Multi-Criteria Ranking of Green Materials According to the Goals of Sustainable Development

Amirhossein Balali,Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas,Alireza Valipour,Zenonas Turskis

doi:10.3390/su12229482

Amirhossein Balali, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229482

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Abstract

Modern, well-educated and experienced policy-makers support and promote the use of environmentally friendly materials and resources. The use of green resources is an exceptional and inevitable strategy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing Earth population. The growing population raises the need for new housing construction and urban infrastructure development. Such substances in construction refer to green building materials (GBMs). The environmental impact is lower if GBMs replace non-GBMs. Here, ranking among GBMs can facilitate and support the selection process. This study aimed to contribute to the body of knowledge to introduce a method for identifying and prioritizing GBMs in the construction industry to use in green building. The required data were collected using existing literature, interviews and questionnaires. Relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the first criteria for assessing GBM selection criteria. Critical weighted GBM selection criteria are the second criteria for prioritizing GBMs. The results show that “Natural, Plentiful and Renewable”, “Affordability from cradle to gate” and “Affordability during operation” are the top three GBM selection criteria. The real case study helped select “Stramit Strawboard”, “Aluminium Composite Panels (ACPs)” and “Solar Roof Tiles” as the most suitable GBMs for use in the context of the study. The model and results presented in this study will help actors of the construction industry to select and use GBMs more quickly and thus achieve a better level of construction sustainability, as well as environmental friendliness, than before.

Highlights

The vast majority of human activities in the modern world affect the environment
Identification and Allocation of Weights to the Relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Sustainable Development Goals include 17 primary goals, as well as 169 corresponding targets in vast areas [21]. Some of these goals and targets are related to the construction industry
Various studies have taken place that showed the impact of the construction industry on achieving SDGs [24,25]

Summary

Introduction

The vast majority of human activities in the modern world affect the environment. In most cases, this is a negative factor. The building sector is known as one of the biggest energy-consuming sectors, and exploiting energy contributes to global climatic change and other environmental issues [2,3]. Previous studies illustrated that the building sector is responsible for consuming over 40% of the total final energy, using approximately 30% of the total resources, producing 45–65% of the waste disposed to landfills and emitting more than 30% of the greenhouse gases in developed countries [4,5,6,7,8,9]

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