Applicability of Maturity Assessment for Sustainable Construction

Due to multi criteria related decision making processes during the construction of sustainable buildings, the operationalization of holistic building performance is becoming increasingly challenging. The realization of sustainability aspects in current construction practice calls for - next to precise stakeholder requirements - an integrated and life cycle oriented approach. Current challenges regarding the operationalization of holistic planning and construction processes are mainly caused by vague stakeholder requirements and by the current lack of appropriate methods for the required life cycle processes management. The holistic quality of the expected technical and functional performance of a building is closely and strongly related to the fulfillment of all processes (technical and organizational), which occur over the building’s life cycle. In this context comprehensive sets of sustainability criteria and possible interdependencies between these criteria increases the risk of disregarding crucial life cycle processes and can lead to wrong decisions. This article presents the application of maturity assessment method based on a systemic approach, in order to achieve the expected building performance and stakeholder satisfaction simultaneously.
Causal loop analyses of several sustainability criteria aid visualization of different optimization strategies’ tradeoffs and synergies. Depending on the building’s predefined quality targets, relevant construction processes can be identified – through a systemic perspective. Management and assessment of these processes during the planning and construction phase is based on maturity assessment method. Thereby, a number of “basic” and “generic” practices (assigned to each process) are evaluated and thus define the capability level for each process. The final aggregation of each process’s evaluated practices leads to a specific “maturity level” which indicates the fulfillment level of the previously defined sustainability targets on the validation date.
Maturity assessment based on a systemic approach is an appropriate method to ensure the holistic management of life cycle processes for sustainable construction.