Sustainability and the performance concept: Encouraging innovative environmental technology in construction

Encouragement of innovation is a major reason for using the performance concept in construction regulations and specifications, mostly in the context of design-build contracts. Performance criteria aiming at sustainability emphasize long term behaviour of built facilities, which complicates the measurement of compliance. Strategies for identifying areas with strong promises of innovative technologies should be developed, so as to concentrate the efforts in developing performance requirements. The development of standardized consensus methods and procedures should be accelerated. Finally, it is suggested that good examples of how performance requirements can be expressed and monitored should be made globally available.