Integrated value model for sustainable assessment applied to technologies used to build schools in Catalonia, Spain

This paper shows a study to find out which technology proves to be the most sustainable to use to build schools in a place where an important shortage of this type of buildings exists. This study searches for the architectural technology which has the least economic, environmental and social impact to solve the need for the urgent construction of hundreds of educational centers in Catalonia. Spain, in the early 2000s. The Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (Modelo Integrado de Valor para una Evaluacion Sostenible - MIVES) has been used in this research to generate a dynamic assessment tool which has been optimized for this case study. To that end exclusively the most significant and discriminatory indicators have been considered: timeframes, initial and maintenance cost; waste, emissions and energy consumption by different life cycle phases; safety, edifice enlargements and function changes... MIVES is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) which includes the value function concept and relies upon seminars by experts. Assigning weights and value functions during these workshops brings rigor and objectivity to the assessment. The resulting tool has been tested analyzing 4 technologies: on site concrete, prefabricated concrete, prefabricated steel and prefabricated timber; in order to obtain their sustainability indexes. This tool has proven very useful assessing these technologies and will also be helpful during decision making processes to choose which technology should be used to build the most sustainable school center. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.