Environmental assessment methods for use at the building and city scales: constructing bridges or identifying common ground?

This chapter draws on the resumé of emergent themes and unresolved questions presented at the end of the Florence workshop at which the working papers on which this book is based were first presented. It begins to identify factors which unite and divide those who are developing and applying environmental assessment methods for use at both the building and city scales. The principles which are said to underlie sustainable development can be employed to help clarify the commonality and differences (and, at least by implication, the strengths and weaknesses) of the approaches being adopted at both of these levels for assessing the environmental impact of the built environment.