BSRI (Building Sustainability Rating Index) for Building Construction

Abstract

Sustainability has been defined by various institutions as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This is a soft qualitative definition. It has also been defined as “taming the exponential growth of resource consumption and emissions generation while maintaining an exponential growth in affluence growth”. This is a quantitative definition. This paper provides a building sustainability rating system (BSRI) to assess sustainability impacts using both prescriptive (qualitative) assessment tools as well as performance (quantitative) rating tools of resource consumption and emissions generation. BSRI is easy to apply and focuses on macro (strategic design mission, vision and objectives) as well as micro (tactical) levels of the building stakeholder’s sustainability perspectives. The criteria and indices in BSRI are defined in order to reduce ambiguity, confusion and misunderstanding and create a standard for future integration of sustainability (GREEN) with BIM and LEAN platforms. The BSRI platform allows for adaptation and growth in knowledge of the sustainability issues such as embedded energy protocols, through the use of Bayesian Equations.