A Review on Sustainability Principles of Building: Formulation of a Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Sustainable development has received encouraging attention since the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was signed in 1992 Earth Summit. In Malaysia, the focus on sustainability in building, especially in devising policies has been spelled out in the government policies at national, state and local level. It can be considered that many efforts relating to sustainability in building project have been implemented in the country, however till now sustainability in Malaysian building projects are still remain without proven. It was revealed that most of the current frameworks of sustainability in the country are not equipped to handle sustainable building project. It is often encouraged environmental measure in most cases, yet the rest of measures are less promoted. To response to the issues, this study therefore aims to explore the sustainability principles of building through the review of relevant literatures. Content analysis is used to identify the principles in the sustainability literature relevant to building projects. A theoretical framework of sustainability principles of building was then formulated to be the main outcome of the study. The framework consists of a list of 29 sustainability principles of building to be taken into account throughout the project development process. The findings is very important to be a useful starting point for future study, especially for formulating a clear guide for the development of upcoming sustainable building projects to its actual meaning.

Sustainable Construction Understanding among Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Professionals in Abuja

“…Overcoming resistance to change and transitioning to more advanced sustainability-oriented methods are crucial steps to be taken. Financial Financial challenges, including the perception that sustainable construction is costlier, contribute to the reluctance of developers to adopt sustainable practices (Isa Kalsum et al, 2014). Addressing these economic factors and integrating life-cycle costs into project evaluations can help promote the implementation of sustainable construction.…”

“…Client demand and willingness are among the most important drivers for promoting sustainable construction practices implementation. The economic factor was found to have a minimal impact on sustainable construction understanding (Benson et al, 2017;Isa Kalsum et al, 2014;Lélé, 2018). Providing economic incentives can encourage the adoption and implementation of sustainable practices (Adepoju & Aigbavboa, 2020;Saleh & Alalouch, 2015) and address concerns about high initial investments.…”

“…Therefore, to drive the adoption of sustainable construction practices, it will be important to identify all factors that impede the progress of sustainable construction practices. More so, many authors (Aghimien et al, 2019;Davies & Davies, 2017;Isa Kalsum et al, 2014) have reported inconsistencies in how experts in the AEC industry envision the future application of sustainable construction, influenced by Nigeria's unique context and expertise of professionals. Therefore, it is imperative to gauge the understanding of sustainable construction among AEC professionals in Nigeria who are the drivers for its implementation.…”

Envisioning a strategic framework to streamline building operation, sustainability and users’ disease control

“…Furthermore, sustainability all over the whole life cycle shall take into account carefully selected building materials and robust solutions so risk and costs associated with cleaning, maintenance and recyclability are reduced. In a more scientific literature, Berardi (2013) clarified the new interpretations of the concept of sustainable buildings; Isa et al (2014) presented a review on sustainability principles of buildings; and Park and Nagy (2018) stated that balancing the reduction of the energy demands (through optimal building operation) with thermal comfort, is required for a sustainable and comfortable building stock. Still, focussed on the topic of comfort in buildings, Barbosa et al (2016) investigated vulnerability factors that influence thermal comfort in the context of climate change, as well as variability and adaptive strategies that could be adopted; Saraiva et al (2018) addressed the importance of using indicators related to environmental comfort in sustainability assessment tools applied to school buildings; and Pomfret and Hashemia (2017) evaluated thermal comfort in domestic zero energy buildings.…”

Development of Lean Approaching Sustainability Tools (LAST) Matrix for Achieving Integrated Lean and Sustainable Construction

“…Early efforts were proposed to achieve sustainability within three domains described as environment, social, and economy. These three domains are known as the triple bottom line (Nahmens and Ikuma, 2012;Isa, Samad and Alias, 2014). Accordingly, an abundance of research efforts since 1990 can be found on how to make construction as sustainable as possible.…”