Cleaner Engineering and Technology (Apr 2023)
A framework for assessing sustainability of construction projects
Abstract
Construction projects can have adverse possible environmental consequences. The construction sector contributes to around 25% of air pollution, 40% of water pollution, and 50% of landfill wastes. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on sustainable development, where the construction industry can assist in achieving many of these goals. This research presents a framework for assessing the sustainability of construction projects. The research identifies the factors that are linked to sustainability in construction. To determines the relative weights of these factors, multicriteria decision-making techniques, namely, Shannon entropy and the CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) methods, were used. To assess the sustainability of construction projects Hierarchical evidential reasoning was used to aggregate the different factors found in different projects based on weights and magnitude of each factor. To examine the plausibility of the proposed framework, three case studies for new development projects were used. The results from the proposed framework were verified using face verification. The results showed that the difference in relative weights of the different indicators were statistically insignificant indicating that the accuracy of the calculated weights. Additionally, the experts sought to verify the applicability of the framework indicated that it can be widely used in different projects to assess how sustainable they are. The proposed framework can be used in various construction projects by stakeholders, such as contractors and developers, to assess the sustainability of new construction projects and capitalize on their corporate social responsibility, ultimately enhancing the construction industry quality and standards.
