Sustainable built environment in Mid Sweden : Case study based models for sustainable building and construction processes

A large proportion of the earth's resource turnover is caused by building and construction activities. There are also many health and safety problems related to the built environment. All these effects are contained in the concept of sustainability. In order to reduce the impact of the built environment it is important to plan for higher ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainability in all stages of the building and construction planning process. A problem is that these processes are complex with many actors involved in different stages. The complexity can be handled with an integrated planning model that is based on continuous dialogue during the process between the actors involved. Case studies of construction projects show that such models for continuous experience feedback can work in practice. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze sustainable construction processes with regard to clear goal formulation and continuous follow-up of the sustainability parameters. It is also to develop a general model for managing sustainable construction and housing processes regarding ecological, economic, social and cultural dimensions. The model is the result of action research-oriented case studies carried out within the framework of the EU-project Sustainable Built Environment in Mid Sweden (SBEMS).