This research addresses the performance gap between intentions towards a sustainable conservation of built heritage and its actual implementation. Socio-psychological models of human behaviour, such as the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), have been studying this dissonance between intention and behaviour, and allow to recognise latent critical factors. This paper provides a systematic literature review of research publications on the intersection of the topics of human behaviour, heritage, and sustainability. It aims to analyse how the TPB has been used in the field of sustainable conservation of built heritage. The studies are categorised according to the type of heritage, main actors targeted, aims, and methodology. A total of 140 publications were analysed. The results show a recent field of research. In the domain of built heritage conservation, behaviour is commonly addressed as a synonym of performance, targeting the building itself. Most publications relating socio-psychological constructs of behaviour and heritage sustainability can be found in the tourism and hospitality field, focusing on tourists’ and residents’ behaviours. The review shows that practitioners are still absent from the literature. However, research addressing other stakeholders shows that the theoretical framework can play an important role in the implementation of sustainable conservation practices in the built heritage.

The transition to a circular economy in the construction sector is crucial for reducing environmental impacts and resource depletion. However, a lack of harmonized methodologies and standardized indicators for measuring circularity remains a major challenge, hindering informed decision-making in the built environment. This study addresses this gap by systematically reviewing existing circularity assessment frameworks for buildings. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, analyzing 948 records from major databases. The findings reveal gaps in current frameworks, particularly the fragmentation of indicators and an overemphasis on material flows, often neglecting adaptability, repairability, and maintainability. By mapping commonalities between indicator frameworks, data requirements, and aggregation methods, this study contributes to the harmonization of circularity assessment approaches, integrating multi-cycle considerations for buildings and construction products. The results in this research contribute to the development of comprehensive and practical assessment frameworks, facilitating the transition towards a more sustainable and circular built environment.

This paper presents and discusses the selection of a set of core indicators for the sustainable conservation of built heritage. This core set of indicators was selected by following a two-step methodology: 1) first, a comparative analysis of indicators of two building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools with different approaches was performed by using content analysis to identify common priorities; 2) second, a selection of the indicators according to scale, stage of the life cycle, and coverage of core aspects for sustainable development, following the criteria established by the International Organization for Standardization. The results show that even if current methodologies have different structures, terminology, and priorities, they share common principles that promote a more sustainable built environment. However, by being mostly oriented to the intervention and operation phases, these methods do not have direct application as an assessment framework for the sustainable conservation of the built heritage. To overcome this situation, this research presents a concise set of indicators that can support the development of an assessment tool to ensure the sustainable conservation of existing buildings.

This research presents the development of a Building Passport for Sustainable Conservation (BPSC) as a questionnaire with a set of 23 core indicators, for a baseline assessment of heritage buildings. The aim of this tool is to identify priorities for future interventions, by recognising the contributions of heritage buildings to sustainability that should be preserved and the fragilities that need to be improved. The BPSC uses a selection of core indicators for sustainability observable on heritage buildings. It was applied to four different case studies of modern heritage in the Netherlands, to verify its applicability and limitations. The results suggest that this tool has the potential to contribute to an expedite assessment, reaching consensual evaluations of priorities for sustainable conservation, while reducing the time and cost of the process, contributing to support informed redesign decisions. Recently, existing building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools have been adapted and new BSA tools developed for heritage buildings. Some tools target existing buildings, but seldom cover cultural significance and heritage values. Others target the after-redesign situations – aiming at assessing how sustainable the redesign is. Often BSA tools are complex and time-consuming, with extensive indicators and data requirements. The BPSC developed in this research covers the main aspects of sustainability and related heritage values, in a simpler tool for a baseline assessment.

Digital building logbooks (DBLs) are digital repositories of building-related data gathered throughout the full life cycle of a building. DBLs help increase transparency and access to information during the design, construction, operation, and end-of-life phase of a building. They thereby facilitate an efficient and cost-effective transition to a zero energy and circular built environment. DBLs could slow down resource loops by extending the service life of buildings through better coordination of maintenance and repair and close resource loops by promoting adaptability and reuse of the whole building and/or its components with multi-cycle approaches. This chapter analyses examples of DBLs developed in five countries to show that they are useful tools at different life stages of the building and for different stakeholders (homeowners, property managers, or building professionals). Challenges for establishing DBLs as a central tool for a circular built environment lie in improving the user experience and ease of implementation; enhancing interoperability; and effectively collecting, managing, and transforming data into actionable information for the management, maintenance, and reuse at building and district levels.