TY - JOUR
T1 - A critical comparison of concepts and approaches to social sustainability in the construction industry
AU - Kristoffersen, Anna Elisabeth
AU - Schultz, Carl Peter Leslie
AU - Kamari, Aliakbar
PY - 2024/8/15
Y1 - 2024/8/15
N2 - Sustainability is a major driving force in today's society as it serves as a guiding principle in decision-making towards a better and sustainable future. In practice, the concept of sustainability has been concretised through the development of the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental, and economic. It is commonly acknowledged that the social pillar is the least developed and that the pillar needs more streamlined and applicable definitions, frameworks and approaches. Within the building and construction industry, the sustainability of buildings is typically assessed based on building certification systems. The aim of this article is to compare the definitions and approaches to social sustainability in the existing academic literature and prevailing social sustainability-focused building certification systems (i.e., BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, and WELL). This is done through a systematic review of the academic literature using the PRISMA (The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)-framework and an in-depth investigation of the assessment criteria in the building certification systems, focusing on the values assessed rather than benchmark values and assessment methods. The paper concludes that while there is no commonly agreed-upon definition or approach to social sustainability, there is a consensus in parts of the academic literature that social sustainability has an overarching perspective that is comparable to an absolute concept. This absolute approach is not present in the certification systems, so they neither ensure nor improve overarching social sustainability. Instead, they are designed to improve selected social values and contribute to social sustainability by focusing on specific and concretised social values.
AB - Sustainability is a major driving force in today's society as it serves as a guiding principle in decision-making towards a better and sustainable future. In practice, the concept of sustainability has been concretised through the development of the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental, and economic. It is commonly acknowledged that the social pillar is the least developed and that the pillar needs more streamlined and applicable definitions, frameworks and approaches. Within the building and construction industry, the sustainability of buildings is typically assessed based on building certification systems. The aim of this article is to compare the definitions and approaches to social sustainability in the existing academic literature and prevailing social sustainability-focused building certification systems (i.e., BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, and WELL). This is done through a systematic review of the academic literature using the PRISMA (The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)-framework and an in-depth investigation of the assessment criteria in the building certification systems, focusing on the values assessed rather than benchmark values and assessment methods. The paper concludes that while there is no commonly agreed-upon definition or approach to social sustainability, there is a consensus in parts of the academic literature that social sustainability has an overarching perspective that is comparable to an absolute concept. This absolute approach is not present in the certification systems, so they neither ensure nor improve overarching social sustainability. Instead, they are designed to improve selected social values and contribute to social sustainability by focusing on specific and concretised social values.
KW - Building certification systems
KW - Social factors
KW - Social sustainability
KW - Social value
KW - Sustainable development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193033078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jobe.2024.109530
DO - 10.1016/j.jobe.2024.109530
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2352-7102
VL - 91
JO - Journal of Building Engineering
JF - Journal of Building Engineering
M1 - 109530
ER -