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It is well established that the existing building environmental assessment methods and sustainability assessment methods are intended to foster detailed design stage while there is a need to support early design stages. This research intends to develop a framework that actively supports design development at the formative design stages. The paper reviews the well-established building environmental assessment methods: CASBEE, LEED, BREEAM and GRIHA, and the existing sustainability assessment methods: iiSBE's Sustainable Building Tool (SB Tool), German Sustainable Building Council's Certificate Program (DGNB), Living Building Challenge (LBC) and ARUP's Sustainable Project Assessment Routine SPeAR®. Further, well-known theories of ecological Sustainability are reviewed. The critical points of convergence and divergence of anthropocentric and biocentric approaches are identified to articulate the parameters of sustainability assessment. Specialists in the sustainable built environment assigned weights for assessment parameters (criteria) by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Their specialist opinions manifest the particular features of the Indian context. The paper delineates the Biocenosis, a novel framework for sustainability assessment of the built environment rooted in the concept of the synergy of nature with social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits for the context of India. It is intended to aid building professionals in the formative design phases as it enables an integrated and comprehensive assessment of the level to which the requirement of a sustainable built environment is satisfied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]