Guides to sustainable built-environment development

This paper presents the findings of a comparative analysis of documents addressing sustainable development in relation to the built environment. The analysis has identified commonality in interpretations of sustainability for the built environment and enabled the collation of a set of principles or guidelines that represent current thinking on how the objectives of sustainable development could be interpreted for the built environment.

Promoting teamwork and sustainable design

The Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) Masters program offers practicing professionals a structured process of interdisciplinary education and professional development. The course aims to equip all its students with the skills needed to meet these challenges. Most of those taking the course have demonstrated their abilities in their core disciplines and are moving to strategic and leadership roles for which they may well be under-prepared. The objectives of the course include giving students a strategic overview of the construction industry and of the production and management of built environment, as well as a critical perspective on the everyday knowledge and assumptions made in practice. The course also raises awareness of current research in the sector and its potential and limitations, and provides an introduction to professional ethics and the responsibilities owed by engineers and their colleagues to society as a whole.