Twenty-first International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

We inhabit an Earth struggling to cope, a corrupt world filled with dominant narratives where warnings are ignored, and resources are greedily over exploited. This research explores the limitations of architectural product circular economy in the built environment and proposes the application of post-growth guiding principles to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The research promotes the importance of holistic approaches, using various product assessment categories including Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, and communicates the importance of responsible consumption to a multi-disciplinary audience. Through initial case studies this research has revealed problematic examples of sustainable materials and highlighted the practice of greenwashing; common with Cradle-to-Cradle certified products, and how this can result in consumers and specifiers being misled. The efficacy of the Cradle-to-Cradle product scoring framework since its introduction is challenged and the study discusses potential solutions such as the application of a rigorous novel scoring framework to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and mitigate ecological crisis.