generations to meet their own needs", the call of sustainability wasresonated world-wide. This was further intensified by the crystallization ofAgenda 21 that calls for a greater application of sustainable developmentprinciples in the construction industry,Despite these principal references, it is widely acknowledged that sustainability isstill a vague, uncertain and polymorphous concept (Philis andAndriantiatsaholiniaina, 2001) as different people interpret sustainabilitydifferently. Scholars and researchers have attempted to bring about universalprinciples for sustainability, but their efforts were far from success. Instead theyare often criticized, for not representing the full vision of sustainable development(Eagan and Joeres, 1997).Though still evolving, the most commonly accepted set of principles of sustainabledevelopment is called the Triple Bottom Line. This international set ofsustainability metrics, often used to gauge the success of a particular developmentproject (Rogers, et. al., 2006), includes three broad components; social,environmental and economic aspects of sustainability.Premised on the Triple Bottom Line, scholars and researchers of variousdisciplines then engage in and formulate the sustainable principles concept fortheir respective area of development interests. For built environment, sustainableconstruction is seen as a way for the building industry to respond to achievesustainable development (Bourdeau, 1999).469