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Retail stores are among the building typologies with the highest consumption of natural resources. However, studies regarding the development of Building Sustainability Assessment methods for retail buildings are missing, despite their environmental, economic, and social importance. This study intends to address this gap in knowledge by (i) developing the Portuguese method LiderA for retail buildings, (ii) comparing LiderA to other BSA methods, and (iii) assessing results in two case studies. The development of LiderA for retail buildings took under consideration the indicators, weights, and specific guidelines of different BSA methods for retail buildings (namely LEED, BREEAM, and DGNB) and trends in the retail sector expressed in retailers' sustainability reports and retailers' associations. The most innovative aspects of the development of LiderA for retail buildings include the definition of benchmarks to assess sustainability performance in terms of Energy Intensity (EI), Carbon Intensity (CI), and Water Intensity (WI). Additionally, sustainable business operation practices were introduced in selected indicators as an alternative way to foster the roots of sustainability further down into the value chain, namely regarding ethical and sustainable product purchases, the protection of human rights, a code of conduct for suppliers, fair trade, product traceability, healthy food, sustainable agriculture, and local and organic products. The LiderA method, developed for retail buildings, can support designers, managers, and users in designing and managing more sustainable stores by providing benchmarks and best-practice thresholds for EI, CI, and WI. Given that global retailers operate hundreds of stores, the results show a key potential to increase the environmental performance of retail stores, supporting decision-making towards maximum energy efficiency and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the arising of environmental problems from the construction sector, the sustainability issues gained more space, making sustainability assessment tools emerge. These tools are based on the global definition of sustainability that meets Environmental, Economic, and Social criteria, and each system has a different and peculiar methodology. This paper aims to analyse the structure adopted by these European sustainability assessment systems: BREAM UK, DGBN (Germany), ITACA (Italy), LiderA (Portugal), and HQE (France), showing an overview of each system assisted by the SWOT Matrix, enabling the reader to better understand their differences. There are no superior or inferior systems, but each system notably performs much better in a subject or goal.

Highlights: [•] Comparison of criteria weights between LiderA, SB ToolPT, BREEAM and LEED. [•] General comparison of criteria of these sustainable construction assessment tools. [•] Numerical comparison of these four tools using a real Portuguese case study. [•] Discussion of Energy criteria contribution for the final class in these tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]