Quantifying and assessing impacts of building processes in a triple bottom line approach

Ecologically sustainable development is a major concern, and embodies both environmental protection and management. The concept of sustainable development is broad and concerns attitudes and judgment to help ensure long-term growth and prosperity. The implementation of a construction project will have various economic, social, and environmental impacts at different stages across its life cycle. After reviewing the current assessment methods, it can be concluded that there is a need to establish a model which considers the three impacts of a building from a life cycle perspective. This building process assessment model is established to bridge the gap. Whilst construction activities have been contributing to the development of modern societies, they are also contributing adversely on the natural and man-made environment. Traditional construction practices assess the viability of a built project mainly using economic feasibility. This paper reveals that proper development consideration at an outset can make a significant contribution to achieving better sustainability, in particular the goal of ecologically sustainable development. Most of the existing environmental performance assessment approaches assess the overall performance of a project but do not take into consideration the impact that may have at various stages across a building's life cycle. In achieving the goal of advancing the sustainability performance of building practices, the building sustainability assessment should be integrated into the building process. The model BPAM in this paper has been developed and presented to fill the gap. The model presents an alternative approach for assessing the feasibility of a built project during its life cycle in attaining the principle of sustainable development. Based on the modelling principles, the judgement can be made as to whether or not the development of a built project is in line with sustainable development principles and improvements can be made accordingly. The model offers opportunities to reveal the sustainability performance at various stages of a development so that resources can be focused on the stage that has the most significant impacts in need for improvement. This way time, cost and resources can be utilised more efficiently and effectively.