Do you know them too? The various methods that should promote sustainable building, but fall short for several reasons? Take Cradle to Cradle, The Next Step, Biomimicry, Bio-based Economy and Circular Economy. In itself fine methods but they are not yet sufficiently applied or applicable to buildings. Because a building is not just any product. A building has four distinctive characteristics that general regulations and methods do not take into account sufficiently or not at all.
And there is more. When we are talking about sustainable building then we automatically meet with several other instruments: LEED, BREEAM, GreenCalc+ GPR. Precious and comprehensive measuring products with associated organizations. And that in a sector where we easily spend some fifteen percent on consultancy before we can start building! Is that really necessary? I don’t think so.
The special characteristics of the product ‘buildings’
You can not assess a building the same way as you assess any product because of its special characteristics.
1. A building always requires a large investment.
A building always requires a large investment upfront. Apart from the user, there are also other stakeholders, especially the developer in relation to his credit provider. They all have different needs, requirements, risks and responsibilities. Which stand for how and how far the building is financeable and therefore feasible.
2. A building is a fixed structure.
A building is not movable and it is far bigger than we users physically are. The shape and location are therefore important for people in the neighborhood. A building has a big impact on our perception, which stands for how precious a building is for us.
3. A building has a long life span.
A building survives much longer than the average person lives. It must be adaptable to the ever changing demands and needs of users and society. Which stands for its degree of flexibility.
4. A building is not a serial product.
Each building or building project is realized by the one-time collaboration of different parties with different interests. We start all over, every single time! And that makes good quality control and learning as a team impossible.
Standard instruments are not suitable for sustainable building
Because of these special building characteristics the standard methods developed for sustainable mass production are difficult to apply. We need a system that takes into account the changing needs and business models of users, investors and suppliers. This is the only way that sustainable building will become really sustainable. In this way the social, environmental and economic returns are the largest.
Moreover, construction and real estate in the Netherlands are now fundamentally different from surrounding countries in continental Europe. This means that many used sustainability methods have still to fix the legal system and therefore are forced to be secondary for sustainability. On the one hand this makes the essential control possible and keeps all parties together, but on the other hand it makes the various methods pretty expensive!
Take the next step and share your experiences
Do you want to take a next step? Come to the FREE* Masterclass. We will work with practical tools to instantly implement the actions of my ebook in your organizational, fiscal or financial projects and organization.
Join the conversation
Do you know how to build that new way and what you need? What benefits for use do you see, which one is the most important? Share it in the comments below.
To your health and wellbeing,
Remko Zuidema
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This post is also available in: Nederlands
