SuPerBuildings

SuPerBuildings is a EU-funded FP7 programme project that deals with the development of indicators for sustainable buildings and ways to benchmark them.

Full project title and funding programme

Full title of project: SUstainability and PERformance Assessment and Benchmarking of Buildings

Funding programme: Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)

Subject

Sustainability for buildings. Indicators, assessment and benchmarking criteria

Schedule and project consortium

Schedule

Start date: 01.01.2010

End date: 31.12.2012

Project consortium

• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (FIN) (Lead Partner)
• BRE Global Ltd. (UK)
• Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (F)
• Belgian Building Research Institute (B)
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
• Czech Technical University Faculty of Civil Engineering (CZ)
• IAO Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (DE)
• TECNALIALAB, Fundación (ESP)
• ÖGUT Austrian Society for Environment and Technology (AT)
• YIT Kiinteistötekniikka Oy (FIN)
• VINCI Construction France (F)
• Werner Sobek Stuttgart GmbH (DE)
• W/E Consultants (NL)

Description

The SuPerBuildings project developed and selected sustainability indicators for buildings, improved the understanding about performance levels considering new and existing buildings, different building types and different national and local requirements, developed methods for the assessment and benchmarking of sustainable buildings and made recommendations for the effective use of benchmarking systems as instruments of steering and in different stages of building projects.

The framework for the assessment of environmental, social and economic performance is being developed within CEN and ISO. SuPerBuildings considered the output of the standardization processes and focused on the development of the validity of sustainable building indicators, comparability of assessment results, benchmarking criteria and the usability of indicators in building processes. The project also provided recommendations for the improvement of standards.

Problems to be addressed

Sustainable buildings are defined with the help of indicators. Because the large number of various kinds of indicator sets there is a danger that this may decrease the general trust on the reliability of the assessment systems and impair the general understanding about their purpose. The quality and validity of sustainability indicators need to be developed. The improvement of the quality and validity of sustainability indicators of buildings was one of the main targets of the European research project Sustainability, performance assessment and benchmarking of buildings.

Objectives

• To develop sustainability indicators and their use and usability in design and implementation for sustainable buildings.
• To develop the potential of sustainability assessment and benchmarking methods in progress towards sustainable built environment.
• To develop indicators for assessing the environmental, social and economic performance of buildings.
• To develop criteria for the benchmarking of sustainable buildings.
• To develop recommendations for the use of indicators in different stages of building process and in steering.
• To disseminate the results for standardisation bodies, policy makers and construction professionals and encourage the development of sustainable building services.

Actions on low-carbon economy, energy efficiency and nZEBs

• The development of requirements for an assessment framework that measures a building´s sustainability assessment.
• The selection and description of sustainable building indicators and the definition of appropriate measurement methods.
• The definition of required performance levels of sustainable buildings with regard to selected indicators.
• The development of common principles and relevant criteria for benchmarking.

Main results

• Common pool of knowledge on energy efficient building with renewable energy sources.
• Training of professionals on energy efficient building with renwable energy sources.
• Increase of the general construction standard.

Outputs developed in the project

All these outputs are valuable for CESBA:

• Conclusions about the needs of development of sustainability indicators and assessment methods SuPerBuildings
• Conclusions about the needs of development of performance levels and benchmarking criteria and weighting methods SuPerBuildings
• Stakeholders' needs and requirements for SB assessment and benchmarking methods - SuPerBuildings
• Opportunities to integrate sustainable building benchmarking methods with steering mechanisms - SuPerBuildings
• Integrating SB assessment and benchmarking with BIMs - SuPerBuildings
• Systematic structure for sustainable building assessment - SuPerBuildings
• Conclusions about the performance levels of buildings considering the requirements of sustainable building and considering the economic and technological barriers and regional differences - SuPerBuildings
• Benchmarking criteria for sustainable buildings in Europe - SuPerBuildings
• Summary of the results and recommendations for the use of sustainable building assessment and benchmarking systems in different phases of building process - SuPerBuildings
• Recommendations for the use of sustainable building assessment and benchmarking methods and systems in steering of sustainable building - SuPerBuildings

Project strengths and weaknesses

Project strengths

Consistency between project outputs, objectivesand work plan.

Project weaknesses

Dissemination/communication planning has not been fully met.

Contact and homepage

Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)

Espoo, Finland

Tarja Häkkinen

Tel: +358-407274561

Project homepage

References

ViSiBLE report identification of successes and common challenges of EU-funded projects (2014)