Land Use as an Aspect of Sustainable Building

Abstract

This study discusses the validity and usability of land use as an aspect of sustainable building. Buildingshave an effect on land use not only because of the extraction and processing of raw materials and disposalof wastes but also because buildings occupy land during their entire service life. In addition, location ofbuildings has an effect on the need of networks – such as traffic networks – and their land use. Land userelated indicators are typically included in the European voluntary assessment systems of sustainablebuildings. ISO 21929-1 defines two land use indicators for buildings: soil sealing and land use change.However, there is neither consensus nor a harmonised method to assess this issue. As an example, landuse was not included in EN 15978:2011 due to lack of agreement on a calculation method. This studyoutlines the environmental aspects of buildings’ land use, assesses the significance of land use thathappens because of the land occupation of buildings compared to the land use because of the extraction ofraw materials needed for the construction of buildings. The study has also includes information about thebenchmarks of buildings in terms of land use related indicators, discusses, ands make conclusions aboutthe compatibility of building level indicators with the urban level indicators.