Sustainability in Building Construction – Can New Standards Deliver Answers to Old Questions?

There is a growing need for commonly accepted principles and tools for the realization of sustainable principles in the construction and building sector. The following issues are currently addressed: appropriate choice and description of the functional unit; assortment and application of indicators and assessment criteria as wall as problems linked with the availability and quality of data and of product information. By using the standardization activities linked with the technical committee of the International Standards Organization (ISO TC 59/SC 17) on Sustainability in building construction as an example, the author discusses which solutions for the issues raised above could be provided by standardization. The proposed structure of ISO TC59/SC 17 presented, whereby environmental aspects play a major role. Existing or currently developed standards and norms in the area of sustainability, within the construction and building sector, should be considered attentively.