Environmental assessment tools and efficiency in housing and office refurbishment

Most environmental sustainability assessment tools are focused on new construction while refurbishment of buildings presents a different picture. Short term, local environmental effects such as noise or dust are more frequent in a refurbishment process since both occupants and neighbours are affected whereas in new construction only neighbours might be affected. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework in order to assess strength and weaknesses of environmental assessment tools for housing and office refurbishment projects, taking into account practical aspects, fundamentals of sustainability as well as conflicts between sustainability and efficiency. A review of literatures on sustainability, measurement systems in general and major environmental assessment tools confirms that these tools focus on energy consumption, heat insulation, air quality, light, noise, water efficiency and material consumption in new construction, but rarely in a refurbishment context. Short term, negative effects during a renovation process are not covered by current environmental assessment tools. The conflict between local and global effects of sustainable refurbishment, users' needs, workers' efficiency during the refurbishment process, problems caused by occupants and waste management should be reflected in a framework for indicators to be used in refurbishment projects. Since there are important effects on building users involved in most refurbishment processes, more attention should be paid to the relation between their productivity and both economic and social sustainability.