The need to implement sustainable development (SD) in the construction industry has given birth to the green building (GB) movement. GB is a promising construction approach through which the construction industry contributes to SD. However, the adoption of GB has been hampered in many parts of the world by numerous barriers. To date, no attention has been paid to the need to review existing knowledge of barriers affecting GB adoption. This paper presents a systematic review of literature on barriers to GB adoption published in academic journals.

Green building is cost-effective

1. Upfront investment in green building makes properties more valuable, with an average expected increase in value of 4 percent. By virtue of lowered maintenance and energy costs the return on investment from green building is rapid: green retrofit projects are generally expected to pay for itself in just seven years. 3

The original policy issued by The Science Council of Japan was in Japanese, and this English article summarises the policy that outlined a roadmap to realize a healthy low-carbon society. The aim of the policy is to build a low carbon footprint and high environmental performance. There are four parts as below: 

(1) Increasing motivation for new, healthy, low-carbon lifestyles and behavioral changes

Cities need to become ‘smarter’ if we are to save the planet. John Dora, editor of a special issue of ICE Engineering Sustainability journal on smart cities, says the ingenuity of civil engineers will be essential for their delivery.

Building energy efficiency has been identified as a cost-effective opportunity to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and a variety of policies are being implemented to harvest this efficiency potential. However, there are growing concerns about a gap between predicted or expected energy consumption levels in buildings and the actual measured energy consumption in operation, both at an individual building level as well as in the building sector as a whole.

The purpose of this study was to complete a literature review of the economic assessment of the costs, benefits and methods for the construction of houses that are designed and built to standards that exceed the minimum requirements as defined by the Building Code. The scope included international and local assessments, academic and grey literature and industry material such as facts sheets. Key findings Many studies focused on energy savings as the sole benefit.