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Opinion of tools
Name of the case study
Folehaven Green Laundry
Name of tool
Evaluation of the Folehaven Green Laundry
Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
The decision of evaluating the laundry came from the administrator (3B), as several preconditions for choosing the green laundry were presented to the residents.
The evaluators had not considered certain tools for the evaluation. Designing the evaluation was not considered a difficult task, and did not represent any barrier or problem, therefore the incentive to find certain evaluation tools was not very strong. Using for instance an LCA-assessment (as for buildings, BEAT 2000) would hardly be appropriate for this case, and more general tools would probably be not specific enough (Lading Architects, interview).
Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
A main problem for the evaluation was that little data was available. No systematic data collection had been made since the project started.
Opinion of tool - assessment by tool users
The evaluation has afterwards caused the initiators to improve the conditions that were criticised in the evaluation report.
A spin-off from the evaluation was that it made the initiators carry out improvements on the laundry, to meet the critics raised in the evaluation report. The green laundry itself gained a lot of spin-off, through the attention and has helped the department and the generally positive media.
The evaluators have used the experiences from this evaluation in other evaluations: An evaluation of public supported "green" projects in Copenhagen, and on the assessment of green buildings for an architectural competition in Ørestad. The main lessons learnt from the evaluation:
• There was no measuring program planned and set up by the beginning of the project.
• There were too few data to complete a satisfactory evaluation
• The estimation of certain data led to disagreements with the owner about the results.
• There is generally little incentive for the owners to evaluate green projects.
As sustainable projects are rarely being evaluated, there is a huge potential for using evaluations.
Opinion of tool - reviewer\'s assessment
The case demonstrates the importance of evaluating initiatives for sustainability, and to plan for an evaluation from the beginning of the project, including a measuring program.
The case also raises the questions on whether "tangible" environmental achievements as the residents’ experience of the laundry, can be measured, and how? Folehaven received a lot of attention from the initiative, and the local initiators (the local board, the staff, the administrators and others) are very proud of having completed this green project, which in the long run might include a social strengthening of Folehaven. These subjects are not included in the evaluation, although it seems like very important benefits for the housing department, the business manager, the housing association and their consultants.
What tools were used to assess sustainability?
Evaluation of the Folehaven Green Laundry
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