Developing Framework For A Conceptual Model Towards Assessing The Environmental Compliance Of Non-Residential Building In Jordan
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Date
2019-05-01
Authors
Alawneh, Rami Mohammad Deeb
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Governments across the world have developed strategies to achieve United
Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Sustainable buildings have
significant role towards achieving UN SDGs. Currently, there is lack of information
on the subject as none of the existing sustainable building assessment systems
describe the relationship between its assessment criteria and UN SDGs. Despite the
efforts, non-sustainable building and slow progress towards UN SDGs still prevail in
Jordan. Therefore, this research achieved conceptual framework towards efforts to
integrate the assessment and management of sustainable non-residential buildings in
Jordan with UN SDGs. There are two unanswered questions on how sustainable
building contributes to achieve UN SDGs in Jordan and how the contributions of
sustainable building towards achieving UN SDGs can be improved. To achieve these
two research questions, this research conducted into two main stages, in the first
stage, the relationships between the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) v2.2 and the UN SDGs were explored using a quantitative descriptive
methodology, because at the time of this research, most certified green buildings in
Jordan were under new LEED v2.2 construction. Structured questionnaire surveys
were conducted. Pearson‘s Chi-square and frequency tests were carried out to
examine these relationships. The results show a positive relationship between
LEED v2.2 prerequisites and credits in both WE and EA categories and the UN
SDGs 6−9, 12–13, and 15. In the second main stage of this research, a conceptual
framework for integrating UN SDGs into sustainable non-residential building assessment
and management in Jordan was developed. For this purpose, previous building rating
systems were reviewed, the Delphi technique was applied to identify assessment
categories and indicators for sustainable non-residential building in Jordan, the
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Relative Importance Index (RII) methods
were applied to develop a new innovative integrated weight (combination of AHP
and RII methods) that can maintain the focus of the sustainable building assessment
framework on the UN SDGs while solving building sustainability problems
according to a country‘s specific context. Additionally, questionnaire surveys were
conducted to identify the integration of assessment indicators in project phases and to
construct a classification system. Finally, the proposed framework, consist of 12
assessment categories include 75 indicators, was validated by focus group discussion
method. The findings in this research can potentially assist in formulating building
assessment tools and achieving the UN SDGs in countries other than Jordan.