| Summary: | Sustainability in the construction and real estate sector has gained more attention in recent decades. In Sweden, the parliament and the Government work on a global and nation level to achieve increased sustainability in the construction industry. Today, the construction and real estate sector is responsible for many of the world's environmental problems such as pollution, marine exploitation and waste. In order to achieve higher sustainability, an environmental certification of building can be done, which means a transparent assessment of sustainability of a building. Today, there are over 500 environmental classification systems in the world. Among the systems, is Miljöbyggnad the most used system in Sweden with more than 1100 certified buildings by 2018. Miljöbyggnad is a Swedish certification system that is designed and adapted to Swedish conditions. The system contains various indicators aimed at encouraging low energy use, good indoor environment and a good choice of materials. This thesis aims at studying in what degree Miljöbyggnad is used in Sweden and whether the system can be used to reflect the building's sustainability. Furthermore, the purpose is to check whether the number of sustainable buildings in Gävle is in line with the “Gäle kommuns” forecast by assessing a "non-certified" building, Almvägen, in Gävle. Research methods in this degree project was a combination of site visits, computer simulations, questionnaires, mathematical calculations, environmental engineering manuals and literature studies via databases, books and other types of reports. In addition, the authors have also conducted various qualitative interviews with a politician, representatives from the municipality of Gävle and AB Gavlegårdarna. The reference case is a multi-family house located in the neighborhood Almvägen, owned by AB Gavlegårdarna. The result clearly showed that the multi-family house achieved the grade SILVER according to Miljöbyggnad´s requirements and criteria. Furthermore, the interview showed that Miljöbyggnad was considered a good tool for achieving increased durability in the construction industry. However, Miljöbyggnad does not cover social and economic sustainability to a large extent as environmental sustainability. What is most focused on the system is environmental improvements, that is, the ecology, which results in an unfair saturation of the building's sustainability. On the other hand, the systems are constantly evolving and updated continuously, which may mean that there is room for improvement to also measure the social and economic sustainability of the building to the same extent.
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