Business & IT · Vol. X(2) · 2020
Sustainability of buildings: environmental, economic and social pillars
Abstract
Sustainability of buildings is not specified clearly in many of the Green Building Rating Systems, rather it is a long list of criteria without relation to each other. This creates misunderstandings about sustainability among the professionals in architecture and construction industry. The aim of this article is to define sustainability of buildings in a clear and comprehensive way and to list the aspects that influence it. The concept of three pillars of sustainability is taken as a basis of the sustainability definition and the article expands it specifically for buildings. The three pillars of sustainability are: environmental pillar, economic pillar and social pillar. Different sustainability criteria are collected from respected sources and Green Building Rating Systems (LEED, BREEAM, WELL, DGNB, SBToolCZ) and they are organized in the three pillars. The article concludes that a building cannot achieve the top results in all of the sustainability aspects, it has to be a balance of the economic, environmental and social criteria. Some of the criteria mutually reinforce each other, while trade-offs must be made among other criteria.
Keywords
Architecture; buildings; economic sustainability; environmental sustainability; social sustainability
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How to cite (APA)
Katerina Eklova (2020). Sustainability of buildings: environmental, economic and social pillars. Business & IT, Vol. X(2), pp. 2–11. https://doi.org/10.14311/bit.2020.03.01