Implementing Sustainability in the Built Environment

Implementing Sustainability in the Built Environment

Van Nistelrooij, P.G.A.

Weijnen, M.P.C. (mentor)
Dijkema, G.P.J. (mentor)
Van Bueren, E.M. (mentor)
Buurman, P.A. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Infrastructure Systems & Services

Energy & Industry

2011-01-07

There is a growing desire for sustainable design, both with firms and their clients in the built environment. However sustainability is not always integrated into designs in the same uniform manner, or at the same level. Barriers and carriers exist that influence the design and its level of sustainability for consulting engineering firms. Research into the organisational structure, project properties, design processes, knowledge management and sustainability properties, both in literature and in a case study, provide possible barriers and carries for the integration of sustainability in designs. The barriers that were found are: A new methodology cannot be implemented top-down with professional employees. Multiple actors in the design each influence the final product. The design process itself is unstructured and hard to oversee and there is no time available that allows designers to improve designs. Carriers are: There is much skill present in the field of expertise and with the designers. Integrated design can lead to more efficiency and there is a noticeable drive to increase sustainability. Improvements can be found in setting up example projects, in including sustainability as main goal for the firm and by including the construction and use phase in the design process.

sustainability
built environment
barriers and carriers
multi-actor
design process
professional bureaucracy
knowledge management
consulting engineering

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1033460e-c0c1-4652-a938-99a53765e957

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Van Nistelrooij, P.G.A.