Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

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S
Sustainable Buildings and
Construction: Responding to
the SDGs
Usha Iyer-Raniga
1,2
, Pekka Huovila
2,3
and
Priyanka Erasmus
1,2
1
School of Property, Construction and Project
Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC,
Australia
2
Sustainable Buildings and Construction
Programme, United Nations One Planet Network,
Paris, France
3
GBC Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Synonyms
Green building;Sustainable built environment;
Sustainable procurement practices and patterns;
TBL sustainability;Zero energy
Definitions
Sustainable buildings and construction refer to the
process of plan, design, construction, and opera-
tion of buildings so that, ultimately, they contrib-
ute to sustainable built environments. It takes a
holistic approach to design, construct, and operate
so that sustainability considerations of environ-
mental, economic, and social considerations are
echoed through the life cycle process. It is
expected that sustainable buildings also support
health and well-being of users through the use of
procurement services and operations of the
building.
Introduction
Improving buildings and construction processes is
urgently required to respond to the challenges of
current times. To achieve sustainable built envi-
ronments, sustainable buildings and construction
are an essential requirement. The Brundtland def-
inition of sustainability (WCED 1987) refers to
“meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.”In the context of buildings
and construction, therefore, resource efficiency
and awareness of planetary boundaries need to
be considered. Since buildings differ in size, func-
tion, local site characteristics, climate, culture,
and myriad sets of other factors, the construction
of buildings is also equally different.
The very act of building and construction has
an impact on the planet. In general, the construction
and operation of buildings impact approximately
36%ofthefinal energy use globally. The CO
2
emissions from building construction increased
steadily from 3.1 GtCO
2
in 2010 to 3.7 GTCO
2
in 2016. It is alarming to note that the global floor
area is growing at 2.3% annually; thus, while over-
all energy intensity is falling slightly, overall
impact continues to increase as energy efficiency
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal et al. (eds.), Sustainable Cities and Communities, Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_61-1

efforts have not followed increases in the overall
construction (UNEP & IEA 2017).
Considered from a triple bottom line (TBL)
perspective, economic, environmental, and social
sustainability considerations drive sustainable
buildings and construction (Elkington 2018).
Economic sustainability refers to the financial
considerations of using resources more efficiently
while also considering financial returns; environ-
mental sustainability considers the impact of
building and construction on the environment
such as natural resource use that protects and
enhances the natural environment, and social sus-
tainability considers responding to people’s needs
such as creating jobs and healthy spaces for peo-
ple to live, work, and play.
Sustainable building design and construction
should lead to sustainable buildings and sustain-
able built environments. However, buildings may
be designed with sustainability considerations
such as designing and constructing with consider-
ations of resource efficiency, but they may not
operate or perform as a sustainable building par-
ticularly from a resource utility perspective or a
health and well-being perspective or both. Build-
ings users also need to use the building appropri-
ately to optimize its use as a sustainable building.
Sustainable development of buildings and other
construction works brings about the required per-
formance and functionality with minimum adverse
environmental impact while encouraging improve-
ments in economic and social (and cultural) aspects
at local, regional, and global levels (ISO 15392:
2008).
Sustainable construction may be considered as
a subset of sustainable development (Kibert 1994,
2008) and refers to “creating and operating a
healthy built environment based on resource effi-
ciency and ecological design”(Hill and Bowen
1997). Other definitions have suggested that “con-
struction sustainability performance is indispens-
able to the attainment of sustainable development”
(Shen et al. 2007).
Sustainable buildings and construction simply
involve a commitment to realize the triple bottom
line of sustainability: economic, environment, and
societal considerations for sustainability outcomes.
Twenty two years ago, CIB (International Council
of Building) Working group 82 on Future Studies
in Construction deliberated the consequences of
sustainable development on the construction indus-
try by 2010 (Bourdeau et al. 1997). The efficient
use of land, its intensive use, long life of buildings,
and greater use of all spaces in buildings were seen
to be critical for sustainable development. The
literature uses sustainable buildings and construc-
tion in the context of green buildings (WGBC
2018). Green buildings are the product of sustain-
able construction and design practices and embody
the TBL throughout the building’s life cycle. Thus,
green buildings are also environmentally responsi-
ble and resource efficient; they do not use or emit
toxic substances throughout their life, support local
culture and diversity, and are also easy to operate
and maintain.
This entry provides an understanding of sus-
tainable buildings and construction. It commences
with an understanding of the links to the Sustain-
able Development Goals (SDGs) before delving
into the nature of sustainable buildings and con-
struction. Both buildings and construction are
explored in further detail, followed by an under-
standing of how buildings ought to be considered
as a system. Different ways of assessing sustain-
able buildings and construction are then consid-
ered, before examining sustainable procurement,
circularity and sustainable production, and con-
sumption. A summary of the key characteristics of
sustainable buildings and construction is then pro-
vided before drawing the entry to a close with
conclusions.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
reflect the state of play of anthropogenic relation-
ships with the planet. Some key milestones of the
SDGs are the Agenda 21 agreement at the Rio
conference in 1992 (UNSD 1992) and, 9 years
later, the adoption of the Millennium Develop-
ment Goals (MDGs) (United Nations 2019). The
MDGs focused on poverty reduction. In 2002, the
World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg (United Nations 2002) built further
on Agenda 21 and the MDGs to bring greater
cooperation and collaboration between people
and their natural environment. At Rio+20 in June
2 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

2012, 20 years after the Rio conference in 1992
(United Nations 2012), the UN High Level Politi-
cal Forum (HLPF) (United Nations 2020a)was
established to support the development of “The
Fu t u r e We Wa n t ”(United Nations 2020b)and
brought an update to the work undertaken on the
MDGs to set up the SDGs. The Open Working
Group (OWG) was set up to develop the SDGs in
2013 (United Nations 2014), and in 2015, the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted
at the UN Development Summit in September 2015
to be effective from 1 January 2016 (United Nations
2015a). At the same time, the Paris Agreement was
also deliberated at COP 21 in December 2015.
The fifth IPCC report (2014) formed the foun-
dation of the Paris Agreement and confirmed that
human influence on the climate system is clear
and growing globally. The report confirmed 95%
certainty that humans were the cause for global
warming and the attendant risks of severe impacts
as a result of changes to the climate. Urgency for
moving away from business as usual and focusing
on fundamental changes to business operations
was called for. This urgency set the basis for the
COP 21 in 2015 in Paris where a global agreement
for keeping the climate change to a manageable
level led to the development of and eventual rat-
ification of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agree-
ment on Climate Change (United Nations 2015b)
brought all nations together to combat climate
change by charting a new course in global climate
efforts to limit the increase in global temperature
from well below 2 °C above preindustrial levels to
a desired 1.5 °C or less. Countries would commit
to have ambitious targets to reduce their nationally
determined contributions (NDCs), and developed
countries would lead the way for others. To date,
most countries have ratified the treaty. While the
Paris Agreement focuses on climate change (SDG
13), SDGs holistically focus on a collaborative
effort to consider sustainability from not only the
TBL perspective but also from adaptive and resil-
ience capacities.
The 17 goals and 169 targets that comprise the
UN SDGs are a call for action by all countries to
support people for a peaceful and prosperous
planet, ensuring that poverty is eliminated. The
SDGs are all encompassing and indivisible,
supporting education, health, social protection,
and jobs while addressing climate change and envi-
ronmental protection (United Nations 2020c).
When examined from the perspective of the TBL,
goals can be divided into environmental, eco-
nomic, and social.
•Environmental considerations: Goal 6 on
Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 7 on Afford-
able and Clean Energy, Goal 11 on Sustainable
Cities and Communities, Goal 12 on Respon-
sible Consumption and Production, Goal 13 on
Climate Action, Goal 14 on Life Below Water,
and Goal 15 on Life on Land.
•Economic considerations: Goal 8 on Decent
Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9 on Indus-
try, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Goal 17
on Partnerships.
•Social considerations: Goal 1 on No Poverty,
Goal 2 on Zero Hunger, Goal 3 on Good Health
and Well-being, Goal 4 on Quality Education,
Goal 5 on Gender Equality, Goal 10 on
Reduced Inequalities, and Goal 16 on Peace,
Justice and Strong Institutions.
While an attempt has been made here to divide
these goals into the TBL, the goals are all
interconnected and need to work across scales to
realize their outcomes. This is more so from a built
environment perspective and can be viewed from
the One Planet Network’s Sustainable Buildings
and Construction (SBC) Programme, which is one
of six programs under the One Planet Network
and embodies the holistic nature of built environ-
ment sustainability. The goal of the SBC program
is to promote resource efficiency, mitigation, and
adaptation efforts and shift to SCP patterns in the
buildings and construction sector (One Planet Net-
work 2020a). The SBC program aims at improving
the knowledge of sustainable construction and sup-
ports and mainstreams sustainable building solu-
tions. Sharing good practices, launching
implementation projects, creating cooperation net-
works, and committing actors to sustainable build-
ing and construction are the key focus areas of the
program.
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs 3

Figure 1shows the SDGs in order of priority
from the SBC perspective.
Having examined exactly what the SDGs are
and how they came about, the entry now focuses
on sustainable buildings and construction.
Sustainable Buildings and Construction
The increasing number of buildings that have
been certified with green rating systems used
worldwide (contextualized within a country for
use) have highlighted the market trends with
respect to sustainable buildings and construction
practices worldwide. However, it must be noted
that the role of regulation and standards/
legislation is still relevant, as sustainable building
practices still refer to minimum regulatory stan-
dards and, in fact, offer an opportunity for com-
parison in terms of their innovative practices to
“go above and beyond”the minimum standards.
Due to an early recognition of energy efficiency
issues (since the oil embargo in the early 70s),
energy efficiency, by default, became the key
parameter by which sustainability was measured
or assessed. As energy use is usually measured
quantitatively, quantitative measures also became
the default. Energy efficiency considers resource
use while also saving costs, and it also supports
the environmental and economic considerations
of sustainability but does not holistically consider
a range of other indicators of sustainability the
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs, Fig. 1 SDGs and One Planet Network’s
Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme (One Planet Network 2020b) Credit: Ninni Westerholm.
4 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

way the SDGs do, for instance. Social consider-
ations did not enter the discussions during these
early years of understanding and applying sustain-
able building and construction knowledge. Tech-
nical solutions are relevant and important in the
process as technology supports all the three con-
siderations of the TBL approach.
Expanding populations, particularly in the
metro centers of Africa, Latin America, and
Asia, support and prioritize the need for adopting
and engaging with sustainable building and con-
struction practices. Huge demands in infrastruc-
tures are needed to house the ever-expanding
cities in these regions. Currently, however, it
may be argued that the economies of Africa,
Asia, and Latin America are circular because
nothing gets wasted. In reality, however, many
of the building materials are imported from other
countries, predominantly supporting global sup-
ply chains and providing economic advantages to
the global north. A lot of the building and non-
building materials end up in the informal settle-
ments, mainly in the form of housing. Looking
into history however, indigenous construction
practices practiced for centuries in these regions
include the use of local materials which supports
maintaining cultural practices, passive and biocli-
matic designs that do not need or require artificial
means of heating and cooling. Traditional
approaches, when used correctly, support social
sustainability practices. Informal economies sup-
port jobs and, therefore, economic sustainability
as well.
Nature of Building and Construction
The building industry relies on coordination of the
various stakeholders of the architecture, engineer-
ing, construction and operation (AECO) sectors to
come together to design, build, and operate a
building. In developing countries and regions
such as Africa, this coordination is the central
focus that makes or breaks projects. Technical,
managerial issues and appropriate skills are cen-
tral to the development of successful projects
(Ebohon and Rwelamila 2014). As most
developing countries have previously been colo-
nized, their legacy is on structures set up by and
inherited from their colonial masters. The educa-
tional institutions in particular have not caught up
to the contemporary times in relation to technical
training, standards/policies, and regulatory frame-
works; procurement systems have also not caught
up, and lack of leadership and general lack of
management skills make it difficult for the build-
ing and construction industry to cope with the
complexity of tendering processes and practice.
In addition, due to lack of security of payment,
particularly, interim and final payments have cre-
ated financial instabilities in the sector. This lack
of financial stability has lead to financial ruins for
companies, even if they are undertaking govern-
ment contracts. In addition, political instabilities
in some developing countries have also
compounded problems, making it very difficult
for the sector to become robust.
Where policies or legislation exists, there is
lack of coordination in ensuring compliance, and
poor monitoring processes are not supported by
appropriate legislative frameworks and account-
ability. Indigenous construction practices have
taken a hit and are almost rooted out of the market
while the high end, foreign-owned multinationals
that can withstand such shocks due to deep
pockets and better resilience capacities have
flourished. While the market share varies from
country to country, the reality is that it leads to
further deterioration of the domestic sector.
In the developing country context, completing
projects on time almost never happens. Time
delays may be due to several factors: poor contract
management, changes in site conditions, shortage
of materials, design changes, weather conditions,
and union-related activities (Hussain et al. 2013).
Sustainable Construction
Sustainable construction is about supporting the
end goal of providing sustainable building out-
comes. This includes the need to promote aware-
ness of sustainability throughout the life cycle of
the building. Sustainable construction involves
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs 5

bringing government and industry in alignment,
to be proactive and monitor progress toward sus-
tainable construction activities. The industry also
needs to support health and well-being of building
users, while being profitable and remaining com-
petitive, and being mindful of ecological limita-
tions and resource efficiencies.
Xu et al.’s(2019) research focused on a model
for examining the sustainability of the construc-
tion industry in China. They examined the rela-
tionship between the Social, Economic and
Environmental Benefits Index (SEEBI) and the
Ecological Costs Index (ECI) to determine levels
of sustainability of the industry in China. Under
each of the social, economic, and environmental
indicators, the authors considered 13 indicators
and their impact from an ecological perspective.
The ecological costs were mainly in the form of
consumption of natural resources and land use.
Six of the indicators were examining the TBL,
whereas the remaining seven were environmental
indicators that had an ecological impact such as
solid waste generation; steel, wood, concrete,
energy consumption, and land; and carbon inten-
sity of the construction. Yet, an empirical study
Gan et al. (2015) showed that owners seeking to
work on sustainable construction identified eco-
nomic considerations, awareness of sustainability
considerations, support from project stakeholders,
legislation and regulation, risk of appropriate
resources, implementation of sustainable con-
struction parameters, and appropriate models for
project management as key barriers preventing the
uptake of sustainable construction practices in
China.
In another developing country context, namely
Cambodia, examining the barriers to sustainable
construction showed that high cost, lack of gov-
ernment incentive, and prioritizing economic
needs are key blockers in the construction indus-
try. Lack of knowledge in professional capabili-
ties/designers was identified among the top six
reasons, demonstrating the need for education
and knowledge building in this area (Durdyev et
al. 2018). The drivers identified were resource
conservation, value for money in delivery, and
well-being.
Sfakianaki’s(2019) paper on the success fac-
tors of sustainable construction shows that envi-
ronmental factors, and, in particular, energy
reusability/recycling of materials and waste man-
agement are the main areas of research that under-
mine critical success factors in sustainable
construction. This highlights the focus of improved
environmental performance still considered to be
critical for sustainable construction. The impor-
tance of environmental considerations in buildings
and construction has been echoed by other authors
such as Kylili and Fokaides (2017) and Kibert
(2008). When combined economically, there are
studies to show that environmentally friendly
designs can provide cost-effective solutions, par-
ticularly when considering long-term costs. The
rise of tools used by various green building coun-
cils across the world demonstrates this point
further.
In addition to environmental factors, enabling
mechanisms such as implementation, policy, and
regulatory aspects for supporting sustainable con-
struction is also required. However, as there are
international pressures through the Paris Agree-
ment, reporting on the NDCs and the SDGs
mount, these considerations are expected to boost
work in this space. Social factors such as awareness
and importance of sustainable construction are still
considered to be lacking, according to Jagarajan et
al. (2017).
With respect to the economic factors, only one
area of critical success factor that stood out in the
research undertaken by Sfakianaki (2019) was
long-term costs. Studies, undertaken by Oyebanji
et al. (2017), show that construction costs are a
key driver for sustainable construction, and higher
construction costs are often sacrificed in favor of
environmental and social gains.
Buildings as a System
Buildings need to be considered at two levels: the
individual components that make up the whole
building, and the building itself as a holistic prod-
uct that is part of its immediate context, be it
neighborhood/suburbia or cities. Labeling of spe-
cific products within buildings are needed, partic-
ularly third-party certification, where independent
testing of claims is made/verified, or provenance is
6 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

highly desired. Product eco-certification schemes
or eco-labels have their place but, in a building
context, become more difficult to be verified after
installation due to transparency. It is problematic to
see what is behind a plasterboard wall unless the
inspection occurs during the process of installation
such as a moisture barrier or appropriately installed
insulation. Even if the moisture barrier or insulation
meets appropriate codes and standards, it needs to
be appropriately installed for optimum benefits to
be gained. For instance, if there are gaps when
placing insulation in a wall cavity, the thermal
performance of the wall is compromised. Hence,
to optimize the intent of a sustainable building,
design, construction, and performance need to be
aligned, and each aspect needs to support the best
out of the other.
The role of stakeholders when considering
buildings as a system is also important. Office
building users are more interested in a quality
workspace that has good thermal comfort such
as access to natural light and good air quality.
Employers are interested in reducing absenteeism
and ensuring employees are productive to main-
tain or increase company profits. These split
incentives are often difficult to reconcile unless
concerted efforts are made to lock-in design, con-
struction, and operation at the concept design
stage to optimize needs of all stakeholders.
Assessments Supporting Sustainable
Buildings and Construction
Hastings and Wall (2007) have grouped sustain-
ability assessment systems into the following,
which offer a good guide to sustainable buildings
and construction:
1. Cumulative energy demand systems focusing
on energy consumption. This focuses on the
energy-related aspects of the building, largely
on the energy needed to heat and cool buildings,
for ventilating the spaces within buildings,
water heating, lighting, and use of equipment
such as computers, printers, etc., which, given
the historical association with energy use as
explained earlier, is understandable. The mea-
sures of energy use are quantitative.
2. Life cycle assessment (LCA) systems focus not
only on environmental aspects but also on the
capital consumption and ongoing impacts right
through to end of life if life cycle costing
(LCC) is considered. Life cycle assessments
have a number of parameters that are consid-
ered, and they ensure that environmental
impacts are understood for individual compo-
nents of a building or the building as a whole.
These measures are quantitative. To under-
stand the environmental impact of one material
over another, the function of the respective
products or materials is compared to determine
which one has the higher environmental impact.
However, a barrier with LCA is the need to get
quality data, as assumptions and data substitu-
tion may not provide a realistic picture to sup-
port decision-making. A combination of LCA
and costing in the form of LCC is often used so
that the impacts of the cost are readily under-
stood and accepted by the building and con-
struction industry.
3. Total quality systems that focus on ecological,
economic, and social aspects. These are, effec-
tively, the various building and community
assessment schemes available mostly as volun-
tary tools in the marketplace. These tools are
multidimensional and can consist of both quan-
titative and qualitative measures depending on
the dimension/s being considered. For instance,
quality of life is an indicator that doesnot have a
simple uni-dimensional measure. It can include
income, well-being, production, and consump-
tion patterns and many other parameters
The plethora of sustainable or green building
tools available globally now use specific catego-
ries for evaluation which may be grouped into
energy, ecology, land use, materials, transport,
water, management, pollution, health and well-
being, and innovation. Construction is directly
associated with the site (ecology and land use),
energy, and water efficiency during the processes
of construction, materials and resources used (mate-
rials, transport, pollution, and ecology), indoor envi-
ronmental quality (pollution, health and well-being,
and management), waste (pollution, energy, and
water), and pollution. These are all interlinked. The
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs 7

scoring of the overall number of points achieved
through the categories provides the status of the
certification, the more points, the greater the diffi-
culty in achieving the desired level of certification.
The points may be in the form of increase in the
number of “stars”as in the case of Australia’sGreen
Star (GBCA 2020)orUK’s BREEAM (2020)orin
the type of metal used to denote a higher status (such
as platinum being higher than gold) in the case of
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) (USGBC 2020), DGNB (German Green
Building Council) (DGNB 2020), and GreenMark
(Singapore) (BCA 2020)orintermsofranking
assessment from C (poor) to S (excellent) as in the
case of CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment Sys-
tem for Built Environment Efficiency) in Japan
(CASBEE 2020).
Various building assessment rating tools use dif-
ferent weighting for each category, and in some
tools, the categories may be grouped together. The
types of buildings covered under the tools vary. The
common ones are residential, commercial, educa-
tional, institutional, data centers, mixed use build-
ings such as commercial and residential, and
beyond buildings to include communities or neigh-
borhood as part of the suit of tools, reflecting the
need to align sustainable buildings with sustainable
communities and spaces. Furthermore, when ini-
tially developed, these tools focused on key stake-
holder involvement such as design, build, and
operation. Increasingly, it is being recognized that
to ensure alignment across these life cycle phases,
design and construction need to also support
performance.
A balance between completeness in coverage
and simplicity of use is necessary to ensure that
sustainability assessment systems may flourish
and produce low or negligible impact as desired.
As buildings focus more on energy efficiency, the
importance of energy and materials used in con-
struction becomes quite important. The importance
of building design, construction, commissioning,
operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of
sustainable buildings needs to be considered (Dutil
et al. 2011). The fact that greater number of sustain-
ability assessment systems have gained acceptance
in the market is that they are not data-reliant in the
way LCA is, and the use of their check list approach
supports ease of use (Berardi 2012). The question
remains, however, if they are truly meeting the
needs for which they are built as very few undertake
postoccupancy evaluations to ensure that they meet
the original design and performance intent, while
ensuring that construction also supports the
performance.
Sustainable Procurement
Procurement may be understood as the process
used to secure the acquisition of goods and ser-
vices. Logically, therefore, sustainable procure-
ment supports low environment impact on society
and the environment and is an essential aspect to
sustainability policies and practices, as it is an
indicator of the robustness of the supply chain. If
sustainable buildings and construction are to be a
reality, sustainable procurement also needs to sup-
port the process. According to Meehan and Bryde
(2011), recommendations to include sustainable
procurement are about dealing with experiences
from other disciplines such as managing innova-
tion, developing indicators to support procurement
practices, taking advantage of the socio-economic
outcomes and impacts of environmental practices,
and educating and supporting behavior change for
procurement staff to ensure better outcomes.
Waste and Circularity
The consumption of resources from the planet is
the crux upon which sustainability has been
based. In particular, the built environment greatly
influences the sustainability of and the delicate
balance between anthropogenic and natural sys-
tems. The current linear cycle of taking from the
earth and putting back to the earth and the atmo-
sphere is not acceptable from a sustainability per-
spective. Therefore, as Vanegas et al. (n.d.)
indicate, the main areas need to be considered are:
improving technology efficiency in doing more
with less; reusing, rehabilitating, and retrofitting
building, materials, and other products to make
design and construction more sustainable; creating
new technologies so as to not rely solely on tradi-
tional materials and energy to meet human needs;
modifying historical technologies; reshaping human
desires so that while basic human needs are met,
wants are questioned and controlled; improving
8 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

economic viability so that the long term is also
considered; matching user needs with facility design
so that fit-for-purpose solutions are considered and
adopted; creating a healthy built environment so that
the interactions between human and natural envi-
ronments are healthy in every way possible;
empowering people to meet their own needs so
that ownership is encouraged and users are not
divorced from the local environments; and avoiding
negative environmental impacts by recovering
waste using circular principles, reusing existing
developments and spaces, and integrating the built
environment into ecological systems where possible
through nature-based solutions.
Waste has an impact. Typically, more materials
than what is required are ordered in a construction
project. It is not unusual to order materials 10%
more than required for construction. Design
changes, poor quality of materials, mistakes on
the construction site, poor planning, poor site
management, errors in ordering, and weather and
materials not in compliance with the standards or
regulation may also be causes of waste on con-
struction sites. Studies have indicated that the
amount of waste may be relatively high to about
a third of a project’s contractual documentation
(Hussain et al. 2013). This, in turn, affects the
quality of construction output and services offered
to clients.
Adaptative reuse along the lines of using cir-
cularity principles in buildings has been supported
by authors such as Kibert (2008) and Sfakianaki
and Moutsatou (2015). Taking a holistic approach
to design also needs various disciplines within the
built environment set of disciplines to consider
collaborative efforts to support the most opti-
mized outcomes for the client and the users of
the building. The types of techniques used in
construction, materials used, maintenance consid-
erations during the lifetime of the building, and
considerations for the end of life of buildings all
need to be deliberated at the start of the project.
The use of the language is important. Tari (2011)
and Kibert (2008) discuss the differences between
using “demolition of buildings”and “deconstruc-
tion”or “disassembly”to demonstrate the reuse
capabilities inherent in end-of-life of buildings.
Considering circular economy practices
impinges on sustainable buildings and construc-
tion. Behavioral, technical, and legal perspectives
also need to be considered as reducing and elim-
inating waste are critical. The use of recyclable
construction materials and supply chain consider-
ations is important. To move to circular econo-
mies, the current linear practices of agency and
ownership issues, lack of integration, and uncer-
tainty in the trajectories of construction and demo-
lition waste need to be considered (Mahpour 2018).
Building materials, such as wood, have been used
over thousands of years. In contemporary construc-
tion, wood is not available in all regions of the world
due to various reasons leading to wood being
imported. For sustainable use of wood, harvesting,
manufacture, and transportation are key consider-
ations. Wood-manufacturing process and marine
transportation contribute to a lot of energy con-
sumption and CO
2
emissions(Lietal.2018).
Sustainable Production and Consumption in
Buildings
Production and consumption are closely linked to
procurement. Sustainable consumption is about
ensuring that sustainable buildings and construc-
tion support the demand by consumers. Produc-
tion patterns need to move toward the use of less
virgin materials and more circularity consider-
ations as discussed earlier. SDG 12 on Sustainable
consumption and production (SCP) states that
SCP is “about promoting resource and energy
efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and provid-
ing access to basic services, green and decent jobs
and a better quality of life for all”(UN 2020c).
Education of the various professionals and
consumers is required. From a teaching perspec-
tive, new approaches and models include trans-
disciplinary teaching models such as action-
oriented, learner-centered pedagogies to support
learning competencies in the classroom (Sahakian
and Seyfang 2018). Rather than passively absorb-
ing information, use of evidence-based peda-
gogies and action-oriented approaches facilitated
by teachers brings home the knowledge required
to apply and develop anticipatory competencies.
Sahakian and Seyfang (2018) found that most of
the sustainable consumption courses had roots in
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs 9

environmental sciences. They also posit that uni-
versity campuses may be used as a testing ground
for ideas and innovations with transformative
learning outcomes for students on sustainable
consumption.
When considering the attitudes of consumers
toward sustainable consumption and production
and whether different generational attitudes mat-
ter, a study from Romania found that all three
generations (X, Y, and Z) were concerned about
the environment (Lakatos et al. 2018). However,
this concern did not match their behaviors of
ecological activities such as separate collection
of paper, plastic waste, and recycling batteries.
Wang et al. (2019) show that when examining
only peer-reviewed academic publications, the role
of SCP patterns in developed and developing coun-
tries under SDG12, cultural diversity, stage of eco-
nomic growth, and political procedures need to be
considered. Insufficient resources in developing
countries, on the one hand, and locking-in established
practices, on the other, limit how approaches to prob-
lems associated with environmental burdens are
framed, and therefore, solutions need to respond to
how the problems are framed.
Considering at the city scale, Schroder et al.
(2019) support the need for a transdisciplinary
research and engagement framework to advance
the transition to SCP patters. They suggest cocreating
participatory visioning and back casting methods as
the means to support governance and institutional
change while also supporting grass roots initiatives.
Fastenrath and Braun (2018)usingthecaseofBris-
bane, Australia, suggest that even though sustainable
buildings were recognized in the academic literature,
they did not make their way into the mainstream till
the policy and regulatory environment supported the
process.
In addition to the policy/regulatory environ-
ment, public support and industry drivers topped
with government support have supported the tran-
sition to sustainability outcomes. Also, at the city
scale, calls for transformation toward more sus-
tainable consumption and production patterns
have supported emerging and long-standing shar-
ing activities focusing on SCP patters and private/
public engagement and partnerships.
Authors such as Cohen and Munoz (2016)
identify areas of sharing. They state that food,
energy, goods, mobility and transport, and space
provide scope for sharing practices. Examples of
food are community gardens and leftover food;
energy refers to energy co-ops and group-purchas-
ing options such as community solar; goods refer
to preowned goods and libraries; and mobility and
transport’s best example is uber, and space sharing
includes options for places to stay. The sharing
economy has triggered discussions on economic
engagement and activity at local and global levels.
Thus, achieving sustainable buildings and con-
struction requires not only the creation of the
physical building, but also how activities are
undertaken by users within the buildings.
Thus, at a building scale, the product, i.e., the
building needs to support harmonious link
between the natural environment and the users of
the space. It needs to support anthropogenic
development while ensuring resource efficiency
(Sekerin et al. 2018). Also, at a building scale, the
use of materials needs transparency to support
informed decision-making. Therefore, life cycle
impacts of materials and products are essential to
determine overall impacts over the life cycle of
building materials and products (Secher et al.
2018). By mapping against the SDGs, it is possi-
ble for even SMEs to understand the life cycle
impacts, so as to make appropriate decisions.
Along similar lines, Russell et al.(2018) use the
SDGs as a framework for action by organizations
to drive change toward sustainability in global
supply networks. They conclude that shared
values aligned with transparent, third party mon-
itoring will be more effective than imposing stan-
dards through legislation and regulation in
supporting sustainable consumption and produc-
tion. Regulations have a place, but it needs to be
supplemented and complemented by awareness
and education.
Characteristics of Sustainable Buildings and
Construction
To achieve sustainable buildings and construction
therefore, a set of principles may be used to draw
from and applied on a case-by-case basis
depending on a number of other considerations
10 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

such as client, function, budget, and others. The
approach cannot be prescriptive as building and
construction stakeholders vary, climates vary, and
cost of the projects also differs as does the func-
tion of buildings themselves. There are many con-
siderations to support sustainable buildings and
construction, and a list has been drawn using the
literature (Vergragt et al. 2014; Hussain et al.
2013; Huovila 2010; Vanegas et al. n.d.). This
list may consider some of the characteristics in
more than one category, for example, good design
is a social response but also impacts on the use of
resources.
Environmental/
Ecological Economic
Social/cultural/
technical
Energy
efficiency
Consider life-
cycle business
models
Use of quality
assurance and
environmental
management
metering (so
users can track
behavior)
Extensive use of
renewable
energy sources
Internalize
external costs so
“true”costs are
considered
Enhance a
participatory
approach by
involving
stakeholders/
empowerment
Prolonged
service life of
the building/
structure in
whole or part
Consider
alternative
financing
mechanisms
Promote public
participation
Reduce the use
of natural
resources such
as water
Develop
appropriate
economic
instruments to
promote
sustainable
consumption
Promote the
development of
appropriate
institutional
metering for
tracking
Promotion of the
use of by-
products back
into the sector or
other sectors
Consider the
economic
impact (cost
savings and job
creation) on
local structures
Consider the
influence on the
existing social
framework such
as creating jobs
Reduced waste
and emissions
Use of
appropriate
labor leading to
cost savings
Assess the
impact on
health and the
quality of life
Upcycling/
reuse/repurpose/
recycling/ of
Consider reuse
so as to reduce
disposal cost
Flexibility of
construction to
ensure reuse/
repurpose
(continued)
Environmental/
Ecological Economic
Social/cultural/
technical
building
materials
Use of local
resources
Affordability Thermal and
acoustic
comfort makes
it more
comfortable for
users
Increase
material
efficiency by
reducing the
material demand
of nonrenewable
goods
Consideration
of waste and its
management as
part of the initial
design and
construction
Consider
occupant
productivity
and well-being
Reduce or
eliminate
material
intensity via
substitution
technologies
Low
maintenance
costs
Practices that
improve
construction
time such as
precast or off-
site construction
Reduce or
remove the
energy required
for transforming
goods and
supplying
services
Shift the
meaning of
value from
purely dollar
considerations
to include
“wider”
considerations
Design to
support good
bioclimatic
responses
Support the
instruments of
international
conventions and
agreements
Whole of life
cost savings
Set up
appropriate
standards and
regulatory/
policy support
Maximize the
sustainable use
of biological and
renewable
resources
Codesign
Consider the
impact of
planned projects
on air, soil,
water, flora, and
fauna
Produce and
buy responsibly
such as
maintaining
biodiversity and
supporting
urban farming
Use less or no
ozone-depleting
substances
Explore and
seek service
options rather
than always
consider buying
products
Use less
(continued)
Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs 11

Environmental/
Ecological Economic
Social/cultural/
technical
Use of nontoxic
or less-toxic
materials
Health is
maintained or
enhanced
Market ethically
No radioactive
material used
Use fair trade
products
Methods of
extraction of raw
materials
produce low or
no ecological
impact
Support
emerging
technologies
Fire resistance
considerations
Low-VOC
(volatile organic
compounds)
assembly
Design to ensure
and support
bioclimatic
responses
Conclusion
This entry commenced by exploring the sustain-
able development goals and the role of the One
Planet Network’s Sustainable Buildings and Con-
struction program. The nature of the building and
construction sector shows that the sector may not
be perfectly aligned among the various stake-
holders and regulatory/legislative frameworks
and approaches to buildings and construction in
developed and developing countries. Examining
sustainable construction in further detail showed
that various dimensions need to be considered
from ecological, economic, and social (and tech-
nical) perspectives. To achieve holistic sustain-
ability outcomes, buildings and construction also
need to respond in a manner aligned to the multi-
dimensional approach of the sustainable develop-
ment goals.
The market has responded to incorporating
multidimensional approaches by setting up a pleth-
ora of tools that make a great start to recognizing
sustainability issues and support a coordinated
response. However, most of the tools still deal
with mitigation, in lowering environmental impact
and reducing overall emissions as demonstrated
through the various categories that make up the
tools but do not inherently deal with other impor-
tant challenges of our current times such as
adaptation and resilience to climate change. Like-
wise, other concerns such as procurement, circu-
larity, production, and consumption, if considered
at all, are usually in a piecemeal manner. The
characteristics of sustainable buildings are pre-
sented to be used as a guide rather than in a
prescriptive manner due to the nature of the build-
ing and construction industry.
Buildings and construction are a reality of
human life in the twenty-first century. Humans
live, work, and play in the built environment and
in many countries spend large percentage of their
time indoors in these environments. Sustainable
buildings and construction need to consider a
range of different parameters that do not fit into
neat boxes. Like the SDGs, buildings also need to
be considered from a systemic perspective, as part
of a system in terms of design, construction, oper-
ation, and deconstruction. This acknowledges and
supports the notion that sustainability is indivisible.
Cross-References
▶Biocapacity
▶Building Lifecycle Sustainability Analysis
▶Built Environment Education for Sustainability
and Climate Change Preparation
▶Circular Economy and Urban Mining:
Resource Efficiency in the Construction Sector
for Sustainable Cities
▶Compact City as a Model Achieving Sustain-
able Development
▶Cultural and Natural Heritage
▶Education for All: Education for a More Inclu-
sive Society
▶Energy Conservation
▶Energy Star Buildings
▶Green Cities
▶Housing Affordability: Measurements and
Trends
▶Housing Policies and Sustainable Development
▶Materials and Construction Methods for Mass
Housing
12 Sustainable Buildings and Construction: Responding to the SDGs

▶New Pervious Concrete Construction Material
for Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
▶Participatory Design: Participatory Urban
Management
▶Planning the Development of Urban and Rural
Areas: An Integrative Approach
▶Renewable Energy and the Sustainable Devel-
opment Goals
▶Resilience in the Context of Climate Change
▶Resilient and Green Building Design/
Construction
▶Spatial Planning and Sustainable Cities and
Communities
▶Strategies for the Promotion of Affordable
Rural Housing
▶Sustainability Assessment Using Governance
Indicators
▶Sustainable Urban Planning and Making Sus-
tainable Cities
▶Sustainable, Fair, and Democratic Water
Management
▶The Contribution of Regenerative Architecture
to the Sustainability of Cities
▶Urban Demographics and Sustainable
Development
▶Urban Ecological Footprints
▶Urban Heritage Conservation and Development
▶Urban Metabolism: A Tool to Accelerate the
Transition to a Circular Economy
▶Urban Mitigation and Adaptation for Climate
Change
▶Urban Planning, Urban Design, and the Crea-
tion of Public Goods
▶Urbanization and Urban Growth: Sustainable
Cities for Safeguarding Our Future
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