Buildings and structures as essential parts of the built environment form an indispensable basis for social and economic development. The further development of the building stock as well as the production, construction, operation and maintenance of the buildings cause energy and material flows as well as impacts on the global and local environment, which must remain within planetary boundaries and must not overwhelm the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. For more than three decades, there has been a discussion about the contribution that the built environment can make to sustainable development and how the principles and management rules of sustainable development can be integrated into the construction and building sector with all its upstream and downstream branches. The topic of sustainability itself has evolved from the goal of inter- and intragenerational justice and the perception of responsibility towards the environment and society to an assessment approach. This makes it possible to assess the effects of all decisions made by relevant stakeholder groups at different levels of action and on specific objects of consideration with regard to their impact on the environment, economy and society.
The topic of supporting sustainable development and assessing the sustainability of products and processes is very complex. It is characterized by a system of, among other things, dimensions, protected goods and protection goals, fields of action and needs, objects of consideration as well as strategies. This system is so flexible that new questions and approaches can be integrated. Currently, new topics and trends can be identified in the subject area, including absolute sustainability, resource efficiency, regenerative design, circularity among others – but with a tendency towards topics that take on a life of their own.
In the area of challenges, the need to adapt to local consequences of global warming, the growing scarcity of natural resources and the affordability of housing lead to a need for concrete measures and specific assessment methods. In the area of international SDGs, the situation is unsatisfactory. Sustainable urban development is mentioned as a goal but does not cover all topics and dimensions of sustainability.
This raises the following questions, among others: Can current challenges, topics and trends be meaningfully integrated into the overall concept of sustainable development of the built environment? Are they contradictory or combinable? How can the Sustainable Development Goals of the built environment be specified and established as a cross-cutting issue in the overall system of SDGs?
A system of perspectives and aspects of sustainability is presented, in which current topics and trends can be located. Finally, it is proposed that all partial solutions to support sustainable development of the built environment themselves be subject to a more comprehensive sustainability assessment.