Die Systematisierung der Nachhaltigkeitsbetrachtung von Gebäuden über deren Lebenszyklus macht es erforderlich, Nachhaltigkeit als abstrakte Begrifflichkeit transparent und messbar zu machen. Das heißt, das Drei-Säulen-Modell der Nachhaltigkeit muss weiter konkretisiert und auf Gebäude-

Nachhaltigkeit ist zugleich historisches Kulturgut und moderne Antwort auf die aktuelle globale Krisensituation im Kontext des Klimawandels. Insbesondere im Bauwesen ist der strategische Ansatz der Nachhaltigkeit in den letzten Jahren durch die Entwicklung und Implementierung von Nachhaltigkeitszertifizierungssystemen fest verankert worden. Derzeit weist die Bau‐ und Immobilienwirtschaft vor allem in den Bereichen der Diversifikation entwickelter Bewertungs‐ und Optimierungswerkzeuge und der Ausbildung eines praxistauglichen rechtlichen Rahmens für die beteiligten Akteure eine wesentliche Dynamik auf.Beyond Platin – Sustainability trends in the construction and real estate industry. Sustainability is both a cultural asset and a modern answer to the current global crisis of climate change. In the past few years, sustainability has become especially important in the construction industry, anchored by the development and implementation of a number of sustainability certification systems. Today, the construction and real estate industry shows an essential dynamism in areas of diversifying of the developed assessment and optimization tools as well as establishing of a suitable legal framework for the involved players.

Ecology, energy and sustainability are crucial socio-economic keywords, especially for the construction and real estate industry. In recent years, the masonry industry faced related sustainability issues intensively in order to keep its ability of operating in a market setting which is increasingly characterized by sustainability dogmata. Scientific analyses and studies on an objectified sustainability basis -such as established certification systems -show that masonry is absolutely competitive with all other market-relevant construction methods. Therefore, the first part of this paper deals with a sustainability assessment of buildings made of masonry as well as of other construction materials. Concerning the design and construction of masonry, further selected aspects are discussed which are important for the competitiveness of this building technique. Outlining the simple yet economic pre-dimensioning with the help of load capacity tables is one topic which is of utmost importance for an efficient structural design. Additional aspects are the design of laterally loaded exterior walls with low vertical forces and the verification of basement walls under high earth pressure load. New and easy to use design proposals are open for discussion. Finally, the educational portal "masonry structures" of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Mauerwerks-und Wohnungsbau (DGfM) (German society for masonry and residential construction), which supports the training of young engineers, is presented.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of an action and assessment framework to make sustainability in German facility management (FM) transparent, measurable and assessable. Design/methodology/approach – The underlying research project’s approach to develop the new action and assessment framework consisted of a three-step methodology: to define and substantiate sustainability in FM, to operationalise and quantify sustainability in FM and to validate the developed system draft through an initial pilot study. Findings – The main result of the presented research project is a set of 24 criteria, organised into the separate areas of environmental, economic and sociocultural quality, as well as the quality of FM organisation and the sustainability of building/contract-specific facility services. The assessment methodology reflects the strategic approach of a plan–do–check–act loop to create a transparent and objective appraisal and a practical action framework. Research limitations/implications – The outcome of the study is initially only a measurement and assessment framework. To transform the finalised system draft and assessment tool into a certification system, further steps of development are necessary. Practical implications – The newly developed action and assessment framework is able to cure the blind spot that the relevant players (building owners, users and service providers) suffer from while developing, purchasing and comparing concepts for sustainable FM. The results and practical experiences of its initial pilot study show that this new framework can make the building operation phase and its processes transparent, measurable and assessable. Social implications – The guideline is also able to establish a crucial basis for the development of corporate sustainability strategies and sustainability reporting. This is an important step in closing the existing gap in numerous corporate social responsibility reports. Originality/value – Due to its assessment methodology and the calibration of its criteria, this new action and assessment framework both diversifies and completes the range of existing sustainability certification systems.