A sustainable development concerning economic, environmental, and social aspects is a global need as well as challenge in general and especially regarding the selection of construction materials. However, it is assumed that the importance of sustainability criteria is different in developed and developing countries. This is relevant for the application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, a method that integrates the established methods for economic, ecological, and social evaluation (Life Cycle Costing, Life Cycle Assessment, and Social Life Cycle Assessment) without explicitly including importance weightings. This paper aims to review the reality of sustainable development in construction material selection in Vietnam, a developing country. A list of 18 sustainability criteria was set up by reviewing previous studies and using a questionnaire. These criteria were ranked and used to calculate the importance of weightings based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process method and a Likert scale. The results showed that the “price of material” was ranked as the first among the sustainability criteria. It is also pointed out that 42.06, 29.96, and 27.98 are the weightings of Life Cycle Costing, Life Cycle Assessment, and Social Life Cycle Assessment results, respectively. Besides, 11 obstacles for integrating sustainability criteria into material selection were identified in the questionnaire, and 4 out of them were marked as showing “high” importance.
Construction projects consume a massive amount of renewable and non-renewable resources and negatively affect sustainable development. The selection of materials is necessary to meet the demands of sustainability. The preliminary design phase is essential within construction project phases because the main requirements, budget, and master drawings are planned here. Also, the selection of primary materials is considered in this phase. However, the integration of material selection and sustainability in the preliminary design phase has been underestimated. This paper reviewed sustainability in the preliminary design phase and the importance of material selection in accordance with sustainability in this phase. By using current literature and tools like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), the paper establishes a conceptual framework including sub-aspects that relate to sustainable aspects (economy, environment, and society). The proposed sub-aspects, such as total cost, cost efficiency, budget management, and water efficiency, define the relevant activities that help select the most sustainable materials. The results can be applied as a guide to decision-makers and promote sustainability right from the preliminary design phase. Future studies may provide methods for each criterion and establish a detailed plan to apply this framework in practice.
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