Sustainable Buildings Level(s)
Updated on 28.02.2024
Level(s) is an assessment and reporting framework that provides a common language for sustainability performance of buildings. Level(s) promotes lifecycle thinking for buildings and provides a robust approach to measuring and supporting improvement from design to end of life, for both residential buildings and offices.
Key objectives and (or) targets related to cities & regions
The following key objectives of the framework can be relevant for cities and regions during the Design and Implementation phases of their CSS:
- Providing a simple entry point to circularity and lifecycle thinking.
- Identifying hotspots and future-proofing buildings by making them more sustainable and carbon efficient.
- Supporting initial discussions between contractors and clients regarding what to focus on to make the project more sustainable, and perhaps taking it further to detailed design and construction.
- Greening buildings/portfolios and discussing between designers and clients how to best align with European or other policy.
- Demonstrating how policy initiatives can align with a European framework that has been developed, tried, and tested by a large number of building professionals across the EU.
- Providing flexibility to the users during implementation, adapting it to their needs, pace, and understanding of the framework.
Examples of how it was adopted/transposed by Member States
The framework is used by public authorities in many European cities and regions. The EC's publication on Level(s) ‘What's in it for cities?’ provides examples of how this framework was utilised by city representatives. While some cities/regions use this framework to ensure sustainable and responsible procurement, others use it to measure the achievement of organisational strategy and ambitions, synchronising internal protocols, to have a more holistic concept of sustainability in buildings.
e.g. commercial, residential, service, industrial
