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Weekly UpdatesRational resources use principle. Sustainable refurbishment should encourage efficient construction materials and natural resources use as well as extension of building life cycle and environment reaching waste quantities decrease. Energy efficient technologies in construction can both decrease greenhouse effect encouraging environmental pollution and reduce total life cycle costs. Accordingly solar energy technologies help to decrease the pollution and resources use.
Construction waste transportation and utilization increases additional costs of construction companies and government. Contrarily, waste decrease during building life cycle ensures construction companies and government costs savings both in short and long time perspectives. Waste minimizing has more positive effects. Part of waste (i.e. concrete) can be reprocessed and reused. Bricks and metals can be used even without reprocessing. It can be summarized that waste decrease encourages contractors and countries resources savings and ensures ecological environment protection.
Environment conservation (responsibility) principle. Refurbished buildings negative impact to environment should be minimized as possible. Aforementioned refurbishment measures, such as harmful substances quantities control in external environment, innovative energy saving technologies, etc. ensure environment conservation. Very important measure in this case--renewable energy resources use.
Affordability principle. Accordingly to sustainable development principles, buildings refurbishment encouraging environment conservation and favourable living conditions must be affordable to people and not too expensive (Chwieduk, 2003). Dissemination about refurbishment is wide, labour--intensive and involving numerous functions activity. In information dissemination processes all the participants from municipalities, designers, contractors, politicians, building owners and users--all the stakeholders those are directly involved in problem solution--must be incorporated. Information dissemination measures and channels should be selected in accordance to information type and expected target group (Project BRITA in PuBs, 2006a). Possible dissemination channels: collaboration networks, information booklets sent by e-mail, web sites, internet tools, professional magazines, newspapers, media (radio, television, news), seminars, workshops for construction professionals, learning programmes, qualification courses, distance learning systems, etc.
Decision making process. In order to design and implement buildings refurbishment basing on sustainable development principles it is necessary to follow these principles from idea till implementation. Suitable decisions must be made starting from projecting stage. Furthermore, information character should change in dependence on decision making phase--one type of information is needed in the initial information collection stage and another at the end of decision implementation stage.
Public buildings refurbishment process, starting from the idea and ending with implementation, is quite long and can be divided into four main phases.
First phase--data and information collection, aims and tasks determination, problem formulation. At the initial phase refurbishment purposes, tasks, results, main project participants, their aims and their relations are determined, building's type defined, analysis of refurbishment necessity performed. The reasons for refurbishment can be various--building's physical depreciation, standards and requirements failure, building's moral depreciation, aims to reduce energy consumption, improve internal environment quality, buildings failure to satisfy users needs, etc.
When refurbishment reasons are clarified, further activities to achieve the main tasks are discussed. It must be decided if the total refurbishment of the building is needed or just partly modernization available. It is obvious, however, that aims determination and projecting stages decisions also influence construction and usage stages, their processes and decision making. For this reason in this phase various decision making groups' dissemination about sustainable refurbishment principles is crucial. In this phase the general information about energy saving, technical information about innovative technologies and information about refurbishment is costs the most needed (Project BRITA in PuBs, 2006b).
Decision modelling phase. After refurbishment aims and the need for refurbishment defined, the next and very important phase is decision modeling. Information is analyzed, models formed, evaluation criteria selected and alternatives are distinguished in this phase.
Decision making means the selection of the best alternative from numerous alternatives. Buildings' refurbishment analysis and decision making is sophisticated because of many possible alternatives appearing in aims establishment, projecting, and construction, usage stages. These alternatives sometimes even not interact. In order to create optimal refurbishment strategy all refurbishment stakeholders groups needs must be considered. Accordingly, refurbishment alternatives must be analyzed basing on many criteria (Zavadskas et al., 2001b; Banaitiene et al., 2008). In this phase the information about already implemented refurbishment projects, best practice examples, projects strengths and weaknesses is needed.
Decision selection phase. The main aim of this phase is to select correct alternative, evaluate expected results and make the final decision. In order to choose the best decision (alternative) methods of multiple criteria analysis as well as experts' decisions and advances can be applied. In order to optimize the best decision (alternative) selection, intelligent technologies and systems can be used--decision support systems, expert systems, best practice data bases, etc.
Implementation phase. Implementation phase is the last phase of decision making process. The decision is transferred to implementers and the examination if the best alternative was selected is made.
Model efficiency influencing factors. Three main structural elements influencing models' effectiveness and implementation efficiency are distinguished:
* macro environment;
* micro environment;
* participating in decision making process stakeholders' groups.
Macro environmental influence on sustainable buildings refurbishment. The highest level influencing public buildings, their construction and refurbishment efficiency is macro level. In this level buildings refurbishment is influenced by social, political, economic, cultural, scientific, technical and other factors. In some circuimstances each group of mentioned factors can be crutial and refurbishment project can fail. In order to avoid negative impacts, it is important not to separate buildings refurbishment consideration processes from environmental conditions and their changes.
Social factors (living conditions and standards, educational background, labour force regulating legal acts, health protection, public organizations, media, citizens attitudes to renovation, innovations in refurbishment process etc.) are influencing stakehoders aims and their capabilities. Buildings refurbishment implementation is closely related with countries and public interests (economic, supplementary activities, social, environment protection and other requirements implementation in country, regional and municipality levels).
Culture (literacy, cultural traditions, religion, cultural needs, quality and working conditions requirements etc.) is influencing stakehoders requirements and their aims.
Science and technologies (fundamental and utilitarian researches development level, information technologies and computarization level, industrial and manufacturing technologies level, communication, etc.) influence buildings refurbishment process' efficiency, state requirements to its participators.
Natural and ecological factors (temperature, precipitation, humidity, landscape and topograpfy, natural resources, water, water resources and soil quality, sanitary requirements to environment, nature protection, ecological conditions and their changes, etc.) are influencing refurbishment efficiency because the requirements to the particular stages should be concidered.
Political decisions (regional cohesion programmes, preferential credits, governmental orders, dotations, subsidies, construction activities reglamenting documents, law changes, etc.) have big influence on buildings refurbishment efficiency. Public buildings managers have opportunities to increase energy use efficiency, get refurbishment projects financing encouraging energy resources and energy savings. In turn it can influence refurbishment projects quantities in all the country.
Micro environmental influence to sustainable buildings refurbishment. The second level factors making influence on buildings construction as well as refurbishment efficiency are micro environmental factors. These factors are influenced by macro level factors. For example, taxation system in macro level directly influencing construction materials and services prices in micro level. Government attitude to construction activities (various legal acts, taxes exemptions, dotations, subsidies etc.) influence construction as well as refurbishments processes efficiency.
Public buildings refurbishment decisions, sustainable development principles implementation are effected by various micro level factors:
* buildings depreciation level;
* buildings obsolescence;
* quality of premises;
* facilities management;
* innovative technologies use;
* innovative technologies supply;
* dissemination about innovative technologies;
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