Environmental Evaluation System for Public Buildings Projects (SAAPE): Analysis of Environmental Sustainability Criteria of Three Buildings Projects Designed for Federal University of Paraná

Abstract

Construction is an activity that generates environmental impacts, often negative. Construction activities contracted by the Federal Government represent a great volume which require appropriate planning of the area about to be built, and aims at causing as low impact as possible to the natural ecosystem. Some of the government initiatives to establish sustainable guidelines were planted, such as the 01/2010 Normative Statement. However, in practice, this statement is still not widely used. This research aims at the necessity of improving the environmental performance of public buildings in order to mitigate the impact caused in the environment itself. Based on three well-known environmental management systems certifications for buildings, by means of comparison matrices, their categories and criteria were analyzed in order to verify which ones cater the guidelines indicated in IN 01/2010, and which ones are considered the most relevant to appear in the proposed model. SAAPE, the developed tool, consists of six environment performance categories that unfold into 44 points to be obeyed. Such system was applied to three projects designed for Federal University of Paraná, in order to validate its systems applicability and to verify the projects designed for that organization. The results show that none of buildings surveyed obtained the minimum score of 18 points, staying between 14 and 15 points. On the other hand, despite being considered an embryonic strategy, some solutions concerning the reduction of impacts, have already been found. In practice, the tool which was developed to assist public managers, architects and engineers during the preparation of construction activity projects, aims at making not only the environmental sustainability criteria in IN 01/2010 respected among them, but also at providing quality improvement opportunities considering the environmental sustainability aspects during the projects’ conception processes.