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Sustainability in the built environment is rapidly gaining attention worldwide, although many developing countries have not accomplished much on the ground as many sustainability aspects still remain untreated. Despite their low greenhouse gas contributions to the globe, the high rate of construction activities that do not embrace sustainable practices in these countries pose challenges to the environment. Using the case of Tanzania, this study assesses the level of sustainability awareness among key stakeholders in the built environment.

The study uses a mixed-method research approach where primary data was collected using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with key informants comprising engineers, architects, property managers, property owners, property users and academicians from institutions of higher learning.

Results show that despite the potential for a sustainable built environment, there is a low level of awareness among key stakeholders. Whereas few architects, who were aware, admitted to have not incorporated sustainability aspects in their building design, other stakeholders did not have active roles in decision-making involving building construction projects. Compared to the rest, the awareness level of property users was the lowest. Lack of a specific policy or policy statement on sustainable building, high initial costs of sustainable building, few skilled professionals and lack of a broad choice of building materials are some of the factors accounting for the low level of sustainability adoption in the built environment.

The significance of this study lies within the objective of showing awareness levels of sustainability aspects among key built environment stakeholders and policymakers, which is important in devising strategies for promoting sustainable construction practices.

The paper is conceptual in nature and explores the role and function of project management in the achievement of sustainability in the built environment by developing a 4Es (Economic, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Ethics) and 4 Poles (Economic, Social, Environmental and Technology) model of sustainability. The study also identifies that the existing debates on sustainability seem to marginalise project management's positive contributions to sustainable construction, as well as the importance of technology in the sustainability agenda.

The paper consists of a literature review on the concept of sustainability, the contribution of the built environment to the sustainability problem, and an intellectual discussion of a proposed model for achieving sustainable development in the built environment. The body of this paper is divided into three sections: part one reviews “what is sustainability”, part two discusses the current state of sustainability including the importance of technology, and part three discusses the 4Es and 4 Poles model.

This research establishes the importance of technology in the sustainable development agenda. The paper proposes a 4Es (project management model) and 4 Poles (poles or factors of sustainability) model as a holistic approach to achieving sustainable construction. In addition, this paper proposes an extension to the definition of sustainable construction or development, as the existing definitions seem to be vague.

This research paper focuses only on sustainability in the built environment and sustainable development with reference to project management.

The proposed model uses a project management approach, which does not allow trade‐offs, but promotes integration of the 4 Poles. This will contribute to the achievement of sustainable construction at every level of a project or organisation.

The proposed model is new within project management and the built environment. It also promotes technology as a core factor in achieving sustainable development.

System dynamics has several applications in the built environment, and few studies indicate that it has potential in evaluating sustainability. Sustainability in the built environment involves numerous entities and multiple trade-offs. Hence, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method is ideal for promoting sustainability-based decision-making in the built environment. Therefore, this study integrates system dynamics with an MCDM method to enable the sustainability assessment by capturing the time-induced dynamic changes affecting long time sustainability performance of buildings.

Conventional sustainability assessment tools in the built environment lack a comprehensive evaluation that balances the needs of the society, economy and environment. This study develops a system dynamics-based framework to enable sustainability-conscious decision-making and policy analysis in the built environment.

Various material, technology and water-related policies specific to the buildings are investigated for a case study building. It is found that the effect of penetration of renewable energy technology to the tune of 80% and above in the energy mix is a much superior policy in sustainability improvement in comparison to material and water-related policies. The study also demonstrates the effect of weights assigned for the different indicators on sustainability-based decisions.

The study provides a methodological framework for a sustainability-based decision support system for the built environment that enables dynamic performance evaluation by coupling system dynamics with the MCDM. This coupling further strengthens system dynamics as a decision-making and policy analysis for sustainability evaluation in the built environment.

This paper aims to evaluate how transformative learning is key to innovating sustainability education in the built environment in the region’s universities, in addition to reporting on the research project undertaken to integrate sustainability thinking and practice into engineering/built environment curricula in Asia-Pacific universities.

The project drew from the experiences of academics in built environment programmes and espoused a collaborative inquiry process wherein the role of the industry was vital. A literature review focusing on sustainability integration into curricula was followed by a workshop which brought together academic and industry participants.

The general direction of education for sustainability is moving increasingly towards integration and innovation. However, the slow progress of integration of sustainability in the built environment curricula may have been due in part to the outcome/practice-led approach of built environment education, which is the hallmark of the discipline and lends to a largely discipline-based curriculum framework.

The project focused only on the curricula of university programmes and courses taught in the participating Asia-Pacific universities and institutions.

This paper highlights how the framework for the proposed curriculum guide focusing primarily on built environment programmes and courses can provide guidance for potential application in other higher education institutions.

Much is written about embedding sustainability and education in built environment curricula. However, little analysis, application and collaborative work in Asia-Pacific universities have taken place. This paper considers the value of transformative learning in the innovation of the predominantly discipline-based engineering/built environment programmes for sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to review extant literature and to provide perspectives on approaches to enhancing built environment sustainability in Africa. There is a mismatch between global societal resources and the increasing demand for natural resources. The consequences of this mismatch are prevalent in many African countries, causing the need to implement of built environment sustainability as a matter of cause.

Little research has been undertaken to date with a focus on the environmental sustainability of Africa. With this in mind the review was undertaken through a series of incremental steps. It began with an initial review, before developing through exploratory and development phases. The process culminated with the refined literature review presented.

The paper finds that a different approach is required to achieve built sustainable development for developed and developing countries, with a clear difference in terms of its application observed between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Current energy and water crisis facing Africa is brought to the fore and an evaluation is provided of the systems being used to ameliorate its effects. The study explores a range of technological solutions that are appropriate for consideration in the African context. It also examines the barriers that need to be overcome to facilitate the widespread use of the suggested solutions in Africa.

This study examines built environment sustainability through the Africa lens. It highlights its importance and the contextual factors inhibiting the widespread uptake of built environment sustainability solutions. The study offers a number of recommendations for the future to encourage long-term built environment sustainability in Africa and more specifically the Sub-Saharan region.

Starting with the notion that each building has an overall life cycle, the paper uses building-based and investment-based life cycles to identify likely decision points for renovations, including sustainability enhancements, and identifies patterns in sustainability decisions.

This real estate insights paper considers how commercial real estate and the built environment it creates, owns and manages impacts the sustainability of urban areas and the globe. By combining building-based and investment-based life cycles, it is possible to develop a unique “sustainability enhancement quotient” for individual buildings and the built environment for an urban area over a given time interval.

Using two life cycles allows the identification and likelihood of sustainability decision points. The same life cycles and decision points are used to consider the likely extent of such renovations. This is in addition to continuous consideration of renovations producing economic benefits in the form of lower operating costs and quick return of capital.

Useful for investment decision-making and policy design and implementation.

This is a useful tool for public and private decision making. It is suggested that the sustainability enhancement quotient may be used to design and implement policies and decisions maximising the likelihood of sustainability enhancement in an urban area's built environment.

Provides a framework for more effective sustainability decisions and public policy. The public-private interplay inherent in every building is emphasised throughout.

Original combination of existing tools.

The paper aims to assess the strengths and weaknesses of sustainable return on investment (SuROI) to determine it suitability as a means through which social value can be predicted in line with public procurement directives and the Social Value Act, whilst at the same time as fitting the developer’s business model and CSR commitments.

Using a multi-case design, findings from a comprehensive evaluation of three major housing-led mixed-use regeneration developments are presented. The three case study locations were selected on the basis of the developer’s strong commitment to place-making and social sustainability. Together with a strong strategic desire to reposition their organisation away from the traditional business as usual profit-led model.

Whilst the social return on investment methodology is applicable to the charity sector, its use in the built environment is highly questionable. When applying the model to the mixed-use housing projects, the authors identified a number of technical limitations to the model, inter alia a lack of suitable proxies and especially proxies relating to the built environment for the valuation of identified outcomes; the use of monetisation as a evaluating measure which did not support some of the more abstract or softer benefits identified; problems collecting, identifying and evaluating data to inform the model given the complexity and scale of the project; and significant time and expense associated with the valuation and finally the inability to benchmark the report on completion. These findings have implications for the social housing providers and local authorities looking to use SuROI to evaluate potential built environment projects.

The paper offers unique insights into the viability of using existing social value measurement methodologies. The paper identifies the significant limitations associated with the SuROI methodology.

Sustainability, especially in terms of development and growth, has been in the agenda of the world community for several decades. However, apparently not all the aspects of sustainability are given equal importance. Ecologic and economic components of sustainability have been in the focal point of many theoretical and practical works, as the social aspect has been mostly left out of emphasis. The purpose of this paper is to examine the social aspects of sustainability and its relation to architecture, with respect to the strong connection between the society and the built environment.

The core of the paper consists of a case study conducted at a design studio course for third-year architecture students whereas the outcomes of the student works on the design problem are evaluated as examples for design approaches to reflect the effects of the built environment on social sustainability. The case study is supported with a literature review and examination of existing approaches to similar subjects regarding social sustainability.

The findings resulted in a better understanding of social sustainability in architectural education which is reflected on the built environment through several architectural strategies.

This paper contributes to the literature by providing a holistic understanding of sustainability including its social aspects and creating an awareness for the importance of social sustainability in architectural education.

There is a lack of theoretical and empirical studies regarding concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure. The idea of understanding this paper is that quality social infrastructure leads to the general quality of people’s life in the built environment and that is rounded up to social sustainability. This paper aims to integrate these concepts into the network, hereinafter referred to as a social sustainability model.

The methodology used in this paper is desk research. The authors follow methodological steps in the building of conceptual network: setting up a research problem; choice of databases; reviewing the literature and categorizing the selected data; identifying and default conceptual definition; integrating the concepts; synthesis and making it all make sense; and assembly and validating the concept. Through that, a large volume of bibliographic materials was scanned, and a limited number of documents have been reviewed and critiqued. The documents have been selected from varied disciplines, including social infrastructure, quality of life, social sustainability, urban sociology, housing policy as among the articles.

The result is the model which represents the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside quality of life structure (users, quality of life, reflections). The result is the model which representing the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside well-being structure (users, quality of life, reflections).

There is a potential risk of errors arising from the use of assumptions, limited desk reviews and data from secondary resources.

The authors portray the development of social sustainability model. Within this model, the authors can critically observe all levels within the existing built environment: user responses to the built environment, their satisfaction, social inclusion, health, etc. Within this model, they can observe the links between existing research, their frequency, capture, direction and not least to determine which areas have not been explored and where the lacks of research are. The conclusion outlines the framework and its main concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and well-being, including their theoretical premises and components.

This purpose of this paper is to introduce the new Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE) journal to readers by discussing the background and underlying principles of its establishment, the editorial visions, and the range of papers selected in this first issue. It will encourage readers and potential authors to consider the need for integrated approaches to sustainability problems, to take on emerging challenges in the built environment and to join the SASBE journal in finding and promoting optimum solutions.

This paper explores the evolving nature of sustainability, the recent trends of sustainability endeavours in built environment and the current knowledge gaps. The need to bridge these gaps is then discussed in the context of suggested remedies and justifications. This leads to the development of a smart and sustainable built environment as a R&D philosophy for world researchers as part of their interactions with professional bodies and agencies such as CIB, UNEP and iiSBE, and the establishment of the SASBE journal.

Sustainable development in the built environment requires holistic thinking and decision making and innovative solutions that enhance sustainability and result in mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders. A dedicated forum, through the journal of SASBE, is much needed for the exploration, discussion, debate, and promotion of these integrated approaches.

Through presenting an overview of the current issues and identifying gaps in the understanding and pursuit of sustainability in the built environment, this paper suggests potential areas for future research and practice as well as possible topics for authors to make new contributions.