Open research questions in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment

What the literature leaves open

• the study only examined the South African construction industry, - the sample size was limited to 44 construction professionals, - the study only used a quantitative research approach

  Exploring operational barriers and enabling conditions for green financing in the South African construction industry · 2026 · DOI

• further research could explore the operational barriers and enabling conditions in other construction industries, - future studies could investigate the impact of green financing on sustainable construction practices, - additional research could examine the role of organisational readiness and dynamic capabilities theory in supporting engagement with green financing

  Exploring operational barriers and enabling conditions for green financing in the South African construction industry · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies the lack of implementation of green construction policies and programs as a significant challenge. The research notes the difficulty in obtaining a complete and up-to-date list of professionals in the construction sector. The study acknowledges the limitations of the purposive snowball sampling approach.

  Assessing Awareness and Adoption of Green Policies and Programs for Sustainable Development: Perspectives from Construction Practitioners in Nigeria · 2025 · DOI

• Further studies could investigate the barriers to adoption of green construction policies and programs, - Research could explore the effectiveness of different strategies for increasing awareness and adoption

  Assessing Awareness and Adoption of Green Policies and Programs for Sustainable Development: Perspectives from Construction Practitioners in Nigeria · 2025 · DOI

• The study identifies the need for proactive solutions to address urban challenges such as traffic congestion and environmental degradation. The adoption of low-carbon building materials is hindered by the lack of awareness and high costs. The development of effective AI models for predicting low-carbon material performance is a technical challenge.

  Public health perspectives on green efficiency through smart cities, artificial intelligence for healthcare and low carbon building materials · 2024 · DOI

• The study did not involve animal or human clinical trials, - The study was limited to a survey of 200 respondents, - The study did not provide a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of smart cities and AI in medicine

  Public health perspectives on green efficiency through smart cities, artificial intelligence for healthcare and low carbon building materials · 2024 · DOI

• The high levels of embodied carbon in concrete, which is the second most widely used material on earth. The limited recyclability of concrete compared to steel. The need to minimize cement usage and introduce specialized additives to aggregates to reduce the associated embodied energy and environmental impacts.

  A Building Information Modeling-Based Life Cycle Assessment of the Embodied Carbon and Environmental Impacts of High-Rise Building Structures: A Case Study · 2024 · DOI

• Investigating alternatives to reinforced concrete for building structures - Exploring low-embodied-carbon concrete mixtures - Developing strategies to minimize cement usage and reduce environmental impacts

  A Building Information Modeling-Based Life Cycle Assessment of the Embodied Carbon and Environmental Impacts of High-Rise Building Structures: A Case Study · 2024 · DOI

• Further studies could investigate the effectiveness of policy interventions in promoting the adoption of SBMs - Research could explore the development of educational programs to raise awareness about SBMs

  Barriers to the Effective Selection of Sustainable Materials for Residential Building Projects: A Qualitative Study · 2024 · DOI

• There is a lack of understanding of the specific barriers to the selection of sustainable materials in Tanzania's residential construction sector. The study aims to fill this gap by identifying and analyzing the critical barriers hindering the effective selection of sustainable materials.

  Barriers to the Effective Selection of Sustainable Materials for Residential Building Projects: A Qualitative Study · 2024 · DOI

• Despite its importance, limited studies have identified the key factors influencing CSR adoption in this sector.

  Identifying the enablers of Corporate Social Responsibility adoption in construction firms · 2025 · DOI

• Education is a powerful driver of sustainable development, yet its localized effects on green growth in developing countries remain underexplored.

  Assessing the role of education in promoting green growth in urban areas · 2025 · DOI

• Despite these advancements, barriers such as data scarcity, lack of standardization, and interoperability issues persist.

  Life Cycle Assessment in the Early Design Phase of Buildings: Strategies, Tools, and Future Directions · 2025 · DOI

• Future research should explore dynamic modelling and broader socio-economic factors to refine sustainable practices.

  Decoding Concrete’s Environmental Impact: A Path Toward Sustainable Construction · 2025 · DOI

• Persistent barriers include insufficient standardization of methodologies, limited data availability, and the fragmented incorporation of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability.

  Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Buildings: A Scientometric Analysis · 2025 · DOI

• This study addresses a gap in research on lifecycle assessment (LCA) for Indian residential buildings by evaluating the full cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of a typical single-family house in Northern India.

  A Whole-Life Carbon Assessment of a Single-Family House in North India Using BIM-LCA Integration · 2025 · DOI

• Future research should focus on enhancing material durability, standardizing sustainability metrics, and developing cost-effective recycling strategies to promote wider adoption.

  Research Status and Emerging Trends in Green Building Materials Based on Bibliometric Network Analysis · 2025 · DOI

• Amid global climate change and energy constraints, green building represents a critical pathway for the construction industry’s decarbonization, yet its market development mechanisms remain underexplored.

  Sustaining Green Building Incentives: A Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis and the Synergistic “Technology–Reputation–Policy” Pathway · 2025 · DOI

• This study is limited to the meso-level (curricular management) and includes structural models, course descriptions, learning outcomes, course sequences, and alignment with program visions and missions.

  Sustainable environmental design: evaluating the integration of sustainable knowledge in Saudi Arabian architectural programs · 2024 · DOI

• Sustainability certification schemes such as BREEAM have been instrumental in guiding practitioners and developers to plan, design and build to high sustainability standards, yet the evidence for how these standards draw on and are framed by public participation inputs and processes is scarce.

  Sustainability power to the people: BREEAM Communities certification and public participation in England · 2024 · DOI

• The same methodology could be replicated by stakeholders in other countries to enhance their evaluation processes and ensure consistent results across their projects.

  Whole Life Carbon Assessment of Buildings: The Process to Define Czech National Benchmarks · 2024 · DOI

• The study concludes with recommendations for future research to bridge the gaps in the literature.

  Critical Review on the Energy Retrofitting Trends in Residential Buildings of Arab Mashreq and Maghreb Countries · 2024 · DOI

• Using a keyword-based search, 41 relevant studies were identified and critically analysed to identify gaps in the literature, benchmarking against global retrofit studies’ trends, including the absence of top-down and bottom-up physical approaches and the limited use of modern tools like BIM.

  Critical Review on the Energy Retrofitting Trends in Residential Buildings of Arab Mashreq and Maghreb Countries · 2024 · DOI

• Over the past five years, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Commercial Interior version 4 (LEED-CI v4)-certified office projects have been intensively studied in the USA and China, but they have not yet been studied in the Mediterranean region.

  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Commercial Interior Version 4 (LEED-CI v4) Gold-Certified Office Space Projects: A Pairwise Comparative Analysis between Three Mediterranean Countries · 2024 · DOI

• Expert commentary on how certifications influence asset values has been cautious, due to insufficient data.

  Do green certifications add value? Feedback from high-level stakeholders in the Spanish office market · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment

• Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings · American Economic Review · 2010 · 815 citations
• What is social sustainability? A clarification of concepts · Geoforum · 2011 · 803 citations
• The application of urban sustainability indicators – A comparison between various practices · Habitat International · 2010 · 573 citations
• Residential energy use and conservation: Economics and demographics · European Economic Review · 2012 · 524 citations
• Exploring the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability · Geoforum · 2014 · 509 citations
• A review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal · Habitat International · 2013 · 431 citations
• The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Architectures · Journal of Business Ethics · 2014 · 420 citations
• Drivers for green building: A review of empirical studies · Habitat International · 2016 · 398 citations
• Critical analysis of green building research trend in construction journals · Habitat International · 2016 · 307 citations
• SELECTION OF THE EFFECTIVE DWELLING HOUSE WALLS BY APPLYING ATTRIBUTES VALUES DETERMINED AT INTERVALS · Journal of Civil Engineering and Management · 2008 · 306 citations

Most recent work

• Social life cycle assessment: a systematic review from the engineering perspective · International Journal of Sustainable Engineering · 2026
• Building construction workforce sustainability competencies for promoting circular economy: guidelines for higher education institutions · International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education · 2026
• From awareness to adoption: a theoretically grounded analysis of professional pathways in sustainable construction material usage in Nigeria · Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology · 2026
• Impact of value management critical success factors on overall sustainability success in Australian steel sector · Facilities · 2026
• Designing a Low-Carbon Building via LCB Method 3.0, Case Study: An Educational Building in Tehran · Journal of Construction in Developing Countries · 2026
• Impacts of Policy Instrument Combinations on the Collaborative Innovation of Generic Technology for Green Building: Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis · Journal of Construction Engineering and Management · 2026
• Circular economy uptake for regenerative design: insights from living-certified buildings · Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management · 2026
• Bridging Awareness and Adoption: Adaptive Reuse Techniques in the Context of Sustainable Construction in Nigeria · International Journal of Construction Education and Research · 2026
• Assessing the Environmental Sustainability in the Italian and Romanian Hospitality Sector: The Case of Accommodation Facilities · Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management · 2026
• Barriers to passive retrofitting of residential buildings as interconnected systems: network analysis and qualitative perspectives from stakeholders · Smart and Sustainable Built Environment · 2026

Related topics in Engineering