Les outils de mesure de la durabilité des bâtiments. Comparaison transnationale

Marita Walhagen, Mauritz Glaumann and Ulla Westerberg Tools for assessing building sustainability. Transnational comparison Environmental assessment tools for buildings are rapidly being developed in many countries. They all claim to assess the environmental quality or the sustainability of buildings, according to rating systems that award a maximum number of points for factors that are sustainable in one way or another. For the time being, however, there is no consensus, in terms of criteria and indicators, on the meaning of the words "green" or "sustainable". What are the existing indicators designed to assess ? Three assessment tools were analysed : America's LEED-NC, Britain's Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) and Sweden's EcoEffect . They all cover three main areas of assessment : energy, interior environment, and use of materials and waste management. Nonetheless, their contents differ. These tools were compared in terms of their aims, content and the manner in which the various items are incorporated. They were tested on a new building several storeys high. The results of their being applied to this building differ, thus raising the question of how to define genuinely effective assessment tools.Marita Walhagen, Mauritz Glaumann and Ulla Westerberg Tools for assessing building sustaina-bility. Transnational comparison Environmental assessment tools for buildings are rapidly being developed in many countries. They all claim to assess the environmental quality or the sustainability of buildings, according to rating systems that award a maximum number of points for factors that are sustainable in one way or another. For the time being, however, there is no consensus, in terms of criteria and indicators, on the meaning of the words "green" or "sustainable". What are the existing indicators designed to assess ? Three assessment tools were analysed : America's LEED-NC, Britain's Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) and Sweden's EcoEffect . They all cover three main areas of assessment : energy, interior environment, and use of materials and waste management. Nonetheless, their contents differ. These tools were compared in terms of their aims, content and the manner in which the various items are incorporated. They were tested on a new building several storeys high. The results of their being applied to this building differ, thus raising the question of how to define genuinely effective assessment tools.Wallhagen Marita, Glaumann Mauritz, Westerberg Ulla. Les outils de mesure de la durabilité des bâtiments. Comparaison transnationale. In: Les Annales de la recherche urbaine, N°105, 2008. Thème libre. pp. 94-103