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Dear Colleagues,

Undoubtedly, the construction industry has a great impact on the environment, economy, health, and productivity. Due to the recent developments in the construction industry, the necessary technology and knowledge are now provided for designers, builders, operators, and owners to have the best economic and environmental productivity by building green buildings. The origin of green building is the process of constructing environmentally friendly buildings and conserving energy. Especially in recent years, urban waste and environmental issues have become vital issues. Many recycling resources can be found in our living environment that, if not recycled, can cause significant environmental problems for our living environment, such as tires, iron powder, plastics, and so on. The important point is that these wastes can be reused in the construction industry. Using waste material in concrete manufacturing is an effective way to accomplish two goals: waste reduction and the addition of good and positive characteristics to concrete. Because the green concrete industry is growing, it is more important than ever to assess concrete-containing waste from all angles in order to determine its suitability. In this study, some experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to evaluate the effect of waste materials on the compressive and tensile strength of concrete.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Impact of the construction industry on the environment, economy, health and productivity
Technology and knowledge in the construction industry
Environmental productivity of green building
Urban waste and environmental issues in the construction industry
The growth of the green concrete industry

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Mahdi Shariati
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

green building
construction industry
conserving energy
waste material
green concrete

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Development of DASH: Design Assessment Framework for Sustainable Housing

Kratika Piparsania

and

Pratul Ch. Kalita

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15990; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315990 - 30 Nov 2022

Viewed by 761

Abstract

The idea of sustainability is based on three pillars—environmental, economic, and social—per the Brundtland report. Housing is a type of architecture with which any occupant can connect. It is a place that supports an occupant’s physical, emotional, cultural, and social needs, which support their consciousness. The methodology used here includes an extensive literature review, followed by data collection and analysis in order to understand, achieve, and balance sustainability and its metrics. We could see an evident gap in current green building rating systems regarding the inclusion of social and cultural indicators. There is an inclination for quantitative approaches, such as energy, the environment, and resources. We found that it is viable to identify, recognize, and determine social and cultural indicators that are both tangible and intangible. In most research regarding the sustainable built environment, the participation and feedback are limited to industry experts and professionals, and residents are excluded. This study attempted to fill this gap by collecting data from Indian residents, thus validating social and cultural indicators according to occupants’ needs. With the help of indicators discovered in the literature review and by strengthening them further with data collection, a holistic framework was developed to achieve sustainability for housing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Building and Sustainable Urban Development)

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Open AccessArticle

Environmental Protection Is Not Relevant in the Perceived Quality of Life of Low-Income Housing Residents: A PLS-SEM Approach in the Brazilian Amazon

Wylliam Bessa Santana

and

Luiz Maurício Furtado Maués

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13171; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013171 - 14 Oct 2022

Viewed by 672

Abstract

Meeting the needs of users is imperative in construction, especially those of low-income people. This research looks into the perceptions of low-income users concerning green building (GB) and discusses how building sustainability can contribute to improving their lives. To this end, a model was developed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) relating the perceptions on residents’ quality of life with the GB criteria of Blue House Label (Selo Casa Azul—SCA), a Brazilian Sustainable Label. This model was based on data from a survey with 658 residents of the ‘Minha Casa, Minha Vida—MCMV’ (My Home, My Life) program, which is part of the Brazilian social housing system. The results of the model suggest that intangible issues such as the environmental protection criteria related to the construction of the building are not capable of influencing their perception of quality of life in the project. On the other hand, GB criteria capable of providing more practical benefits to low-income residents were broadly accepted, such as urban quality, GBT related to cost reduction, water management, and social practices. Furthermore, this article contributes to the discussion about sustainable social housing, the importance of adopting social criteria in GB, and the potential of environmental education to contribute to meeting sustainable development goals (SDG). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Building and Sustainable Urban Development)

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