Assessing the performance of sustainable technologies: a framework and its application

A recently developed framework to provide a logical structure for the a priori assessment of a particular technology with regard to sustainability concepts, performance, and relevancy to a project's construction process and operation is introduced. The framework is designed to assist project stakeholders and policy-makers in systematically identifying and evaluating the implications and relative merits of a range of alternative sustainable technologies. Building professionals were consulted throughout the development of the framework: to test the completeness of the framework; to capture the value systems of various industry participants in order to reflect them in the framework; and to gather information on the advantages and disadvantages of the green roof technology. The framework is applied to the example of the green roof technology, and the order-of-magnitude estimates are developed for performance measures identified as important from the perspective of industry professionals. The technology is evaluated for different configurations of the same building type to demonstrate the effect of building context on performance. The framework can be used to assist in the assessment of the positive and negative implications of a particular technology with respect to value systems and context, and, therefore, may be used to explain market behaviour, assist policy-makers in developing meaningful regulations and incentives, and provide feedback regarding a new technology in an objective manner.