Sustainability analysis of housing developments through the Brazilian environmental rating system Selo Casa Azul Daniela Chiarello Fastofski a, b , Marco Aur  elio Stumpf Gonz  alez a, * , Andrea Parisi Kern a a Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Programa de P os-Graduaç~ ao em Engenharia Civil, Av. Unisinos, 950, S~ ao Leopoldo, RS 93022-000, Brazil b Faculdade da Serra Gaúcha, Rua Os 18 do Forte, 2366, Caxias do Sul, RS 95020-471, Brazil article info Article history: Received 17 June 2016 Received in revised form 15 June 2017 Accepted 5 July 2017 Keywords: Environmental rating system Building certifications Selo Casa Azul Sustainable construction Housing abstract The building sector has a significant environmental impact and environmental rating systems could to indicate some guidelines for achieving sustainable developments. There are several systems, but the certifications in general are adjusted to peculiar conditions of developer country. The Brazilian bank Caixa Econ^ omica Federal created and is responsible to assign the Selo Casa Azul (“Blue House Seal”). This certification apparently is the most applicable to Brazilian conditions. However, there are few studies about the procedures for analysis of housing projects. The aim of this study is to analyse the adequacy of typical housing developments with respect to Selo Casa Azul criteria by verifying existing facilities and considering the limitations of real projects. This research analyses 13 developments certified by the bank and seven new projects in Caxias do Sul, a city in southern Brazil. As a result, we found that the Selo Casa Azul constitutes a viable tool, demonstrating the relative ease of application. We verify that some criteria were not present in any of these projects and that alignment with Selo's criteria depends on a company's strategy, no matter the economic standard of its buildings. Lastly, we observe that most actions needed to reach unsatisfied criteria may be solved in the design stage, and these modifications do not require large investments. This study aims to contribute to the discussion about sustainable construction in Brazil. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The construction industry has significant importance in the global economy. However, it is characterised as one of the activities that generates large environmental impacts (Du Plessis, 2002; European Comission, 2013; Kibert, 2016). There are several chal- lenges for reaching sustainability in this sector, but it is essential to adopt a new attitude in the industry. In this context, the social, economic, and environmental performance of buildings can be supported by analysis through environmental certifications, which can guide design options, even if the goal may not be the certifi- cation itself. So, certification systems and environmental assess- ment can help reduce the impacts of the construction sector (John & Prado, 2010; Reed, Bilos, Wilkinson, & Schulte, 2009). A certification is granted from an evaluation system that ana- lyses the degree of sustainability according to specific criteria. The certification model depends on each country and its needs. A general advantage of the evaluation tools is to provide guidance to entrepreneurs, designers, and builders in the design and the pro- duction of sustainable buildings. USA, Canada, some Asians and Europeans countries have created certification of buildings, based on own criteria and performance indicators that evaluate, among others, energy consumption and environmental impact. These systems are designed to encourage the market demand for higher levels of environmental performance. They are based on systemic environmental assessment looking for the applicability of the sys- tems worldwide. Apart from those elements, there are large in- fluences of environmental character problems of each region in the use of these systems. Contextual circumstances that resulted in the creation of these systems vary, as well as the intended application, from tools to support design to post-occupancy evaluation tools. The majority of systems are best suited to the evaluation of new buildings or projects, working on the potential performance plan. There are some systems aimed at the use stage or to refurbished buildings. Environmental certification can follow several models, depending on each country and its needs. The main international processes of environmental certification are BEPAC (Canada), BREEAM (UK), CASBEE (Japan), GBL (China), Green Star (Australia), HQE (France), HK-BEAM plus (Hong Kong), ITACA (Italy), and LEED * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: daniela.fastofski@fsg.br (D.C. Fastofski), mgonzalez@unisinos. br (M.A.S. Gonz alez), apkerm@unisinos.br (A.P. Kern). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Habitat International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.07.001 0197-3975/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Habitat International 67 (2017) 44e53