Increasing the sustainability of buildings within a community development

The sustainability issue 'sustainable buildings' focuses on adding sustainability features on buildings within a community development. Following are features that would offer a low, medium and high sustainability upgrade: Low upgrade New or refurbished buildings on site to comply with recognized industry best practice standards in sustainable design for one or more of the following key sustainability fields: Energy Water Waste Embodied impacts of materials Occupant health and wellbeing This project commitment would be confirmed through a binding mechanism, such as a planning obligation by the local authority. Medium upgrade New or refurbished buildings on site to comply with recognized industry best practice standards in sustainable design for all of the following key sustainability fields: Energy Water Waste Embodied impacts of materials Occupant health and wellbeing This project commitment would be confirmed through a binding mechanism, such as a planning obligation by the local authority. High upgrade An accredited third party assessment scheme to measure the level of sustainable design, construction and refurbishment of all buildings on site. The level of high upgrading is based on the percentage of the overall building performance of the full range of key sustainability fields in comparison to each assessment schemes building fleet i.e. buildings performing in the top 50% /25% /10% /1%. This project commitment would be confirmed through a binding mechanism, such as a planning obligation by the local authority. Additional information Calculating credits for mixed-use developments When conducting a sustainability assessment of a development with a number of building types, performance is determined separately per each level and proposed floor area for each building type. Design team estimates sustainability level via area weighting sustainability performance.