Considering Principles for Sustainable Development
Building plays a special role in sustainability considerations because it satisfies essential human needs such as housing and infrastructure. At the same time, it is associated with high economic and environmental costs.
International, European and national standardisation activities deal with issues of consideration of principles of sustainable development in the design, construction and operation of buildings and structures. Ongoing standardisation projects on aspects of sustainable building are carried out by technical committees, for example within the framework of ISO/TC 59/SC 17 "Sustainable Building". This work also forms the basis for European standardisation projects under CEN/TC 350 "Sustainability of Buildings".
Both approaches concentrate on the development of a common basis for the adaptation of the principles of sustainable development to the objects of consideration and evaluation which are "individual buildings" and "engineering structures". Further they consider the provision of suitable indicators and calculation bases, the development of bases for the description of environmentally and health-relevant characteristics and properties of building products, as well as for the description, evaluation and presentation of the environmental quality of buildings in building construction and civil engineering.
The German Institute for Standardisation (DIN), as the national standards institute, represents German standardisation work in international standardisation (ISO) or European standardisation (CEN).