A parametric review of the built environment sustainability literature

The literature on built environment sustainability has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. Despite the proliferation of literature, there is still no consensus on how comprehensively and uniformly to define the concept of sustainability as it pertains to the built environment, nor is there consensus on what aspects of the built environment should be considered in evaluating the sustainability of a built facility. This paper, through an evaluation of selected sources from the sustainability literature, takes a first step in systematically identifying what parameters of both the built environment and the concept of sustainability are emphasised in the existing literature on the topic. The outcome is a set of parameters that can be used in future research to begin uniformly and comprehensively to define sustainability as it applies to built facilities, using techniques such as concept mapping, content analysis, dendograms, and other established research methods.