Search Results (220)

The transition to a circular economy in Taiwan’s building sector is constrained by the lack of standardized, quantitative assessment methods. To address this, this study establishes a novel, localized theoretical framework integrating the Material Circularity Index (MCI) and the Madaster system, implemented via an automated Building Information Modeling (BIM) computational tool. The framework structures assessment across three life cycle stages and four hierarchical levels. Its feasibility was validated through the Wafer Works Erlin Plant project. The results indicate that the BIM-based method effectively tracks material flows, demonstrating that structural design strategies and certified Green Building Materials significantly enhance circularity performance. This research provides a scalable, scientific instrument for quantitative evaluation, offering actionable insights to advance evidence-based sustainable design in the local construction industry. Full article

This study critically examines the relationship between neoliberal environmentalism and green certification systems by quantitatively analyzing LEED-certified buildings in Istanbul. It explores how green building practices intersect with market-oriented urban environmental governance through an analysis of the spatial distribution, ownership types, access typologies, and functional uses of certified projects. The findings reveal that nearly 80% of LEED-certified buildings in Istanbul are developed by private companies, and that 88.6% of these buildings are private spaces with limited or no public access. These projects are predominantly high-end offices or residential developments, with a large share holding “Gold” certification. Correlation analysis identifies an inverse relationship between LEED project density and socioeconomic vulnerability, raising critical questions about spatial justice and equity in access to sustainable urban environments. This study contributes to the growing body of critical literature that frames urban sustainability not merely as a technocratic checklist of standards but as a normative and contested terrain in which justice, equity, and inclusivity must be placed at the center. Full article

Forest certification in developing countries faces significant challenges due to weak institutions, limited market incentives, and complex trade conditions. This study investigates the status and key constraints of the Myanmar forest certification sector through a survey of 180 stakeholders from government organizations, NGOs, INGOs, third-party certification bodies, and private plantation owners, complemented by quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews. The results indicate a moderate level of familiarity with the Myanmar forest certification standard and high awareness of the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee; however, progress remains slow due to limited transparency, poor institutional coordination, financial and technical constraints, and insufficient stakeholder involvement. Non-compliances issues identified during pilot audits were primarily related to incomplete documentation, unclear land tenure, and weaknesses in environmental assessment. Geopolitical factors continue to limit Myanmar’s participation in certified timber markets and weaken efforts to improve traceability. Experiences from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam highlight that developing credible national certification systems requires time, clear legal frameworks, and strong cooperation among stakeholders. Strengthening institutional capacity, improving transparency, and aligning national standards with international forest governance frameworks are essential for Myanmar to build trust, achieve sustainable forest management, and regain market access. Full article

This study explores the opportunities, challenges, and sustainability prospects of multifunctional farms in Greece that have been officially certified by the state. Through qualitative field research involving semi-structured questionnaires with farm operators, the study examines general operational aspects, environmental practices, social engagement, cultural activities, digital presence, and perspectives on institutional frameworks and development potentials. Results indicate that multifunctional farms contribute to environmental sustainability, local identity, and rural–urban linkages through organic farming, circular resource use, educational programs, and cultural activities. At the same time, structural challenges—including bureaucratic hurdles, complex licensing, limited institutional support, and low digital capacity—restrict their potential. Participants emphasized the need for tailored regulations, networking, guidance, and marketing support. While the sample is small, reflecting a low response rate, the study provides rich, context-specific insights into multifunctional farm practices and highlights the necessity for flexible policies, digital capacity-building, and community-oriented strategies to enhance the socio-economic and environmental impact of these farms. Full article

Background/Objectives: Frailty has been associated with various physical, psychological, and social factors; however, the influence of the residential environment—particularly walk-up buildings without elevators—remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between the floor of residence and frailty among functionally independent older adults. Methods: A total of 793 older adults (mean age: 76.46 ± 6.29 years; 58.83% women) living in walk-up buildings without elevators and not certified as requiring long-term care participated in a questionnaire survey. Frailty was assessed using the Kihon Checklist (KCL) and the FRAIL Scale (FS). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between floor of residence and frailty status (non-frail vs. frail), adjusting for potential confounders. Sensitivity analyses were performed using stratified models based on age group, functional status, and living conditions. Results: Frailty prevalence was 23.28% (KCL) and 16.88% (FS). Higher floor of residence was significantly associated with lower odds of frailty (KCL: odds ratio [OR] = 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.69–0.97; FS: OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.65–0.97). Stratified analyses showed consistent associations in subgroups including those aged ≥ 75 years, with full Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scores, non-homebound status, poor subjective economic status, and living alone (all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Living on higher floors in walk-up buildings without elevators may be protective against frailty among functionally independent older adults. While barrier-free environments are essential for those with functional decline or disabilities, moderate physical challenges such as stairs may contribute to frailty prevention in populations who maintain independence. Full article

This study examines LEED certification strategies for Existing Buildings 4.1 (LEED-EB v4.1)-certified office projects in major US cities and their relationship with local green building policies. LEED-EB v4.1 is the latest program with an appropriate sample size to conduct significance tests and draw robust statistical inferences. LEED-EB v4.1 features six performance indicators: “transportation”, “water”, “energy”, “waste”, “indoor environmental quality (IEQ)”, and “overall LEED”. The purpose of this study was to evaluate LEED-EB v4.1 gold-certified office projects in San Francisco (SF), New York City (NYC), and Washington, D.C. (DC). Exact Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney and Cliff’s δ tests were used to compare the same LEED variables between two cities. Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation tests were used to assess the strength/direction between two LEED variables, and a simple linear regression (SLR) model was applied to predict the overall LEED variable. It was found that SF outperforms NYC in “IEQ” (δ = 0.53 and p = 0.009) and outperforms both NYC and DC in “overall LEED” (δ = 0.66 and p = 0.001; δ = 0.59 and p = 0.001). “Energy” and “waste” were positively and significantly correlated with “overall LEED” in NYC (r = 0.61 and p = 0.001; r = 0.40 and p = 0.044, respectively) and DC (r = 0.83 and p < 0.001; r = 0.65 and p = 0.009, respectively). The SLR results showed that one-point increases in “energy” and “waste” scores resulted in an increase in NYC’s overall LEED scores by approximately 0.78 and 1.72 points, respectively, and one-point increases in “energy” and “waste” scores resulted in an increase in DC’s overall LEED score by approximately 0.96 and 1.97 points, respectively. It is hypothesized that the difference in the “IEQ” of LEED-EB-certified office buildings between SF and NYC may be due to differences in these cities’ green building policies. According to the “overall LEED” indicator, office buildings in SF are more sustainable than those in NYC and DC. “Energy” and “waste” showed a stronger positive relationship with “overall LEED” in NYC and DC than the other indicators. However, the correlation analysis for SF presented in the Limitations Section is speculative due to the small sample size (n = 11). Full article

Rapid urbanization, rising energy consumption, and the environmental pressures of the 21st century have led the construction sector to focus on sustainable design solutions to protect the natural environment and combat climate change. Technological advances are leading to an increasing number of ultratall buildings. However, due to the complex issues involved, these structures currently serve primarily as symbols and serve as testing grounds for technological innovation. Therefore, there is a clear need to analyze the issues involved in designing high-rise buildings sustainably in the context of contemporary environmental challenges. Global multi-criteria certifications exist to establish parameters verifying a building’s impact on its surroundings. This study systematically assessed the sustainable strategies of the world’s twenty tallest buildings using a four-category model: A—passive design, B—active mechanical systems, C—renewable energy integration, and D—materials, water, and circularity strategies. The quantitative assessment (0–60) was supplemented with qualitative analysis and correlational research, including LEED certification. A novel element of the study is a multi-criteria comparative analysis, culminating in an assessment of the degree of implementation of sustainable development strategies in the world’s tallest buildings and linking the results to LEED certification levels. The results identify categories requiring further improvement. The results indicate that Merdeka 118 (46.7%), followed One World Trade Center (43.3%) and Shanghai Tower (41.7%) received the highest scores. Category B dominated all buildings, categories A and D demonstrated moderate implementation, and category C demonstrated the lowest performance due to economic and technical constraints at extreme heights. LEED Platinum-certified buildings demonstrated significantly higher levels of technology integration than Gold or non-certified buildings. The study results emphasize the need for integrating passive design strategies early in the design process, improving renewable energy solutions, and long-term operational monitoring supported by digital tools (such as IoT and digital twins). Full article

The construction sector accounts for 39% of GHG emissions, being the main contributor to embodied carbon emissions of building materials, and operational energy consumption for indoor thermal comfort. Cereal straw, an agricultural by-product, is emerging as a low-carbon alternative due to its thermal performance and negative embodied carbon. This paper aims to review recent advances of cereal straw as a building material for decarbonization of construction, analyzing its thermal properties, embodied carbon, and large-scale applications. A literature review focused on European-certified straw-based materials, grouped into four categories: straw bales, blown-in insulation, modular systems, and bio-composites. Twelve Product Environmental Declarations (EPDs) and technical specifications were examined to evaluate manufacturing processes, material properties, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) for cradle-to-gate stages (A1–A3), as well as their use in large-scale projects over the past five years. Thermal conductivity ranged from 0.043 to 0.068 W/m·K, while embodied carbon varied between –101.2 and –146.5 kg CO₂ eq/m³. Straw bales remain prevalent in small-scale housing, blown-in insulation supports retrofitting, and modular systems offer the most balanced performance, enabling high-rise or extensive built surfaces. The study concludes that straw products have the potential to decarbonize opaque elements of the envelope, reducing operational and embodied energy of buildings. Full article

Background: Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has proven effective in promoting health research in hard-to-recruit and underserved populations. Tai Chi Prime is a National Council on Aging-certified fall prevention program. However, it has not been widely disseminated in African American (AA)/Black and Latinx communities. Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), this study examined the process of working with a community advisory board (CAB) to adapt and disseminate Tai Chi Prime within these communities, as well as facilitators and barriers to CAB success. Methods: Eight CAB members met with researchers monthly virtually over a two-year period. Meetings focused on reviewing Tai Chi Prime materials, discussing cultural adaptations, and identifying dissemination strategies relevant to AA/Black and Latinx communities. Detailed notes from 24 meetings were compiled. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five CAB members and two researchers to capture individual reflections on their experiences, roles, and perceived impact. Data was analyzed using directed content analysis. Results: CFIR constructs helped illuminate how CAB members’ embedded community expertise, organizational partnerships, available resources, shared vision and transparent communication influenced the cultural adaptation and dissemination of Tai Chi Prime. Study findings also highlight important areas that extend beyond CFIR, particularly the cultural knowledge and power-sharing responsibilities undertaken by CAB members as co-researchers. These insights underscore the need to integrate equity-focused and community-engaged research principles into implementation frameworks when working with communities of color. Conclusions: Findings highlight the value of leveraging existing academic–community partnerships. Community-engaged researchers can use the lessons learned from this CAB to build a replicable model of sustainable partnerships with their AA/Black and Latinx community partners, as can others involved in health services research and policy. Full article

Interior space quality in certified office buildings is key in supporting the health and well-being of occupants. Daylight, which regulates the human circadian rhythm and affects physiological processes and productivity, is crucial. This study’s objective was to determine how a building’s architecture and selected elements of its interior such as partitions and finishing material parameters affect sunlight distribution in workspaces and its biological effectiveness, as measured using Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML). The environment’s impact on the non-visual potential of a space was also assessed (in relation to the M/P ratio). To achieve these objectives, we used a 3D model of an office building floor to simulate natural lighting in various configurations, for a cool temperate climate using Solemma’s ALFA 2025 software. This research was conducted using simulations only, with no in situ measurements. The study assessed melanopic light intensity for specific zones and workstation groups. The impact of ceiling colors and the five colors given to partitions of different heights located between desks was also determined. The study evaluated the relationship between photopic and melanopic intensity and found that, as the height of the partitions increased, especially with cloudy skies, the importance of these planes’ colors increased. Blues had a positive effect on the space’s non-visual potential, while oranges showed significant decreases in EML relative to lux, by up to 25%. This research underscores the importance of light’s non-visual impact and the consideration of these aspects at every design stage, especially interior design, to provide a comfortable work environment and its long-term benefits. We also proposed natural light exposition optimization strategies that can support proper circadian rhythm. Full article

This study examines how climatic factors influence the predictive power of LEED credits in determining certification outcomes for hotel buildings across the United States. Using data from 259 LEED-NC v2009 certified hotels, project-level information was integrated with 30-year climate normals from the PRISM database and Building America climate zones. A three-step hierarchical linear regression was conducted to identify the LEED credits that most strongly predict total certification points while controlling for project size, certification year, and baseline climatic conditions, and to test whether climatic factors moderate these relationships. Regularized Linear Regression (LASSO) was then applied to address multicollinearity and assess model stability, followed by Support Vector Regression (SVR) to capture potential nonlinear relationships. This integrated methodological framework, combining hierarchical regression for interpretability, LASSO for coefficient stability, and Support Vector Regression for nonlinear verification, provides a novel, multi-dimensional assessment of climate-sensitive credit behavior at the individual credit level. Results show that energy- and site-related credits, particularly Optimize Energy Performance (EA1), On-Site Renewable Energy (EA2), Green Power (EA6), and Alternative Transportation (SS4), consistently dominate LEED performance across all climate zones. In contrast, indoor environmental quality credits exhibit modest but significant climate sensitivity: higher mean temperatures reduce the contribution of Increased Ventilation (EQ2) while slightly enhancing Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring (EQ1). Cross-model consistency confirms the robustness of these findings. The findings highlight the need for climate-responsive benchmarking of indoor environmental quality credits to improve regional equity and advance the next generation of climate-adaptive LEED standards. Full article

Selecting Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) credits in LEED-certified projects is essential for sustainable building management, often requiring specialised expertise and contextual sensitivity. However, existing studies provide limited analytical insight into why certain CDW credits succeed or fail across different project contexts, and no explainable AI–based framework has been proposed to support transparent credit decisioning. This gap underscores the need for a data-driven, interpretable approach to CDW credit evaluation. This study proposes an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)-based model to support CDW credit selection and to identify the key factors influencing credit performance. A dataset of 407 LEED green building projects was analysed using twelve machine learning (ML) algorithms, with the top models identified through Bayesian optimisation. To handle class imbalance, the SMOTE was utilised. Results showed that MRc2 and MRc4 credits had high predictive performance, while MRc1.1 and MRc6 credits exhibited relatively lower success rates. Due to data limitations, MRc1.2 and MRc3 were excluded from analysis. The CatBoost model achieved the highest performance across MRc1.1, MRc2, MRc4, and MRc6, with F1 scores of 0.615, 0.944, 0.878, and 0.667, respectively. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis indicated that the Material Resources feature was the most influential predictor for all credits, contributing 20.6% to MRc1.1, 53.4% to MRc2, 36.5% to MRc4, and 22.6% to MRc6. In contrast, the impact of design firms on credit scores was negligible, suggesting that although CDW credits are determined in the design phase, these firms did not significantly influence the decision process. Higher certification levels improved the performance of MRc1.1 and MRc6, while their effect on MRc2 and MRc4 was limited. This study presents a transparent and interpretable XAI-based decision-support framework that reveals the key sustainability drivers of CDW credit performance and provides actionable guidance for LEED consultants, designers, and decision-makers. Full article

Many countries have green building certification systems to rate a green building. They have played a pivotal role in promoting the adoption of green buildings. South Korea has also launched its green building certification, known as the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED), to promote sustainable development. However international information and understanding of Korea’s green building certification were insufficient, and no technical assessments related to G-SEED have been conducted. Therefore, to address this knowledge gap, this study aimed to analyze the situation of G-SEED-certified buildings in South Korea and the limitations of G-SEED. In this paper, we focused on the certification status, regional distribution, types of certified buildings, and technical content of G-SEED. Additionally, we analyzed green building technologies applied to 48 sample buildings certified in 2020. Several proposals were formulated to promote the adoption of green buildings. All large cities and provinces in Korea have G-SEED-certified buildings, indicating that green building awareness is increasing. However, the number of green buildings remains less than the overall building stock. The government should revise the certification criteria and implement measures to disseminate green building technologies. Our findings will promote the development of green buildings and contribute to the sustainable development of the construction industry. Full article

Although The Edge is widely recognized as one of the most sustainable office buildings in the world, the specific contribution of key material choices, such as concrete used in the structural system, remains unclear. This article examines the environmental impact of the concrete used in The Edge using a life cycle analysis using the software BEES Online 2.1 and the ISO methodology. Because there is little detailed information available about the exact type and volume of concrete, assumptions were made based on reference projects such as other BREEAM-certified projects. The analysis considers the full life cycle of the concrete used from raw material extraction to end-of-life scenarios (cradle-to-grave approach). The results of this research provide insights into the actual contribution of concrete to the reduced ecological footprint achieved through the use of supplementary cementitious materials, such as fly ash and blast furnace slag, both identified as potential alternatives used in this project. These results certainly contribute to a better understanding of how important material choices are to a building’s sustainability performance, particularly in green-certified buildings. Full article

Adversarial patch attacks have emerged as a powerful and practical threat to machine learning models in vision-based tasks. Unlike traditional perturbation-based adversarial attacks, which often require imperceptible changes to the entire input, patch attacks introduce localized and visible modifications that can consistently mislead deep neural networks across varying conditions. Their physical realizability makes them particularly concerning for real-world security-critical applications. In response, a growing body of research has proposed diverse defense strategies, including input preprocessing, robust model training, detection-based approaches, and certified defense mechanisms. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of patch-based adversarial attacks and corresponding defense techniques. First, we introduce a new task-oriented taxonomy that systematically categorizes patch attack methods according to their downstream vision applications (e.g., classification, detection, segmentation), and then we summarize defense mechanisms based on three major strategies: Patch Localization and Removal-based Defenses, Input Transformation and Reconstruction-based Defenses, Model Modification and Training-based Defenses. This unified framework provides an integrated perspective that bridges attack and defense research. Furthermore, we highlight open challenges, such as balancing robustness and model utility, addressing adaptive attackers, and ensuring physical-world resilience. Finally, we outline promising research directions to inspire future work toward building trustworthy and robust vision systems against patch-based adversarial threats. Full article