The building industry is one of the most polluting industry in the world as buildings are responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emission in the world (IAE, 2010) and have very low replacement rates. Measuring the environmental impacts of construction is now a major concern.The main objective of this thesis was to give an overview of the current status of building certifications, discuss the expected roles and limitations of building certifications, and analyze the impact of building certification tools during the conception of a building or an urban project.For the following thesis, qualitative research was used the most since the purpose is to have a better understanding of the role of building certifications among building and real estate professionals. An empirical study was made consisting of 9 semi-structured interviews and a survey designed for building professionals such as architects, constructors, environmental building consultants, and property developers.This paper shows that certification tools are becoming very common among building professionals especially in metropolitan areas such as Paris. The main drivers for developing certified buildings are client demand, marketing advantage and an overall high quality building. The main obstacle remains the initial cost. Building professionals from the interview and the survey almost all agree that certifications are a good guide and assessment tool to build high quality buildings. However, building professionals are quite insure on the impact of certification tools on sustainability on the conception of a building or urban project as many factors are to take into account.

The environmental impacts that will affect earth due to continued population growth are staggering. They can be seen through the depletion of finite resources, increased pollution, and climate change. These environmental fluctuations will no doubt have a significant impact on how 21st century societies are designed. In order to reduce the potential catastrophes that these environmental issues will bring forth, societies must learn to adapt and accept new methods of building their cities.This paper delves into how the building industry can help address the issues that the world is facing environmentally. The goal of the study is to develop an understanding of how the building industry can push sustainable building practices. It looks at how Skanska AB, the largest Nordic building company, has focused their internal strategies to push towards sustainable building practices. This paper hopes to determine how with the help an internal rating tool, a global organization can reduce their environmental impacts. Through the examination of Skanska’s Color Palette™, key learnings were gained that could be used to reveal how private corporations can make good business sense out of sustainability. The paper also illustrate how Skanska has identified gaps between traditional certification tools and goals of true sustainability, and what that means for the built environment. The paper presents a case study of Skanska’s Color Palette™ as a key aspect of the company’s environmental journey. It looks at how the company was able to repair their reputation and illustrates how they have proved that they are serious about their goal of pursuing a sustainable future. The study involved secondary analysis of both public and Skanska documents, theoretical analysis and 4 semi-structured interviews.The analysis proved that the Color Palette™ is a tool that has great value for private corporations and is something that should be studied by other organizations seeking to reduce their environmental impacts. However, it was clear that if the earth is to progress sustainably, public policy, markes and internal organizations will all have to work together.

Klimatförändringarna är idag ett av mänsklighetens största hot och om inte världens växthusgasutsläpp minskar drastiskt under de kommande åren kan detta medföra svåra konsekvenser både lokalt och globalt. I linje med detta har globala och nationella mål satts för att främja klimatneutrala samhällen och branscher. Byggsektorn står för en stor del av klimatpåverkan, varför det är viktigt att se över utsläpp från denna sektor. Under de senaste åren har flertalet definitioner för klimatneutralitet i byggsektorn presenterats där samtliga är överens om att detta är en viktig strategi för att minska påverkan från vår byggda miljö. Dock tycks en stor osäkerhet råda kring vad som ska inkluderas i en sådan definition. Detta projekt ämnade därför till att undersöka olika definitioner av klimatneutralitet inom byggsektorn med fokus på ‘klimatneutrala byggnader’. Sju olika verktyg inkluderas i denna analys, vilka utgör en blandning av regionala, nationella och internationella initiativ men med den gemensamma nämnaren att alla utvecklat en egen definition av en ‘klimatneutral byggnad’. En litteraturgenomgång ämnade att sätta projektet i en tydlig kontext vilket sedan följdes av en dokumentanalys av verktygen och en intervjustudie med verktygsutvecklare vilka har insyn i de olika definitionernas utformning.  Resultatet visade att det råder delade meningar gällande val av systemgränser och tillvägagångssätt för att uppnå klimatneutralitet. Samtliga var överens om att förnyelsebar energiproduktion och elektrifiering kommer vara avgörande för att uppnå detta men däremot uppmärksammades olika klimatåtgärder för att balansera klimatpåverkan. Dessa inkluderade framförallt följande: produktion (och export) av förnyelsebar energi, köpt klimatkompensation och lagringsvärde av biogent kol i trämaterial. Dessutom presenterades energieffektivisering i befintligt bestånd, tekniska lösningar för att långsiktigt lagra koldioxid såsom bio-CCS, karbonatisering av betong, tillgodoräkning av en återvinningsdeklaration, återvunnet material och energi samt effektreduktion inom befintlig byggnad. Även systemgränserna skiljde sig åt där detta varierade från att framförallt inkludera det viktigaste och mest tillförlitliga till att inkludera samtliga steg inom byggnadens livscykel. Vidare visade studien på utmaningar kopplat till detta område som framförallt inkluderar brist på data, både vad gäller kvantitet och kvalitet, behovet att inludera antaganden och fiktiva beräkningar och osäkerhet kring framtiden så som elnätets mix och hantering av elektrifiering i byggsektorn. Detta indikerade att det i nuläget saknas konsensus kring vad en ‘klimatneutral byggnad’ är och att det finns utmaningar kopplat till en sådan definition, vilket tyder på att begreppet skulle behöva utvärderas ytterligare. Av den anledningen kan det vara rimligt att fundera på om klimatneutrala byggnader är ett begrepp som i nuläget är redo att användas, eller om det ska undvikas för att förhindra missförstånd. / Climate change is one of today’s biggest threats for humanity and if the global greenhouse gas emissions do not drastically decrease during the near future, this could have severe consequences for the world. In line with these challenges, global and national goals have been developed which aim to foster climate-neutral societies and industries. Since the climate effect from the building industry has shown to be major, it is important to consider emissions from this sector. During the recent years, several definitions of climate-neutrality in the built environment have been presented, which is a strategy considered to be important in order to reduce the climate impact from this field. Therefore, this project aimed to investigate different definitions of climate-neutrality in the building industry with the focus ‘climate-neutral buildings’. Seven tools were included, with a mix of regional, national and international focus, which all have presented a unique definition of a climate-neutral building. To settle the project in a clear context, a literature review became the first step. Thereafter, a document analysis was conducted as well as an interview study with tool developers with good insight into the framing of the different tools that were investigated.  The result showed that the definitions differ in terms of defined system boundaries and actions chosen to achieve climate-neutrality. All of the investigated tools promoted that renewable energy and electrification lay the foundation for the climate-neutral building definition. However, the climate actions presented for compensating and balancing the emissions differed. The presented actions included, above all: production (and export) of renewable energy, carbon offsets, and storage capacity of biocarbon in wood material. Additionally, the tools presented other actions which included energy-efficiency in existing buildings, technical solutions for long-term storage of carbon, carbonization of concrete, value connected to reuse of material and energy, as well as reduced energy-peak demand. The system boundaries differed in terms of inclusion of life cycle modules, from focusing on the most important and accurate stages, to include the full lifecycle of a building. Furthermore, the study identified challenges connected to the definition of climate-neutral buildings. These included, above all, lack of (high-quality) data, the need to use fictitious numbers and assumptions, as well as insecurities connected to the future, including the composition of the electricity mix and how the electricity grid will handle the electrification of the built environment. All these aspects indicate that the term climate-neutral building as for now lacks consensus and that there are challenges connected to this field. Therefore, 2 more evaluation seems to be needed and it might be reasonable to consider if climate neutral buildings as a concept is mature enough to be used, or if this should be avoided to prevent confusion and misunderstandings.