Sustainability Certification (DGNB) and Design Process in the Case of four Healthcare Centres

Sustainability certification schemes experience grooving popularity. Only few years ago, Denmark got its own sustainability certification scheme based on the German DGNB certification scheme run by Green Building Council Denmark [1]. The objective of this study is to investigate if and in what way a DGNB-certification scheme will affect the decision-making and design process. The study takes point of departure in four Healthcare Centres, all DGNB silver certified – A case study design, using semi-structured interviews. The results show that it is important to collaborate in the design team from the beginning also with the DGNB consultant and create commitment to the project. Additionally, the research show that in some cases the architectural design have been taken too fare in the initial phases without analysing and documenting several sustainable parameters. It creates a “point of no return”, which means it is not possible to priorities the assessment points in the certifications scheme when needed. Therefore, the paper recommends firstly, more focus on the planning of future design processes using DGNB. Secondly, the paper suggests further research about how to improve and support the iterative design process in the initial design phases securing decision-making on sufficient level of knowledge.