The negative effects of climate change and an unsustainable development have changed people’s perception of the importance of sustainable development. In order to meet the challenges of the 21st century such as climate change and urbanisation, sustainable certification schemes have been developed to address social, economic and environmental sustainability. With the increased focus sustainable development has got in the media, this has provided a market for sustainable development and further sustainable certification schemes. With people demanding sustainable products, sustainability has become a megatrend for businesses. In light of this, the third party certification and assessment standard of BREEAM Communities has entered the Norwegian market, and a Norwegian translation of the scheme is underway. The scheme is an international standard for larger scale development projects.
With this development three private developers have been part of developing their project with this scheme, while the translation is being produced. This research project aims at getting a deeper understanding for private developers’ motivation for developing their projects with BREEAM Communities. Further, the research project analyses and discusses private developers’ motivation for BREEAM Communities, if there are issues in relation to their motivation for BREEAM Communities and the potential for the scheme to promote sustainable urban development in Norway.
Through conduction of three semi-structured interviews with the private developers of the pilot projects of BREEAM Communities and an online survey with private developers in Norway, an analysis has been made. From this analysis it is possible to see tendencies that private developer’s major motivation for BREEAM Communities are linked to the marketing value the scheme can provide. The outcomes also show that the economic factor in relation to BREEAM Communities and sustainable development are seemingly governing in the planning process, in which may challenge BREEAM Communities' potential to promote sustainable urban development.