Project, Material, and Investment as Perspectives on Value and Waste in the Life Cycle of Building

The aim of this paper is to explore and synthesise different perspectives on value and waste in the built environment to gain a holistic understanding of how value and waste emerge throughout the life cycle of building. The research design employs an integrative literature review of various models used by different stakeholders in different activities in the built environment. The findings suggest that the models represent different perceptions of value and waste in the life cycle of building and conceptualise three different perspectives: Building as Project, Building as Material, and Building as Investment. Each of the perspectives focuses on different units of analysis (workflow, material flow and cashflow) with distinctly different perceptions of value (positive effects and benefits from project outcomes, protection of the environment by reduced impacts, and high returns of investment) and waste (overuse of project resources, overconsumption of materials, and inefficient use and loss of capital). The paper concludes that the three perspectives are interconnected phenomena that together constitute a field for understanding how initiatives towards reducing waste or improving value driven by one perspective may ironically dislocate effects towards other parts of the value chain. The contribution to the 17 UN SDGs primarily addresses sustainable construction (SDG9) as matters of value and waste generation during the life cycle of building and secondly responsible consumption and production (SDG12) in the built environment.