It is tacitly understood that comprehensive environmental assessment methods cover the most significant environmental aspects of the intended assessment conditions. However, depending on the purpose and target-group of the method, more or fewer aspects and indicators may be included. In the development process of a Swedish environmental rating method for buildings, different approaches for selecting aspects were discussed and tested. In addition, possible indicators that measure the selected aspects were tested with regard to their environmental relevance, cost-effectiveness, etc. This procedure thus enabling a discussion of the appropriateness of different indicators used in existing environmental assessment methods for buildings. The analysis of this paper is restricted to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) but can be applied on all assessment areas of similar methods.