ISO16813:2006 establishes the general principles of building environment design taking into account healthy indoor environment for the occupants, and protecting the environment for future generations. ISO16813:2006 promotes an approach in which the various parties involved in building environmental design collaborate with one another to provide a sustainable building environment.

The unique features of the design process are articulated by the following aims:

• to provide the constraints concerning sustainability issues from the initial stage of the design process, including building and plant life cycle together with owning and operating costs to be considered at all stages in the design process;
• to assess the proposed design with rational criteria for indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustical comfort, visual comfort, energy efficiency and HVAC system controls at every stage of the design process;
• to make iterations between decisions and evaluations of the design throughout the design process.

ISO16813:2006 is applicable to building environment design for new construction and the retrofit of existing buildings.