Environmental and economical viability associated to the sustainability criteria applied in commercial buildings

Abstract

The main challenges and contributions for the sustainability dissemination in construction are to recognize and prove the effective outcomes (economic and environmental) that could be obtained with the implementation of sustainability criteria. It means that more important than recognize the sustainability through the implementation of a sustainable voluntary tool, is to assure (and verify) the positive effects that could be reached with the application of the methodology or the classification obtained. In this context, this paper will present the results obtained within a research project developed in Portugal with the objective of determining the economic and environmental feasibility of the criteria defined by a British Sustainable Voluntary Tool (BREEAM - Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) that has been applied in a shopping centre under the construction phase. The referred shopping has a Gross Leasable Area (GLA) of 70.488 m2.