The development of a practical evaluation tool for urban sustainability

Sustainability is deeply rooted in the built environment and is inherently holistic reaching across environmental, social and economic issues at local and global scales. There is therefore a need for cross disciplinary working to ensure a sustainable approach. Although industry and government recognise the need to develop a more sustainable approach the built environment, it is slow to be achieved in practice. This paper describes the development and operation of a computer based interactive guidance system that assists with the incorporation of sustainability in built environment policies, plans, programmes and projects allowing all stakeholders to be involved. PETUS was informed by the needs of practice and designed and developed to provide a mechanism for cross disciplinary working for sustainability.