Sustainable construction management: A systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis

Abstract

In addition to creating value and jobs, the construction industry uses a considerable amount of resources with severe consequences for the environment. Therefore, its implications should be reduced, especially since this industry has opportunity to reduce economic, environmental and social impacts. Once mitigating impacts is such an important matter for the construction industry, a systematic review of the literature has been run in order to investigate studies on the quantitative methodologies of sustainability in construction. This paper presents a review of over 2,600 papers on the topic. Mixed methods were applied for bibliometry, with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis methodology to conduct a quantitative bibliometric search and subsequently assess the articles included using qualitative methods. These studies were subdivided into three groups: sustainability in construction, environmental aspects, and others. VOSviewer software was used in the quantitative analysis of documents, institutions and the most referenced journals. The results demonstrated that the first articles related to the topic of sustainability in construction were published in 1993 and that among the studies found in Web of Science only 2.54% used quantitative methodologies to assess the sustainability of the construction industry.