Selecting Criteria for Assessing "Environmentally-Friendly" Material Options in Construction: Part I

Abstract

. One of the design team’s tasks is assuring that their project has a low negative impact on the environment. This comes from regulations as well as expectations of direct benefits (reduction of operating cost, the project’s improved image in the eyes of the public, etc.). To fulfill this task, one needs to define criteria for assessing the design options. These are to correspond to the individual qualities of the project, and they should be significant and possible to assess. The paper, divided into two parts, presents a review of the literature concerning the criteria for the assessment of design solutions defined as "green" or “environmentally friendly”. Part I presented the method of the analysis and investigates into the number and type of criteria adopted in the sample of papers being the object of analysis. This part focuses on the ways of defining criteria values, weights, and methods of multicriteria assessment.