Análisis y propuesta sobre la contribución de las herramientas de evaluación de la sostenibilidad de los edificios a su eficiencia ambiental
Authors:   , Monterotti Chiara 
Published: October 2023

Esta tesis, realizada dentro del grupo de investigación del Departamento de Construcción 1 de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, originada por el interés de las posibilidades existentes de poder medir la sostenibilidad ambiental en la edificación, ha empezado profundizando sobre cuales posibilidades de medición de la sostenibilidad en la edificación existen, y, escogidas las herramientas que se encontraban más adecuadas a las finalidades de la investigación, se ha profundizado en su conocimiento en el Capítulo 1. Siendo estas herramientas constituidas por sistemas de indicadores, se ha buscado información sobre Teoría de los Sistemas de Indicadores en el Capítulo 2. Esta información se ha intentado traducir y adaptar para ofrecer un marco teórico general a las herramientas de evaluación de la sostenibilidad ambiental de la construcción, dando forma a los Criterios y Subcriterios del Capítulo 3. Estos Criterios se han aplicado para realizar un análisis en detalle de cada herramienta en el Capítulo 4 y en su globalidad en el Capítulo 5. Gracias a este recorrido se ha podido madurar una opinión sobre las posibilidades de estas herramientas en contribuir a conducir el sector de la edificación hacía prácticas que cierren los ciclos materiales, opinión que toma forma en el Capítulo 6, conjuntamente a unas propuestas.
This research project is the result of an ¡nterest in methods that help measure the environmental sustainability of construction works and in particular tools that assess a building's environmental sustainability, considering that "what is not measured cannot be improved", William Thomson.
In the current building industry sector, based on the systematic use of materials in open cycles, these tools should play an important role as they recognise the environmental characteristics of buildings through numerical assessments. They can
serve 10 increase the efficiency of the use of resources in building works and consequently promote a reduction of their impact. Moreover, they may move the world of construction 10wards the implementation of new technical models that are in greater harmony with the biosphere.
After an initial analysis of the various types of measurement tools, a selection of the most important options is presented.
Subsequently. information on the theory of indicator systems is provided.
This information has been the basis for developing an overall theoretical framework for the analysis of these tools, based on criteria and sub-criteria, organised in two parts:
a. The first part intends to discover the principies of sustainability upon which the existing tools are based. Subsequently, these principies are compared to the need to close material cycles used in technical processes to achieve habilability.
b. The second part aims to discover how efficiently these tools are in guiding their users towards sustainable behaviour and how they contribute to moving the sector in this direction.
The paper states that for a tool to be efficient it needs possess various characteristics grouped into five areas with related objectives , termed "criteria", which are as follows:
1. Modelling: this criteria specifies that the tool must include all the key areas for the sustainability of a building, but with the minimum number of indicators required .
2. Representativeness of the valuation: this criteria includes the features required for a tool to be able to offer a correct assessment that is representative of the level of sustainability for the building under assessment.
3. Use and economic viability: this criteria requires that these tools, with the purpose of dissemination and good reception, are economically accessible and easy to undersland.
4. Clarity about the the of user, scope and objectives: this criteria requires that the structure and content of the tool are adjusted to the level of knowledge of the user; to the local climate; to the geographical. social and technological context where the building is located.
5. Ability to guide the improvement of the environmental quality of the building: this criteria emphasises the potential of the tools as means of support in project development.
These criteria have been applied to analyse the following widely used tools : CASBEE. GBTOOL.ITACA and LEED with the intention of checking the capacity of the proposed analysis system to detect the strengths and weaknesses of the above
tools.
This investigation process has given rise to a number of proposals on the structure and content of the above tools in the form of recommendations, aimed primarily at the technicians in charge of drafting them, to assist them in the task of guiding the building sector toward practices that close material cycles.
It has been possíble to test these criteria thanks to the collaboration with GBCe Spain in the envisioning of the VERDE tool.
They were specifically applied in the development of the Palma Beach tool. within the Suslainable Rehabililation for Building in the Palma de Mallorca 8each Programme.