Defining sustainability for built environment systems: an operational framework

One of the ongoing challenges in the quest to make our built environment more sustainable is defining what sustainability means in terms understandable to and measurable by built environment decision makers. This paper illustrates one approach to developing a comprehensive and exhaustive definition of sustainability for the built environment deriving domain-specific variables from fundamental principles and constraints that govern how earth systems work. The paper uses the concept of systems to define characteristics and critical constraints of both the earth as a whole and built facilities in particular. These constraints provide a basis for identifying conditions which must be met in order for a built facility system to be sustainable. The contribution of the paper is a decision space based on required sustainability conditions that can be used to evaluate facility alternatives in terms of their relative sustainability.

[1]  Pamela A. Matson,et al.  HUMAN APPROPRIATION OF THE PRODUCTS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS , 1986 .

[2]  Jennifer Robin DuBose.  Sustainability as an inherently contextual concept :some lessons from agricultural development , 1994 .

[3]  William E. Rees,et al.  The ecology of sustainable development. , 1990 .

[4]  R. E. Sonntag,et al.  Fundamentals of classical thermodynamics , 1973 .

[5]  Diana Liverman,et al.  Global sustainability: Toward definition , 1987 .

[6]  William D. Ruckelshaus,et al.  Toward a sustainable world. , 1989 .

[7]  Annie R. Pearce,et al.  A parametric review of the built environment sustainability literature , 2002 .

[8]  C. Churchman.  The systems approach and its enemies , 1979 .

[9]  George Tchobanoglous,et al.  Integrated Solid Waste Management: Engineering Principles and Management Issues , 1993 .

[10]  Merle Jacob,et al.  Toward a Methodological Critique of Sustainable Development , 1994 .

[11]  R. Mikesell.  PROJECT EVALUATION AND RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY , 1992 .

[12]  Ludwig von Bertalanffy,et al.  General System Theory , 1969 .

[13]  H. Daly.  Toward some operational principles of sustainable development , 1990 .

[14]  Mark E. Hanson,et al.  Global sustainability: Toward measurement , 1988 .

[15]  R. Hodge.  Assessing progress toward sustainability : development of a systemic framework and reporting structure , 1995 .

[16]  Edward Allen,et al.  How buildings work : the natural order of architecture , 1981 .

[17]  Don Roberts.  Sustainable Development - a Challenge for the Engineering Profession , 1991 .

[18]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Alternative visions of rationality. , 1990 .

[19]  Garrett Hardin,et al.  Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos , 1993 .