Strategic Guidance
Guidance on the pursuit of efficient sustainability
The approach to ensuring sustainability, where possible, should be adopted from the initial stage of developing an idea, plan or project, taking into account solutions and assessment processes at different levels. It can, however, be implemented at any stage and is based on an assessment of the current situation and potential ways of achieving that sustainability.
Consider systems and standards
Assessment systems and standards are gradually emerging to support project development and provide evidence that enables projects to be communicated reliably to the market. Since the late 1980s, environmental impact assessments have been systematically carried out on construction projects associated with specific cases and situations.
These assessments aim to reduce negative environmental impacts and offset irreversible ones, although this is still carried out in a somewhat tentative manner, whilst also highlighting the positive impacts. They thus serve as a mechanism for environmental internalisation through the decision-making process of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
LCA
At the same time, the focus on assessing the characteristics of products and materials encourages the use of life-cycle approaches for these components and materials. These approaches support the selection of the most environmentally sound option and contribute to the development of certain methods for environmental assessments. In response to growing environmental concerns, criteria, approaches and guidelines for construction have occasionally emerged, as well as environmental performance indicators and processes for assessing them.
Assessing the options and defining the strategy and solutions
The development of assessments comparing the various strategic options, as well as potential solutions; an analysis of their limitations, potential and implications, including economic ones; and the approaches used in the assessment and strategic guidance work to define the options and solutions, as well as the timetable and manner of their development and implementation.