Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Volume 30, February 2014, Pages 271-281

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021 Get rights and content

Abstract

Green building is one of measures been put forward to mitigate significant impacts of the building stock on the environment, society and economy. However, there is lack of a systematic review of this large number of studies that is critical for the future endeavor. The last decades have witnessed rapid growing number of studies on green building. This paper reports a critical review of the existing body of knowledge of researches related to green building. The common research themes and methodology were identified. These common themes are the definition and scope of green building; quantification of benefits of green buildings compared to conventional buildings; and various approaches to achieve green buildings. It is found that the existing studies played predominately focus on the environmental aspect of green building. Other dimensions of sustainability of green building, especially the social sustainability is largely overlooked. Future research opportunities were identified such as effects of climatic conditions on the effectiveness of green building assessment tools, validation of real performance of green buildings, unique demands of specific population, and future proofing.

Introduction

Construction industry has significant environmental, social and economic impacts on the society. As one of key outputs of the construction industry, buildings largely reflect these impacts during its lifecycle. The positive impacts of construction activities include: providing buildings and facilities to satisfying human being's requirements, providing employment opportunities directly or indirectly (through other industries related to the construction industry) and contributing toward the national economy. For instance, the construction industry in Australia contributes 7.5% to the Gross domestic product (GDP) and provides more than 1 million jobs. Similarly, buildings and construction activities play a crucial role in urbanization.

The negative impacts of buildings and construction activities are also well recognized. These include the noise, dust, traffic congestion, water pollution and waste disposal during the construction stage. A large quantity of natural and human resources will be consumed. Once completed, buildings continue their impacts on the environment. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, building block accounts for 40% of total energy consumption [1]. Apart from energy consumption, buildings produce Greenhouse Gas emission (GHG) emission which is responsible for global warming. The carbon emission of buildings across the world will reach 42.4 billion tonnes in 2035, adding 43% on the level of 2007 [2]. In addition, the renovation, refurbishment and retrofitting of building will involve the consumption of natural resources and energy; GHG emission; production of noise and other pollutants as well. At the end of life of buildings, the disposal of buildings is also associated with energy consumption and waste production. In 2007, the waste generated from the construction industry in Australia reached 16.6 million tonnes. This accounted for 38% of total waste, of which 43% was sent to landfill [3]. The increasing demand of landfill presents a new challenge to all countries that have issues with limited land. This is compounded by the prediction made by the International Energy Agency that the commercial buildings and institutional buildings will rise two times by 2050 [4].

There are many definitions of green building. For instance, Kibert defined green building as: “… healthy facilities designed and built in a resource-efficient manner, using ecologically based principles” (p.9) [5]. It is worth noting that green building has been used as a term interchangeable with sustainable building and high performance building. Robichaud and Anantatmula pointed out that there are four pillars of green buildings, i.e. minimization of impacts on the environment, enhancing the health conditions of occupants, the return on investment to developers and local community, and the life cycle consideration during the planning and development process [6]. Common elements of these definitions are: life cycle perspective, environmental sustainability, health issues and impacts on the community.

There have been extensive researches on various aspects of green buildings in different contexts. However there is lack of systematic review of existing body of knowledge. Such systematic review plays a critical role to not only identify the common research streams but also highlight the future research trends. This research aims to critically review the green building related studies in a bid to highlight the state of art and future needs in this field. This paper provides a useful reference for both industry practitioners and academics that are interested in green building developments.

Section snippets

Common research themes on green building

There have been extensive studies on green buildings, as evidenced in the rapid growing number of papers been published in last decades. These studies have been conducted in both developed countries and developing countries, indicating this is a global issue. A critical review of the existing body of knowledge revealed that there are generally three common focuses of these studies (see Fig. 1). Similarly, green building can be approached either from process (i.e. how to implement the process)

What is green building?

There is a growing level of public awareness of green building. However, there have been extensive debates on what a green building is or what the green building should cover. Indeed, the lack of clear definition of green building creates further challenges for promoting and implementing green buildings.

Why green buildings and how much benefit?

There is no lack of studies investigating the costs and benefits associated with green building developments. The main purpose of these studies is to justify the value of going green which will assist decision making process. It is even more valuable under the context of Global Financial Crisis where clients have comparatively smaller finance capacity and financial institutions are more conservative in terms of lending decision. In essence, these studies focus on pros and cons of green building

How to achieve green building?

The critical success factors to achieve green building can generally fall into three categories, i.e. technical, managerial and behavioral. It is worth noting that these factors are usually interactive therefore a comprehensive consideration of them is required. These approaches to achieve green buildings are discussed in detail in the following sections.

Conclusions

This study reported a critical review of existing studies related to green buildings worldwide. The results showed that these studies can generally be classified into three categories, i.e. the definition and scope of green buildings; benefits and costs of green buildings; and ways to achieve green building. The extensive literature review shows that most of green building studies focus on environmental aspects of sustainability such as energy consumption, water efficiency and greenhouse gas

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Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Common research themes on green building

What is green building?

Why green buildings and how much benefit?

How to achieve green building?

Conclusions

Build Environ

Build Environ

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Waste Manage

Resour Conserv Recycling

Build Environ

J Cleaner Product

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

J Cleaner Product

J Environ Manage

Energy Build

J Cleaner Product

Build Environ

Sustain Cities Soc

Appl Energy

Build Environ

Habitat Int

Build Environ

Waste Manage

Habitat Int

Energy Policy

Build Environ

Renew Sustainable Energy Rev

Renew Sustainable Energy Rev

Energy Build

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Appl Energy

Build Environ

Build Environ

Energy Build

Build Environ

Energy Build

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Build Environ

Energy Build

Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2010

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Energy Build

Renew Sustain Energy Rev

Building Environ

Build Environ 2011

Energy Build

Energy Build

Energy Build

Energy