A Novel framework for integrating United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into sustainable non-residential building assessment and management in Jordan

Abstract

Across the world, governments have developed strategies to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Sustainable buildings perform a significant function toward achieving the UN SDGs. Currently, there is a lack of information on this subject because no existing sustainable building assessment system describes the relationship between its assessment criteria and the UN SDGs. In this article, a new framework is proposed to integrate the UN SDGs into the assessment and management of sustainable non-residential buildings in Jordan. For this purpose, previous building rating systems were reviewed, and the Delphi technique was applied to identify assessment categories and indicators for sustainable non-residential buildings in Jordan. Moreover, the analytic hierarchy process and relative importance index methods were employed to develop an integrated weighting system for assessment indicators based on the significance of sustainability problems in Jordan and contributions to achieve the UN SDGs. Additionally, questionnaire surveys were conducted to construct a classification system and thereafter identify the integration of assessment indicators into project phases. Finally, the proposed framework was validated by conducting a focus group discussion. The findings in this research can potentially assist in the formulation of building assessment tools and achievement of the UN SDGs in countries, such as Jordan.