Responsible sourcing and green supply chains are becoming dominant tools towards procuring materials in a sustainable manner across the architecture, engineering and construction sector to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The aim of this study was to provide a structured review of responsible sourcing literature to identify the potential opportunities and obstacles towards the accomplishment of a roadmap for the sector to support delivery of the goals. The main opportunities included competitive advantage, stakeholder value and improved supply chain management. The main obstacles included cost, deficiencies in structured frameworks and an array of industry specific constraints. These were aligned with the goals to produce a roadmap, validated by industry experts. For fruition, it is surmised that refocusing the industry in recent years combined with achievement of the goals will stimulate innovative technical solutions to produce truly sustainable development.

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In recent years, responsible sourcing and procurement (including green supply chain management) across the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sectors have become notable contributors to sustainable construction strategies. This study aims to provide a systematic review of responsible sourcing literature across the AEC sectors of the UK to identify a suite of opportunities and obstacles to adopting ethical and environmentally supportive practices and to highlight avenues for further investigation. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review process was adopted to identify, screen, and select (n = 80) articles (from 2000–2020) for review. Analysis of these articles identified the most frequently reported opportunities: (i) stakeholder value (40%); (ii) improved supply chain performance (39%); and (iii) competitive advantage (30%). The most frequently reported obstacles relating to the uptake of responsible sourcing are the following: (i) cost (44%); (ii) industry constraints (28%); and (iii) lack of frameworks/information and lack of awareness (25%). Given the industry importance of these themes, it is proposed that there is a necessity to explore and unravel the perceptions of industry experts about these issues so as to clarify the progress and possibilities for more widely adopting responsible sourcing across the AEC sector and, moreover, for clarifying their contribution towards achieving national and international sustainability targets (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goals).