Applicability of socio-economic factors in sustainable construction for sri lankan context

Abstract

“Sustainability” has emerged as a vibrant field of research and innovation over last few decades. The concept is based on three basic factors; environment, social and economic, namely the Triple Bottom Line. Frequently, the environmental aspect, despite the social and economic aspects, is given a major emphasis in the global arena of sustainable construction. The World Green Building Council (WGBC), being the leading institute in sustainability, has initiated the first step towards assessing the socio economic factors in the field of sustainable construction, which are being neglected in rating green buildings due to its immeasurability as a tool, by developing a framework for assessing the concerns addressed in the Triple Bottom Line. The WGBC criteria presented in seven sections hold concepts developed by the expert panel representing 14 countries, for assessing the social and economic factors. Since the concepts are in contrast with Sri Lankan context, they seek readjustment in order to match Sri Lankan context. Research agenda hascommenced with a comprehensive literature survey, followed by expert interviews and a questionnaire survey. The process of developing the theoretical framework to determine the appropriate weightages between each rating has proceeded using the indicators and benchmarks of the available frameworks. Adjusted criteria of the social and economic factors would be able to improve the applicability of GreenSL to assess the green buildings in Sri Lanka. Developed framework through the evaluation process in the research would be capable of assessing the Sri Lankan sustainable constructions in a more appropriate manner, with proper compositional integration of socio-economic and environment factors. A comprehensive assessment of sustainable construction could be achieved through the developedtheoretical framework that is fitted in to the Sri Lankan context with due consideration on aspects addressed in Triple Bottom Line; economic, social and environment.