With sustainability an increasingly important factor in decision-making, building developments are less likely to be driven by economic gain alone. To be considered truly sustainable, social, environmental and economic needs must be taken into account. However, achieving comprehensive sustainability is complex, resulting in numerous tools emerging for a sustainable built environment and beyond. Here are five of them:

1. BREEAM

The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) is an environmental rating scheme that awards credits based on sustainability considerations. On completion of a review by a BREEAM accredited assessor, a building can be awarded Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent, or Outstanding rating. British in origin, the scheme has inspired international equivalents. more

Initially developed as a marketing tool for green office buildings, BREEAM has raised awareness of environmental sustainability, rapidly expanding into sectors such as healthcare, ecohomes and retail.

There are three parts to a commercial building assessment under the BREEAM Offices scheme. To begin, core issues are considered, covering the impact of the building in operation. This includes energy use, heating, lighting, and site impact. The second part focuses on design and procurement, assessing material specifications and on-site construction. Finally, management and operation are taken into account on occupied buildings. Guidance is offered on operational changes that can improve environmental efficiency alongside financial, legal, health and image benefits.

Due to its credit-based structure, BREEAM assessment is clear and easy to understand. Clients can easily see areas in which they have either excelled or failed. However, this credit-system has received criticism for giving too much prominence to peripheral issues - such as car park space and bicycle facilities - over internal building functions. Also, as the name of the scheme suggests, the primary motivation is environmental efficiency. Whilst the economic and social considerations are taken into account, they are not considered equally.

2. LEED

Offering a similar environmental rating system for buildings to BREEAM, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a North-American tool which sets benchmarks for building sustainability. A building can achieve Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum status.

Praised for bringing agreed-upon standards for green buildings, LEED has nonetheless received criticism for the costs of implementing green features and the LEED assessment itself. Due to it being inspired by BREEAM, a similar issue remains – environmental sustainability is prioritised over economic and social sustainability.

3. CASBEE

Japan's most used tool for encouraging a sustainable built environment is the Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE). According to the Japanese Sustainable Building Consortium, CASBEE was borne out of a realisation that 'the capacities of local environments, and the world as a whole, were reaching a limit'.

Taking a two-pronged view to assessment, CASBEE considers the interior of the building, and its environmental impact on the outside world. This broader focus demonstrates the presence of social sustainability considerations within CASBEE ratings, although economic sustainability is not a primary consideration in this form of analysis. 

4. Envest II

Unlike BREEAM, LEED and CASBEE, Envest II exists solely in the pre-construction stage, with an aim of 'simplifying the otherwise very complex process of designing buildings with low environmental impact'. Envest is a web-based piece of software that analyses the design of a building, presenting its environmental impact and whole life cost to a client. Being pre-construction means a building can be informally assessed before it has even been constructed.

The economic aspect of the tool allows designers to clearly see the financial outgoings of any environmental change, meaning buildings can be efficiently tailored to individual budgets. This allows Envest to give both economic and environmental sustainability equal status, which few tools do. There is - understandably - no facility for exploring the social effects of buildings within the software.

5. SPeAR

Attempting to create a fully comprehensive sustainability tool, ARUP developed Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine (SPeAR). Extending the triple bottom line by also including natural resource conservation, SPeAR uses indicators which ARUP claim have 'as far as possible gained acceptance in the international community'. These include a global warming indicator developed by the United Nations and corporate social responsibility trackers created by both the Dow Jones Group and FTSE.

With four main categories of economic, societal, natural resources, and environment, SPeAR allocates a -3 to +3 ranking for the 22 sub-categories that fall under the above headers, resulting in a graphic visualization of the sustainability of a particular project at a point in time. The strength of this tool is that it can be applied to any development, not just the built environment. It is also flexible, showing the evolving sustainability of a project throughout its lifespan.

By Joe Peach