The benefits of certifying buildings in operation
Sundling, Rikard LU ; Vergani, Francesca LU
; Sassner, Truls
and Lundgren, Rebekka
(2026)
In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
1582.
- Abstract
- Until recently, only certifications for new buildings were available, but over recent years, a growing interest in certifying buildings in operation has emerged. These certifications focus on aspects like the indoor environment, occupant well-being and climate impact and seek to enhance the environmental performance of buildings through effective operation and management. This study aimed to identify the benefits and challenges of certification of buildings in operation and to examine if this process can improve the operations and maintenance of the buildings. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with personnel from both private and public real estate companies in Sweden. Preliminary results indicate that there are... (More)
- Until recently, only certifications for new buildings were available, but over recent years, a growing interest in certifying buildings in operation has emerged. These certifications focus on aspects like the indoor environment, occupant well-being and climate impact and seek to enhance the environmental performance of buildings through effective operation and management. This study aimed to identify the benefits and challenges of certification of buildings in operation and to examine if this process can improve the operations and maintenance of the buildings. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with personnel from both private and public real estate companies in Sweden. Preliminary results indicate that there are financial, operational, environmental and societal benefits. The main driver for certification was enabling green financing, which would improve cash flow. There are both general and system specific certification process challenges. This study concludes that the certification process for buildings in operation has the potential to lead to improvements, especially regarding operational efficiency; even so, most companies do not take full advantage of the certification process, focusing mainly on the indicators that they can easily achieve. This paper provides insights that could help real estate companies approach the certification process for buildings in operation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a2f7408d-19f8-4361-a1e3-380557cea147
- author
- Sundling, Rikard
LU
; Vergani, Francesca
LU
; Sassner, Truls
and Lundgren, Rebekka
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- SBE25 Tokyo: Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2025 in Tokyo 24/09/2025 - 25/09/2025 Tokyo, Japan
- series title
- IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
- volume
- 1582
- pages
- 13 pages
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105034188187
- DOI
- 10.1088/1755-1315/1582/1/012024
- project
- Building circular futures.
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a2f7408d-19f8-4361-a1e3-380557cea147
- date added to LUP
- 2026-04-09 13:22:33
- date last changed
- 2026-04-13 13:26:09
@inproceedings{a2f7408d-19f8-4361-a1e3-380557cea147,
abstract = {{Until recently, only certifications for new buildings were available, but over recent years, a growing interest in certifying buildings in operation has emerged. These certifications focus on aspects like the indoor environment, occupant well-being and climate impact and seek to enhance the environmental performance of buildings through effective operation and management. This study aimed to identify the benefits and challenges of certification of buildings in operation and to examine if this process can improve the operations and maintenance of the buildings. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with personnel from both private and public real estate companies in Sweden. Preliminary results indicate that there are financial, operational, environmental and societal benefits. The main driver for certification was enabling green financing, which would improve cash flow. There are both general and system specific certification process challenges. This study concludes that the certification process for buildings in operation has the potential to lead to improvements, especially regarding operational efficiency; even so, most companies do not take full advantage of the certification process, focusing mainly on the indicators that they can easily achieve. This paper provides insights that could help real estate companies approach the certification process for buildings in operation.}},
author = {{Sundling, Rikard and Vergani, Francesca and Sassner, Truls and Lundgren, Rebekka}},
booktitle = {{SBE25 Tokyo: Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2025 in Tokyo 24/09/2025 - 25/09/2025 Tokyo, Japan}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science}},
title = {{The benefits of certifying buildings in operation}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1582/1/012024}},
doi = {{10.1088/1755-1315/1582/1/012024}},
volume = {{1582}},
year = {{2026}},
}