Clear criteria for sustainable construction
A proprietary evaluation concept for building construction. To create a sustainable building, the three aspects of environment, economy and society need to be integrated into the project as early as possible. This requires concrete, measurable criteria. With SIA 112/1 on Sustainable Building Construction, published in 2004, the SIA laid comprehensive foundations for defining sustainable constructions. However, this recommendation refers to different project phases of a construction, but design-related decisions need to be made as early as possible. Using the SIA recommendation as a basis, Implenia has therefore devised its own evaluation instrument for the early project phase: GeNaB®, or total evaluation of sustainable construction. It comprises 18 criteria.
These kinds of evaluation are only useful, however, if they are integrated into the decision process. Implenia’s standard procedure is to use them for every project development. Projects we develop ourselves must score more than eight points, i.e. they must meet high sustainability standards. Around 200 projects have been evaluated in this way (incl. multiple evaluations) since the launch of GeNaB in 2009.
The next step: extending the concept to include civil works and infrastructure projects. A similar version of this concept called SIA 112/2 is being developed for civil works and infrastructure projects. Implenia is supporting this project financially and is represented on the project advisory committee. The aim of this commitment is both to contribute our sustainability expertise to the project and to acquire the skills needed to support building contractors and estimate and implement their requirements, and to work out a range of options for sustainable civil works and infrastructure projects. Our ultimate goal is to conduct a sustainability assessment for all building projects.