Ever-changing needs in the built environment create new incentives for enhancements in the process of building design. Increasing prices of building operations and utilities have a profound impact on the conceptual design and implementation of sustainable architecture. Green building certifications have been initially implemented as a tool for creating more sustainable buildings. However, the real impact of green certification systems on building operations remains unclear. This article focuses mainly on water and energy consumption assessment of LEED certified buildings and to what degree certification systems achieve cost savings in building operations when implemented during the design and construction process. The method of estimating these effects is based on hard costs and soft costs linked not only to the certification cost itself but also on the economic impact of the construction costs designated for achieving the required certification level. Furthermore, the building projects investigated, have been selected according to a specific paradigm in order to include buildings with a different type of operation. Each selected building has been holistically differentiated and assessed according to its performance in the following categories: water usage and energy efficiency. The aim of this paper is to objectively assess buildings that were certified under the LEED certification system and to determine the financial effectiveness of the invested resources in the construction process in relation to the operational and environmental benefits. Moreover, the research is focused on determining the operational costs at a point in time. Because of this, a relevant discount factor has been determined and applied for the life cycle assessment of each researched project. The outcome of this paper is an objective assessment of six LEED certified buildings based on water and energy consumption compared to a reference buildings

This study examines the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into the strategies of companies in the Czech Republic, a region where ESG considerations are increasingly influencing investment decisions and corporate governance. As global sustainability concerns gain momentum, Czech companies face growing scrutiny from investors, regulators, and stakeholders. This research aims to assess the current state of ESG risk analysis and evaluate the readiness of these companies to address the challenges posed by environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and governance effectiveness. To achieve this, the study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with industry experts, corporate leaders, and regulatory authorities, and quantitative data from a survey distributed to a representative sample of companies across various sectors in the Czech Republic. The qualitative interviews provide in-depth insights into the challenges and strategies surrounding ESG integration, while the quantitative survey assesses the extent of ESG adoption, identifies key risk areas, and evaluates companies’ preparedness to tackle these issues. Data analysis includes thematic analysis of interview transcripts and statistical analysis of survey responses, offering a comprehensive view of ESG practices in the Czech business landscape. The findings reveal both best practices and areas needing improvement, providing valuable insights for stakeholders committed to enhancing corporate sustainability. This study contributes to the broader discourse on ESG by highlighting the evolving role of these factors in shaping corporate resilience, innovation, and long-term value creation in the Czech Republic, ultimately promoting a more sustainable and responsible business environment.

This paper presents a model for maintenance and renovation of public sector buildings. The model creates the basis for the Buildpass application, which allows users to apply these methods through a web interface. The author researched innovative approaches in detail, in order to deal with the problems of maintenance and construction refurbishments indicated by companies dealing with software applications used for Facility Management.Maintenance and renovation represent a significant cost within the whole lifecycle of a built asset. Rational owners and facility managers try to minimize the outlays on maintenance and renovation. However, it is necessary to set a baseline condition above which the condition of buildings should be maintained, taking into account the type of usage and demands imposed on the building.The model must be applicable at a level that the user, who is not a civil engineering specialist, would be able to understand it without getting biased or misguided results. On the other hand, the aim is to create an environment where the civil engineering expert can intervene in the primary inputs of the model and thus use his/her own experience and knowledge.Attributes of the IT solution do exist – the potential to work on various levels of the model's detail and the time exigency for obtaining information and tasks being solved. It is sometimes necessary to get data within a short timeframe, or alternative solutions to be analyzed, so it is key to focus only on the optimal solution identified, without wasting time exploring poor variants. The application must return a result within a short time, and at the same time not seriously bias the outputs. For a more in-depth analysis, the user then selects how much time they want to dedicate to the task

Bridges create transport infrastructure and are subjected to long term witness of economic design, reliability, durability, maintainability and external risk (natural and human hazards). Deficient design of bridges points to high investment costs, low quality, retrofits maintenance costs, mitigates quality damages. The primary reason of the problem is usually stated high investment costs. Resources for investment are limited over and over again. However, approach for evaluating and comparing the cost effectiveness in practical design does not dominate in present-days as arbitration of different strategies and warrant for avoiding critical economic or functional situations. This paper illustrates a method for estimating the retrofits for bridges design based on Life-Cycle Costs and Cost-Benefit Analysis. The approach integrates cost model, fragility of as-designed and retrofitted benefits for a range of externalities and associated potential changes in design and economical retrofit. The emphasis on life-time performance and benefits, as opposed to initial retrofit acquisition investment cost alone, paves the way to risk-wise investment and also helps to support upgrade actions for sustainable infrastructure. An application of the holistic approach Life-Cycle Cost and benefit analysis is conducted for two representative bridges of highway class. The available financing has a big influence on the chosen technical design.