An integrated sustainability assessment tool framework

Abstract

Nowadays, the building industry has many harmful impacts on the environment; the society; and the economy. It possesses a huge share in energy consumption; material and non-renewable resources depletion and profoundly increases the global warming. Accordingly, governments and private sectors are recently concerned about controlling the undesirable consequences accompanying the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing ones through different procedures and strategies. These practices are the primary concern of the sustainable buildings. The literature review reveals that there are many sustainability rating systems developed in the last few decades. However, each of them has its assessment attributes based on its local context. Besides, none of the rating systems propose a guide for the decision makers to select the best affordable rehabilitation alternatives which can upgrade the sustainability of their buildings. Accordingly, the primary target of this research is to establish an integrated sustainable rating and decision-making tool for sustainable existing buildings. Besides, the developed rating tool adapts according to the dynamic weighting scheme, which varies based on the importance of each of the assessment attributes taking into account the local context of each building. This study introduces a framework illustrating the different procedures and models established and integrated into the developed sustainability assessment tool. Moreover, the study highlights the limitations and the advantages of the proposed integrated assessment tool and how it is superior to many of the existing rating systems.