Innovation in Sustainable Built Environments

In this module, you will develop a critical understanding of the paradigms of sustainability. You will question assumptions about predominant themes in the industry and explore various drivers of sustainability.

By examining their impact on the creation of a sustainable built environment, you will gain a deep understanding of cultural, social, economical, and financial sustainability, as well as climate change. Through this exploration, you will recognise how these factors influence the triple bottom line: profit, people, and the planet.

This knowledge will equip you with the necessary skills to become a leader in driving change for a sustainable built environment.

There’s a wealth of conflicting information surrounding sustainability. This module will enhance your ability to identify and evaluate information and data sources related to sustainability in the built environment.

You will learn how to critically analyse and synthesise information from diverse sources, enabling you to distinguish facts from fiction.

This module includes the appraisal of live case studies, allowing you to enhance your academic literacy and create work that will be peer-reviewed and disseminated. Through this process, you will demonstrate your knowledge and awareness of the leading-edge themes in the creation of a more sustainable built environment.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the current discourse on sustainable materials, processes, and technologies (MPT) and their role in building a more sustainable built environment.

Taking a socio-technical approach, you will gain knowledge of the stakeholders and agendas that shape the adoption of sustainable MPTs. You will examine the digital agenda and consider the impact of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) on the built environment.

By identifying current and emerging concepts, you will understand their significance in achieving a sustainable built environment.

Develop the research skills required to navigate the ever changing flow of socio-political planning discourse from academia, practice and the public, whilst informing your own approach to research. Operational practices around how others undertake research and its dissemination, alternative approaches, drivers and motivations, along with sources used for supportive evidence, data types and methods of data collection and analysis will be discussed. Essential to the module will be understanding how to recognise assumptions, theoretical underpinnings, bias and what is and is not being privileged in various publication types. The fundamental assumptions upon which social science is founded will be outlined and debated. An understanding of levels of analysis, micro, meso and macro will be explained. This will help you develop your critical thinking along with understanding the perspectives that make most sense to you.

Understanding the components and systems of a country, region, or community’s social infrastructure is a key part of learning about the built environment. This module will provide a critical understanding of how different constituents, such as transport, water waste, and digital infrastructure, can drive and accelerate change toward achieving a sustainable infrastructure.

By adopting a holistic and open system view, you will evaluate the built environment’s relationship with power sources like gas, electricity, and solar, identifying challenges in incorporating sustainability into the agenda.

In this module, you will explore sustainable practices implemented by built environment organisations. You will critically evaluate and develop an understanding of the leadership and management skills required to be sustainable in the sector.

The module covers how to sustain a competitive advantage through future innovation and trends, building a sustainable workforce by addressing diversity, inclusion, race, bullying, and sexism, and examining the economic and financial models that shape the built environment.

You will also explore alternative models with international sustainability implications.

This module delves into the standards for sustainability, including BREEAM, LEED, UNSDG, ESD guidance, and ISO14001. It explores how these standards can be implemented and equips you with the skills to identify key organisational logics needed to address and maintain quality issues that impact sustainability.

By critically understanding the institutional quality agenda, you will be able to assess what, how, and by whom these standards should be measured.

You will be introduced to the concept of technical sustainability of our existing buildings, towns and cities as well as the ways they are influenced by both national and global agendas.

This module will highlight how the focus of sustainability is currently on new-builds and examine the range of approaches to address the sustainability challenges that come with our existing buildings. These include retrofitting, analysis and adaption modelling, building flexibility, maintenance and BMS.

Attention is also given to long-term sustainability challenges of our existing buildings and how to tackle this in an intentional and inclusive manner.

In this module, you will explore sustainable practices implemented by built environment organisations. You will critically evaluate and develop an understanding of the leadership and management skills required to be sustainable in the sector.

The module covers how to sustain a competitive advantage through future innovation and trends, building a sustainable workforce by addressing diversity, inclusion, race, bullying, and sexism, and examining the economic and financial models that shape the built environment.

You will also explore alternative models with international sustainability implications.

This module delves into the standards for sustainability, including BREEAM, LEED, UNSDG, ESD guidance, and ISO14001. It explores how these standards can be implemented and equips you with the skills to identify key organisational logics needed to address and maintain quality issues that impact sustainability.

By critically understanding the institutional quality agenda, you will be able to assess what, how, and by whom these standards should be measured.

You will be introduced to the concept of technical sustainability of our existing buildings, towns and cities as well as the ways they are influenced by both national and global agendas.

This module will highlight how the focus of sustainability is currently on new-builds and examine the range of approaches to address the sustainability challenges that come with our existing buildings. These include retrofitting, analysis and adaption modelling, building flexibility, maintenance and BMS.

Attention is also given to long-term sustainability challenges of our existing buildings and how to tackle this in an intentional and inclusive manner.

In this module, you will integrate all your acquired knowledge, focusing particularly on the Research Skills and Current Affairs module, to develop a short final project proposal.

The objective is to develop a well-crafted research question that draws upon relevant literature and demonstrates thoughtful consideration. The formal proposal will explain your chosen research topic, provide justification for undertaking the research, outline your planned investigation process, and showcase your methodological approach.

The proposal will indicate your choice between a Research Dissertation or a Work-based Project to be undertaken in semester 4.

The main objective of this module is to write and develop a robust academic dissertation. You will draw upon various scholarly bodies of knowledge, theories, frameworks, and research publications related to a topic of your choosing.

Building upon the Final Project Proposal, you will refine research questions, hypotheses, propositions, and objectives. You will develop a research design with a theoretical foundation and make informed methodological choices, including primary and/or secondary data collection and analysis.

This module provides an alternative route to a Research Dissertation for your final project. The work-based project encompasses research on a hypothetical/ existing problem in your organisation.

You will demonstrate how to navigate the ever-evolving discourse of sustainability and the competing agendas of an organisation’s stakeholders and practitioners.

Emphasising grey literature, UNSDG publications, pressure groups, and sustainable heritage publications, this project will enable you to identify challenges and develop potential solutions or frameworks.

The outcome of this module may have an immediate uptake and impact on your professional practice.