SmartLIFE: Toward European approaches to sustainable building

The experience gathered from both the academic world and the industry sector is that there is a strong business argument for more sustainable construction. Being sustainable is as much about efficient profit-orientated practice and value for money as it is about helping the environment. Yet, despite the great potentials and advantages seen in the development of approaches towards sustainable building, progress in this field has been rather slow. In order to address the need for catalyzing initiatives in sustainable building, the project SmartLIFE, an European initiative aimed at surveying provisions and needs as well as fostering awareness on sustainable construction among students across Europe, has been created. This paper presents the experiences from SmartLIFE and the rationale behind the project, which is the need to develop approaches and methods which may further the implementation of sustainable construction into practice. In addition, the paper describes the project structure and methods to be developed as part of the project, which caters for the introduction of a sustainability dimension as part of construction projects. Finally, the paper considers the extent to which sustainable construction may play its part in delivering sustainable communities.