Green building practices: a literature review of barriers and solutions for sustainable development
Francis Kamewor Tetteh & Kwame Owusu Kwateng
What the paper says
Purpose Despite the growing attention on the concept of green building practice (GBP), its proliferation remains slow. This paper aims to present a comprehensive literature review on the barriers inhibiting GBP uptake in the construction industry. The paper identifies knowledge gaps and current research trends as well as propose practical solutions to curtail the identified barriers to GBP uptake in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol, 96 papers published between 1996 and 2024 were extracted from Scopus for the review. The review combined bibliometric and systematic methodological approaches. Findings The outcome revealed an increasing body of GBP with an annual growth rate of 10.87%, whereas 99 barriers were found to be impeding the uptake of GBP in the construction industry. The identified barriers have been grouped into seven categories, namely, social, cultural, economic/financial, technological, technical, environmental barriers and regulatory. Practical implications The bibliometric review undertaken allowed for the appreciation of “hot” themes, research gaps and the status quo of research on GBP acceptance. By leveraging these findings, industry leaders and policymakers can foster a more conducive ecosystem for the widespread adoption and sustained implementation of GBPs in the construction industry. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in the combination of the systematic and bibliometric approaches to offer a state-of-the-art global understanding of GBPs over the past two decades and the barriers impeding its uptake in the construction industry. The paper is among the very few attempts to offer contemporary strategies to accelerate green building uptake in the construction space. Based on the gaps identified, an agenda for future research directions was proffered.
4 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15 |
| M · momentum | 0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.