Building Sustainability in the Balance Promoting Stakeholders Dialogue

The issue of what constitutes a sustainable building is both topical and important. But is a sustainable building synonymous with 'green construction' or does it go beyond with materials to embrace matters such as location, adaptability or the building's relationship with its cultural and social setting? Much of the literature relating to sustainable buildings has concentrated on new buildings and numerous appraisals methods have been devised to help building owners who wish to commission buildings to meet the emerging planning requirements to balance economic, social and environmental concerns. However, in any one year only 1-2% of the building stock will be replaced. As buildings age so decisions will need to be taken as to when - and if - they should be demolished. Traditionally, unless a building is listed, this decision is normally taken on economic grounds alone. However, if sustainability is the ambition, there is a need to embrace the requirements of all stakeholders in the building including those of local communities and user groups. In short it is important that the decisions are not driven solely by short-term economic arguments alone Developed from the findings of a DTI funded project entitled 'Buildings: a new life', this book explains the issues of building sustainability in relation to the so-called 'triple bottom line' objectives of economic, social and environmental well-being. It develops a matrix of issues that may affect whether a building is likely to succeed over time and concludes that decision-making should be informed by a stakeholder dialogue and informed analysis of how well the building succeeds for both its internal and external stakeholders. The book concludes by offering readers a simple spreadsheet model designed to promote a stakeholder dialogue regarding future building life decisions, thereby facilitating appropriate decision-making. The book has been designed to be useful to building owners, occupiers, planners, property consultants and all those involved with decisions regarding whether or not a building should gain a new life. All three authors jointly collaborated on the 'Buildings: a new life' project, on which this book is founded.Sarah Sayce is a chartered surveyor. After spending some years in practice she moved into teaching and research and she is now Professor and Head of Surveying at Kingston University. She has published widely on aspects on commercial property practice, but increasingly her research interests lie within the property implications of sustainability.Anthony Walker is an architect and senior partner of Damond Lock Grabowski. He is well known for both his conservation and creative leisure-based schemes including the conversion of Windsor Station and the award winning Light at Leeds.Angus McIntosh is an economist and chartered surveyor and he is Partner and Head of Research at King Sturge, international property consultants, a role that has given him wide experience of global property concerns. He has written and researched extensively on many aspects of international property markets.Sayce, Sarah is the author of 'Building Sustainability in the Balance Promoting Stakeholders Dialogue', published 2004 under ISBN 9780728204249 and ISBN 072820424X.