【正文】 now a major concernin the building industry. Buildings are responsible for morethan 40% of energy use in OECD countries and, at a globallevel, they account for about 30% of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions (UNEP SBPI 2020). External factorssuch as oil depletion, water supply issues, globalization anda broad agenda like sustainability and resilience, whichinclude natural and manmade hazards such as climatechange, terror threats, windstorms and flooding, also affectthe environmental performance of a building. All theseaspects have an influence on, and are influenced by, theenvironmental aspects of buildings. In addition, oncebuildings are constructed, they remain in use for severaldecades and the rate of building replacement is low.Therefore, building is an important ponent when weconsider sustainability, and BEA is expected to offerguidelines to secure sustainability not only for inhabitantsbut also for present and future generations. BEA has beendeveloped to integrate the plex issues into a singlecriterion with a diversified and simplified ranking system toevaluate environmental impact. Numerous attempts havebeen made to reduce the environmental impact of construction, ., green buildings, designing for recycling,ecolabeling of building materials, and environmentalmanagement (Cole 1998。)Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering,The University of Tokyo, 21116 Yayoi, Bunkyoku,Tokyo 1138656, Japan Y. KajikawaDepartment of Technology Management for Innovation,School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanY. KajikawaIntegrated Research System for Sustainability Science,The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanY. Kajikawa C1 T. InoueCenter for Low Carbon Society Strategy,Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, JapanT. InoueDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering,The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanT. N. GohDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering,National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore123Sustain Sci (2020) 6:233–246DOI different positions, structures, functions, and inventoryand monitoring tools, which are selected according to thepurpose of their development (Noss 1990). They caninclude diverse issues and targets to be solved, includingthe sustainability of energy, water, biodiversity, health,poverty reduction, the sustainability of a rural society,urban development, and economic development. Moreover, the selection of elementary indicators depends on thepriority and purpose of each organization and region. Theseelementary indicators can serve many purposes, includinginstrumental use for action and problem solving, conceptual use to sensitize users’ understanding about greenissues, tactical use as a deploying strategy, symbolic use toappeal to emotion, and political use when the content ofindicators bees ammunition to support the predetermined position of a user (Hezri and Dovers 2020).Studies on indicators are an essential ponent ofsustainability science, because these studies have thepotential to integrate knowledge existing in diverse disciplines and among various stakeholders. However, theeffectiveness of these studies in influencing actual policyand practices often remains limited, while sustainabilityindicators, indices, and reporting systems are growing inpopularity in both the public and private sectors. The gapbetween the large potential of indicators versus theirsmaller actual influence on more mainstream adoption ofsustainable policies and practices suggests there is a latentpotential for indicators to play a stronger role in articulating and tracking progress towards sustainability in awide range of settings (Pinter et al. 2020). In this paper, wediscuss the plausible roles and limitations of sustainabilityindicators by using Building Environmental Assessment(BEA) as an example. BEA has a structure similar to theother sustainability indicators, as described below. BEAcovers a wide range of factors from energy, water, and landuse, to safety and design, and summarizes their impact asan aggregate indicator by weighting each factor. BEA aimsto prehend this wide coverage for better design andaction that are environmentally friendly by motivating avariety of stakeholders and encouraging municationamong them. BEA shares these characteristics with othersustainability indicators, and we might regard BEA as oneof these sustainability indicators。 Haapio andViitaniemi (2020)。 while it is especiallydifficult for such an approach to pare alternative optionswith an quantitative scale there is a tradeoff among options.Expertassessing systems are also available, but trainedassessors are not satisfied with these systems. Preassessmenttools are useful in clarifying the objectives of building ownersat the early design stage and in setting desired ratings.Assessed indexes are awarded in each area, ., energysaving or security, according to their performance. MostBEA methods provide quantitative data performance indicators to support decisionmaking and determine the performance level of buildings’ ratings. Labeling typicallytakes the form of a singular, easily recognizable designation, ., ‘Gold’ or ‘Excellent’.Different types of buildings need to be assessed, forexample, office buildings, residential buildings (singlefamily or multiunit), factories, schools, hospital buildings,mercial buildings and other types of buildings. Different types of buildings have different tendencies inenergy use and are therefore assessed with differentbenchmarks. BEA methods can evaluate these differenttypes of buildings. New buildings and existing buildingsare assessed differently. However, the usefulness of theenvironmental building assessment method in this respectis doubtful because the remedial wo