Title: Does organising matter? Tracing connections to environmental impacts in different housing estates

Authors: Birgit Brunklaus

Addresses: Department of Energy and Environment, Department of Environmental Systems Analysis, Chalmers University of Technology, Rannvagen 6B, Gothenburg 41296, Sweden

Abstract: Much of the research on buildings and the environment is of a technical-economic nature. But so far, this has not led to any great changes in practice. This article brings organising into the research agenda: Does organising matter for the environmental performance of buildings? If so, how? This question is investigated by a comparative analysis based on an empirical approach. Two housing management practices and their buildings| energy and water performances are analysed relative to each other. It is possible to trace energy and water consumption levels to characteristic management styles (e.g., metaphors of |caring| and |emergency-driven|). The analysis shows that organising concepts, more specifically, characteristic management styles, matter for the environment.

Keywords: environmental performance; social industrial ecology; residential buildings; housing management; field study; environmental assessment; housing estates; energy consumption; water consumption; environmental impact; organisation.

DOI: 10.1504/PIE.2009.029078

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal, 2009 Vol.6 No.2, pp.120 - 134

Published online: 03 Nov 2009 *

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