Operational Goals and Means to achieve them.

Objective 1 Vision and Requirements

In order to apply a sustainability perspective to the appreciation of innovative technologies for the built sector, a vision for sustainable development in construction needs to be established and anchored with relevant the requirements from the stakeholders. Determining the vision consists of three components:
· Analysis of the current European status for guiding principles and reference points can be drawn from EU policies and directives, and from RTD and TN projects performed under FP5, FP6 and other initiatives.
· To determine the requirements of the stakeholders that support the EU’s policies on sustainable building together with the indicators to assess the impact of the innovations
· Plan the corridor of development for the EU building sector, which meets the vision of sustainable development and European interests concerning innovation, technology, quality of life, etc.

This vision needs to be developed and “owned” by the stakeholder community. Then it can be adopted to serve as the “guiding light” for the consideration of life performance aspects of adopting innovative technologies to be more energy efficient and more sustainable. Ultimately, such a vision will be vital in enabling the assessment, promotion and dissemination of all the new concepts proposed by Smart-ECO as well as other FP5 and FP6 projects.

Hence the initial primary objective of Smart-ECO (addressed in WP2) is

To establish a vision for sustainable European eco-buildings giving due consideration to the requirements of all stakeholders’ viewpoints and interests

Objective 2 Elements and their Impacts

Elements that can contribute towards achieving a more sustainable construction sector need to be identified and their potential impact if successfully adopted estimated. Smart-ECO will investigate into the approaches and the results of finalized and ongoing international research projects, thematic networks, various EU and international policies and international standardisation activities (in ISO and CEN).

The vision on sustainable building developed will be is applied as a reference point to estimate via metrics (also to be developed) how the identified elements will contribute to it. Research and development projects usually contain an evaluation as well as a dissemination and implementation part, however the criteria for the evaluation is set from within the project’s own frame. Without disregard to the validity of such evaluations, Smart-ECO will perform new wide-ranging evaluations using the developed and accepted vision as the setting to assess the contributions of the projects and their potential impact.
"Elements" considered can be technological innovations (e.g. PV systems, bio-mass, wind energy generators, solar thermal technologies, smart decision making, etc), methodologies for analysis and assessment (e.g. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), management concepts (e.g. Life Management Systems), standards (e.g. General Principles of Sustainability in Building Construction) and tools (e.g. systems of indicators as proposed by the EC Thematic Network on Construction and City Related Sustainability Indicators (CRISP)).

For the vision to be useful it must be able to be used to determine “useable metrics” based on the requirements to estimate the impact potential of successful adoption of eco-building innovations. The metrics established for the various elements under consideration are needed and must be able to objectively assess vastly differing innovations so that proper comparison are possible.
Hence the new innovations must be investigated, the metrics to use in assessing their performance in contributing to the vision defined, and a methodology of use this to estimate the likely impact formulated. This forms the second object for the Smart-ECO project, namely,

To identify and prioritise the innovations based on their potential impact in realising the Smart-ECO vision.

Objective 3 Communicate Smart-ECO
Smart-ECO will illustrate how innovative technologies that have the potential to contribute to the vision can be promoted in order to become successfully integrated into the construction sector. The project will show where and how existing elements can measurably support the vision, how far the building sector can develop towards the vision based on these elements, and indicate what further innovation are needed to meet the aims of the vision. Relevant stakeholders and multipliers (including education and training organisations) will be key targets to whom the project’s results will be disseminated. This two way dialogue form the final objective of the project, namely,
To communicate the Smart-ECO vision, requirements and metrics

 HIG