ABSTRACT
The mix of design and construction features required to minimise the environmental impact of new buildings and developments can broadly be termed sustainable construction and design. Many of these features require new ways of developing and constructing and a shift away from established decision-making by all those involved in urban development: planners, construction companies, developers, building materials suppliers, etc. The shift towards more sustainable construction and design, therefore, requires innovation and learning – learning to do development differently. This learning process is complicated by the multiple interpretations of what specifically constitute practices of sustainable construction, as this can vary greatly by issue, sector and policy mandate. Proponents of sustainable construction might promote technological shifts in terms of materials, energy use and waste reduction, or they might encourage cultural and behavioural adaptations to how society views, uses and plans its urban built environments. This bifurcation into two arguably complementary but practically disparate agendas – a technological agenda and an urban environment agenda – implicitly suggests to many that ‘sustainability’ can be reduced to a function of innovation in construction and building technology trends.
