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The goal of sustainable and high-performance building requires an integrated interdisciplinary orientation that seeks not only to make advances, but also to find ways to change the behavior of firms, occupants of buildings, and local governments to adopt more environmentally friendly development and building use practices. The Center will draw together experts from across Harvard’s various schools to pursue highly interdisciplinary research and teaching to advance the state of knowledge and practice in green building. Experts from the Graduate School of Design will be joined by researchers from various Harvard institutions including the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Public Health, the Business School, the Kennedy School, the Law School, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.  

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The Center engages in four interrelated streams of research that represent various dimensions and scales of the sustainable built environment:

EFFICIENT MODELING

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  • Examine new forms of data visualization and human-building interaction
  • Utilize, build, and maintain a large Building Performance Database
  • Pursue interdisciplinary engagement with mathematicians, computer scientists, and behavioral scientists within the Harvard community and beyond

MODELING DIMENSION

  • How can we develop modeling methods that enable building simulation to reflect uncertainties involving human behavior and local conditions?
  • How can we improve energy saving technologies within building systems?

MATERIAL CONSUMPTION & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

research topics on green construction

The Center’s research initiatives seek to establish how buildings can be designed and built to radically improve material consumption patterns and life-cycle building performance through:

  • Studying, evaluating, and developing building-specific, design related environmental assessment metrics and framework
  • Researching environmentally smart material and construction solutions from the nano-scale to the building scale
  • Emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science with other external contributors
  • Conducting research at the forefront of material innovation and digitally supported sustainable material and construction strategies

TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AND DIFFUSION

Societal impact and benefits from advances in knowledge and technology depend upon the adoption and diffusion of actual product and process innovations in the marketplace. New business models and financing models are needed to overcome divergences between social and private rates of return on green building investments. Laws, regulations, and enforcement mechanisms are critical public policy drivers for technology adoption and diffusion. Similarly, behaviorally informed tools for public policy such as choice architecture, default rules, norms, simplification, and information are critical to shaping technology adoption and diffusion.

  • Utilize our database of product and technology introductions to better understand the rate of technological change in the building industry and the factors that influence technology adoption and diffusion
  • Develop economic models for drivers of innovation and technology adoption relating to incentives, government policies, and individual and business behavior
  • Create cost-benefit studies that assess the potential returns to firms that adopt technologies that improve building performance
  • Analyze ways to shape incentives and behavior of individuals in buildings to support better building performance outcomes

ECONOMIC DIMENSION

  • How can we shape incentives and the behavior of individuals in buildings to support better building performance outcomes?
  • How can we better understand the factors that influence technology adoption and diffusion so that we can create better government policies, regulations, and enforcement mechanisms?

EFFICIENT BUILDINGS, EFFICIENT COMMUNITIES

  • Develop and evaluate tools to enable implementation, improvement, and compliance with energy-efficient practices and codes
  • Refine and test the next generation of regulations, such as outcome-based codes, that will ensure on-going building performance
  • Develop computational models and framework to design and manage sustainable communities and cities

A major advance in any of these dimensions has potential to improve lives around the world. The interaction of people, ideas, and knowledge across various disciplines at the Center will create greater potential for major advances.

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A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric analysis during 1998–2018

1 School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, No. 135 Yaguan Road, Tianjin, 300350 China

2 Tianjin University Research Institute of Architectural Design and Urban Planning Co., Ltd, Tianjin, 300072 China

3 Center for Green Buildings and Sponge Cities, Georgia Tech Tianjin University Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, 518071 Guangdong China

Umme Marium Ahmad

Xiaotong wang.

4 School of Architecture & Built Environment, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Associated Data

Buildings account for nearly 2/5ths of global energy expenditure. Due to this figure, the 90s witnessed the rise of green buildings (GBs) that were designed with the purpose of lowering the demand for energy, water, and materials resources while enhancing environmental protection efforts and human well-being over time. This paper examines recent studies and technologies related to the design, construction, and overall operation of GBs and determines potential future research directions in this area of study. This global review of green building development in the last two decades is conducted through bibliometric analysis on the Web of Science, via the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases. Publication performance, countries’ characteristics, and identification of key areas of green building development and popular technologies were conducted via social network analysis, big data method, and S-curve predictions. A total of 5246 articles were evaluated on the basis of subject categories, journals’ performance, general publication outputs, and other publication characteristics. Further analysis was made on dominant issues through keyword co-occurrence, green building technologies by patent analysis, and S-curve predictions. The USA, China, and the UK are ranked the top three countries where the majority of publications come from. Australia and China had the closest relationship in the global network cooperation. Global trends of the top 5 countries showed different country characteristics. China had a steady and consistent growth in green building publications each year. The total publications on different cities had a high correlation with cities’ GDP by Baidu Search Index. Also, barriers and contradictions such as cost, occupant comfort, and energy consumption were discussed in developed and developing countries. Green buildings, sustainability, and energy efficiency were the top three hotspots identified through the whole research period by the cluster analysis. Additionally, green building energy technologies, including building structures, materials, and energy systems, were the most prevalent technologies of interest determined by the Derwent Innovations Index prediction analysis. This review reveals hotspots and emerging trends in green building research and development and suggests routes for future research. Bibliometric analysis, combined with other useful tools, can quantitatively measure research activities from the past and present, thus bridging the historical gap and predicting the future of green building development.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-12739-7.

Introduction

Rapid urban development has resulted in buildings becoming a massive consumer of energy (Yuan et al. 2013 ), liable for 39% of global energy expenditure and 68% of total electricity consumption in the USA (building). In recent years, green buildings (GBs) have become an alternative solution, rousing widespread attention. Also referred to as sustainable buildings, low energy buildings, and eco-buildings, GBs are designed to reduce the strain on environmental resources as well as curb negative effects on human health by efficiently using natural resources, reducing garbage, and ensuring the residents’ well-being through improved living conditions ( Agency USEP Indoor Air Quality ; Building, n.d ). As a strategy to improve the sustainability of the construction industry, GBs have been widely recognized by governments globally, as a necessary step towards a sustainable construction industry (Shen et al. 2017 ).

Zuo and Zhao ( 2014 ) reviewed the current research status and future development direction of GBs, focusing on connotation and research scope, the benefit-difference between GBs and traditional buildings, and various ways to achieve green building development. Zhao et al. ( 2019 ) presented a bibliometric report of studies on GBs between 2000 and 2016, identifying hot research topics and knowledge gaps. The verification of the true performance of sustainable buildings, the application of ICT, health and safety hazards in the development of green projects, and the corporate social responsibility were detected as future agenda. A scientometrics review of research papers on GB sources from 14 architectural journals between 1992 and 2018 was also presented (Wuni et al. 2019a ). The study reported that 44% of the world participated in research focusing on green building implementation; stakeholder management; attitude assessment; regulations and policies; energy efficiency assessment; sustainability performance assessment; green building certification, etc.

With the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, society is now aware of the importance of healthy buildings. In fact, in the past 20 years, the relationship between the built environment and health has aroused increasing research interest in the field of building science. Public spaces and dispersion of buildings in mixed-use neighborhoods are promoted. Furthermore, telecommuting has become a trend since the COVID-19 pandemic, making indoor air quality even more important in buildings, now (Fezi 2020 ).

The system for evaluating the sustainability of buildings has been established for nearly two decades. But, systems dedicated to identifying whether buildings are healthy have only recently appeared (McArthur and Powell 2020 ). People are paying more and more attention to health factors in the built environment. This is reflected in the substantial increase in related academic papers and the increase in health building certification systems such as WELE and Fitwel (McArthur and Powell 2020 ).

Taking the above into consideration, the aim of this study is to examine the stages of development of GBs worldwide and find the barriers and the hotpots in global trends. This study may be beneficial to foreign governments interested in promoting green building and research in their own nations.

Methodology

Overall description of research design.

Since it is difficult to investigate historical data and predict global trends of GBs, literature research was conducted to analyze their development. The number of published reports on a topic in a particular country may influence the level of industrial development in that certain area (Zhang et al. 2017 ). The bibliometric analysis allows for a quantitative assessment of the development and advancement of research related to GBs and where they are from. Furthermore, it has been shown that useful data has been gathered through bibliometrics and patent analysis (Daim et al. 2006 ).

In this report, the bibliometric method, social network analysis (SNA), CiteSpace, big data method, patent analysis, and S-curve analysis are used to assess data.

Bibliometrics analysis

Bibliometrics, a class of scientometrics, is a tool developed in 1969 for library and information science. It has since been adopted by other fields of study that require a quantitative assessment of academic articles to determine trends and predict future research scenarios by compiling output and type of publication, title, keyword, author, institution, and countries data (Ho 2008 ; Li et al. 2017 ).

Social network analysis

Social network analysis (SNA) is applied to studies by modeling network maps using mathematics and statistics (Mclinden 2013 ; Ye et al. 2013 ). In the SNA, nodes represent social actors, while connections between actors stand for their relationships (Zhang et al. 2017 ). Correlations between two actors are determined by their distance from each other. There is a variety of software for the visualization of SNA such as Gephi, Vosviewer, and Pajek. In this research, “Pajek” was used to model the sequence of and relationships between the objects in the map (Du et al. 2015 ).

CiteSpace is an open-source Java application that maps and analyzes trends in publication statistics gathered from the ISI-Thomson Reuters Scientific database and produces graphic representations of this data (Chen 2006 ; Li et al. 2017 ). Among its many functions, it can determine critical moments in the evolution of research in a particular field, find patterns and hotspots, locate areas of rapid growth, and breakdown the network into categorized clusters (Chen 2006 ).

Big data method

The big data method, with its 3V characters (volume, velocity, and variety), can give useful and accurate information. Enormous amounts of data, which could not be collected or computed manually through conventional methods, can now be collected through public data website. Based on large databases and machine learning, the big data method can be used to design, operate, and evaluate energy efficiency and other index combined with other technologies (Mehmood et al. 2019 ). The primary benefit of big data is that the data is gathered from entire populations as opposed to a small sample of people (Chen et al. 2018 ; Ho 2008 ). It has been widely used in many research areas. In this research, we use the “Baidu Index” to form a general idea of the trends in specific areas based on user interests. The popularity of the keywords could imply the user’s behavior, user’s demand, user’s portrait, etc. Thus, we can analyze the products or events to help with developing strategies. However, it must be noted that although big data can quantitatively represent human behavior, it cannot determine what motivates it. With the convergence of big data and technology, there are unprecedented applications in the field of green building for the improved indoor living environment and controlled energy consumption (Marinakis 2020 ).

Patent analysis

Bibliometrics, combined with patent analysis, bridges gaps that may exist in historical data when predicting future technologies (Daim et al. 2006 ). It is a trusted form of technical analysis as it is supported by abundant sources and commercial awareness of patents (Guozhu et al. 2018 ; Yoon and Park 2004 ). Therefore, we used patent analysis from the Derwent patent database to conduct an initial analysis and forecast GB technologies.

There are a variety of methods to predict the future development prospects of a technology. Since many technologies are developed in accordance with the S-curve trend, researchers use the S-curve to observe and predict the future trend of technologies (Bengisu and Nekhili 2006 ; Du et al. 2019 ; Liu and Wang 2010 ). The evolution of technical systems generally goes through four stages: emerging, growth, maturity, and decay (saturation) (Ernst 1997 ). We use the logistics model (performed in Loglet Lab 4 software developed by Rockefeller University) to simulate the S-curve of GB-related patents to predict its future development space.

Data collection

The Web of Science (WOS) core collection database is made up of trustworthy and highly ranked journals. It is considered the leading data portal for publications in many fields (Pouris and Pouris 2011 ). Furthermore, the WOS has been cited as the main data source in many recent bibliometric reviews on buildings (Li et al. 2017 ).

Access to all publications used in this paper was attained through the Science Citation Index-Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index databases. Because there is no relevant data in WOS before 1998, our examination focuses on 1998 to 2018. With consideration of synonyms, we set a series of green building-related words (see Appendix ) in titles, abstracts, and keywords for bibliometric analysis. For example, sustainable, low energy, zero energy, and low carbon can be substituted for green; housing, construction, and architecture can be a substitute for building (Zuo and Zhao 2014 ).

Analytical procedure

The study was conducted in three stages; data extraction was the first step where all the GB-related words were screened in WOS. Afterwards, some initial analysis was done to get a complete idea of GB research. Then, we made a further analysis on countries’ characteristics, dominant issues, and detected technology hotspots via patent analysis (Fig. ​ (Fig.1 1 ).

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Analytical procedure of the article

Results and analysis

General results.

Of the 6140 publications searched in the database, 88.67% were articles, followed by reviews (6.80%), papers (3.72%), and others (such as editorial materials, news, book reviews). Most articles were written in English (96.78%), followed by German (1.77%), Spanish (0.91%), and other European languages. Therefore, we will only make a further analysis of the types of articles in English publications.

The subject categories and their distribution

The SCI-E and SSCI database determined 155 subjects from the pool of 5246 articles reviewed, such as building technology, energy and fuels, civil engineering, environmental, material science, and thermodynamics, which suggests green building is a cross-disciplinary area of research. The top 3 research areas of green buildings are Construction & Building Technology (36.98%), Energy & Fuels (30.39%), and Engineering Civil (29.49%), which account for over half of the total categories.

The journals’ performance

The top 10 journals contained 38.8% of the 5246 publications, and the distribution of their publications is shown in Fig. ​ Fig.2. 2 . Impact factors qualitatively indicate the standard of journals, the research papers they publish, and researchers associated with those papers (Huibin et al. 2015 ). Below, we used 2017 impact factors in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) to determine the journal standards.

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The performance of top10 most productive journals

Publications on green building have appeared in a variety of titles, including energy, building, environment, materials, sustainability, indoor built environment, and thermal engineering. Energy and Buildings, with its impact factor 4.457, was the most productive journal apparently from 2009 to 2017. Sustainability (IF = 2.075) and Journal of Cleaner Production (IF = 5.651) rose to significance rapidly since 2015 and ranked top two journals in 2018.

Publication output

The total publication trends from 1998 to 2018 are shown in Fig. ​ Fig.3, 3 , which shows a staggering increase across the 10 years. Since there was no relevant data before 1998, the starting year is 1998. Before 2004, the number of articles published per year fluctuated. The increasing rate reached 75% and 68% in 2004 and 2007, respectively, which are distinguished in Fig. ​ Fig.3 3 that leads us to believe that there are internal forces at work, such as appropriate policy creation and enforcement by concerned governments. There was a constant and steady growth in publications after 2007 in the worldwide view.

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The number of articles published yearly, between 1998 and 2018

The characteristics of the countries

Global distribution and global network were analyzed to illustrate countries’ characteristics. Many tools such as ArcGIS, Bibexcel, Pajek, and Baidu index were used in this part (Fig. ​ (Fig.4 4 ).

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Analysis procedure of countries’ characteristics

Global distribution of publications

By extracting the authors’ addresses (Mao et al. 2015 ), the number of publications from each place was shown in Fig. ​ Fig.5 5 and Table ​ Table1. 1 . Apparently, the USA was the most productive country accounting for 14.98% of all the publications. China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) and the UK followed next by 13.29% and 8.27% separately. European countries such as Italy, Spain, and Germany also did a lot of work on green building development.

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Global geographical distribution of the top 20 publications based on authors’ locations

Global research network

Global networks illustrate cooperation between countries through the analysis of social networks. Academic partnerships among the 10 most productive countries are shown in Fig. ​ Fig.6. 6 . Collaboration is determined by the affiliation of the co-authors, and if a publication is a collaborative research, all countries or institutions will benefit from it (Bozeman et al. 2013 ). Every node denotes a country and their size indicates the amount of publications from that country. The lines linking the nodes denote relationships between countries and their thickness indicates the level of collaboration (Mao et al. 2015 ).

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The top 10 most productive countries had close academic collaborative relationships

It was obvious that China and Australia had the strongest linking strength. Secondly, China and the USA, China, and the UK also had close cooperation with each other. Then, the USA with Canada and South Korea followed. The results indicated that cooperation in green building research was worldwide. At the same time, such partnerships could help countries increase individual productivity.

Global trend of publications

The time-trend analysis of academic inputs to green building from the most active countries is shown in Fig. ​ Fig.7 7 .

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The publication trends of the top five countriesbetween 1998 and 2018 countries areshown in Fig 7.

Before 2007, these countries showed little growth per year. However, they have had a different, growing trend since 2007. The USA had the greatest proportion of publications from 2007, which rose obviously each year, reaching its peak in 2016 then declined. The number of articles from China was at 13 in 2007, close to the USA. Afterwards, there was a steady growth in China. Not until 2013 did China have a quick rise from 41 publications to 171 in 2018. The UK and Italy had a similar growth trend before 2016 but declined in the last 2 years.

Further analysis on China, the USA, and the UK

Green building development in china, policy implementation in china.

Green building design started in China with the primary goal of energy conservation. In September 2004, the award of “national green building innovation” of the Ministry of Construction was launched, which kicked off the substantive development of GB in China. As we can see from Fig. ​ Fig.7, 7 , there were few publications before 2004 in China. In 2004, there were only 4 publications on GB.

The Ministry of Construction, along with the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2005, published “The Technical Guidelines for Green Buildings,” proposing the development of GBs (Zhang et al. 2018 ). In June 2006, China had implemented the first “Evaluation Standard for Green Building” (GB/T 50378-2006), which promoted the study of the green building field. In 2007, the demonstration of “100 projects of green building and 100 projects of low-energy building” was launched. In August 2007, the Ministry of Construction issued the “Green Building Assessment Technical Regulations (try out)” and the “Green Building Evaluation Management,” following Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, and Shanghai, more than 20 provinces and cities issued the local green building standards, which promoted GBs in large areas in China.

At the beginning of 2013, the State Council issued the “Green Building Action Plan,” so the governments at all levels continuously issued incentive policies for the development of green buildings (Ye et al. 2015 ). The number of certified green buildings has shown a blowout growth trend throughout the country, which implied that China had arrived at a new chapter of development.

In August 2016, the Evaluation Standard for Green Renovation of Existing Buildings was released, encouraging the rise of residential GB research. Retrofitting an existing building is often more cost-effective than building a new facility. Designing significant renovations and alterations to existing buildings, including sustainability measures, will reduce operating costs and environmental impacts and improve the building’s adaptability, durability, and resilience.

At the same time, a number of green ecological urban areas have emerged (Zhang et al. 2018 ). For instance, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city is a major collaborative project between the two governments. Located in the north of Tianjin Binhai New Area, the eco-city is characterized by salinization of land, lack of freshwater, and serious pollution, which can highlight the importance of eco-city construction. The construction of eco-cities has changed the way cities develop and has provided a demonstration of similar areas.

China has many emerging areas and old centers, so erecting new, energy efficiency buildings and refurbishing existing buildings are the best steps towards saving energy.

Baidu Search Index of “green building”

In order to know the difference in performance among cities in China, this study employs the big data method “Baidu Index” for a smart diagnosis and assessment on green building at finer levels. “Baidu Index” is not equal to the number of searches but is positively related to the number of searches, which is calculated by the statistical model. Based on the keyword search of “green building” in the Baidu Index from 2013 to 2018, the top 10 provinces or cities were identified (Fig. ​ (Fig.8 8 ).

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Baidu Search Index of green building in China 2013–2018 from high to low

The top 10 search index distributes the east part and middle part of China, most of which are the high GDP provinces (Fig. ​ (Fig.9). 9 ). Economically developed cities in China already have a relatively mature green building market. Many green building projects with local characteristics have been established (Zhang et al. 2018 ).

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TP GDP & Search Index were highly related

We compared the city search index (2013–2018) with the total publications of different cities by the authors’ address and the GDP in 2018. The correlation coefficient between the TP and the search index was 0.9, which means the two variables are highly related. The correlation coefficient between the TP and GDP was 0.73, which also represented a strong relationship. We inferred that cities with higher GDP had more intention of implementation on green buildings. The stronger the local GDP, the more relevant the economic policies that can be implemented to stimulate the development of green buildings (Hong et al. 2017 ). Local economic status (Yang et al. 2018 ), property developer’s ability, and effective government financial incentives are the three most critical factors for green building implementation (Huang et al. 2018 ). However, Wang et al. ( 2017 ) compared the existing green building design standards and found that they rarely consider the regional economy. Aiming at cities at different economic development phases, the green building design standards for sustainable construction can effectively promote the implementation of green buildings. Liu et al. ( 2020 ) mainly discussed the impact of sustainable construction on GDP. According to the data, there is a strong correlation between the percentage of GDP increments in China and the amount of sustainable infrastructure (Liu et al. 2020 ). The construction of infrastructure can create jobs and improve people’s living standards, increasing GDP as a result (Liu et al. 2020 ).

Green building development in the USA and the UK

The sign that GBs were about to take-off occurred in 1993—the formation of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), an independent agency. The promulgation of the Energy Policy Act 2005 in the USA was the key point in the development of GBs. The Energy Policy Act 2005 paid great attention to green building energy saving, which also inspired publications on GBs.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a popular metric for sustainable buildings and homes (Jalaei and Jrade 2015 ), has become a thriving business model for green building development. It is a widely used measure of how buildings affect the environment.

Another phenomenon worth discussion, combined with Fig. ​ Fig.7, 7 , the increasing rate peaked at 75% in 2004 and 68% in 2007 while the publications of the UK reached the peak in 2004 and 2007. The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), a United Kingdom membership organization, created in 2007 with regard to the 2004 Sustainable Building Task Group Report: Better Buildings - Better Lives, intends to “radically transform,” all facets of current and future built environment in the UK. It is predicted that the establishment of the UKGBC promoted research on green buildings.

From the China, the USA, and the UK experience, it is predicted that the foundation of a GB council or the particular projects from the government will promote research in this area.

Barriers and contradicts of green building implement

On the other hand, it is obvious that the USA, the UK, and Italian publications have been declining since 2016. There might be some barriers and contradicts on the adoption of green buildings for developed countries. Some articles studied the different barriers to green building in developed and developing countries (Chan et al. 2018 ) (Table ​ (Table2). 2 ). Because the fraction of energy end-uses is different, the concerns for GBs in the USA, China, and the European Union are also different (Cao et al. 2016 ).

Top Barriers for Green building in US, UK and China

It is regarded that higher cost is the most deterring barrier to GB development across the globe (Nguyen et al. 2017 ). Other aspects such as lack of market demand and knowledge were also main considerations of green building implementation.

As for market demand, occupant satisfaction is an important factor. Numerous GB post-occupancy investigations on occupant satisfaction in various communities have been conducted.

Paul and Taylor ( 2008 ) surveyed personnel ratings of their work environment with regard to ambience, tranquility, lighting, sound, ventilation, heat, humidity, and overall satisfaction. Personnel working in GBs and traditional buildings did not differ in these assessments. Khoshbakht et al. ( 2018 ) identified two global contexts in spite of the inconclusiveness: in the west (mainly the USA and Britain), users experienced no significant differences in satisfaction between green and traditional buildings, whereas, in the east (mainly China and South Korea), GB user satisfaction is significantly higher than traditional building users.

Dominant issues

The dominant issues on different stages.

Bibliometric data was imported to CiteSpace where a three-stage analysis was conducted based on development trends: 1998–2007 initial development; 2008–2015 quick development; 2016–2018 differentiation phase (Fig. ​ (Fig.10 10 ).

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Analysis procedure of dominant issues

CiteSpace was used for word frequency and co-word analysis. The basic principle of co-word analysis is to count a group of words appearing at the same time in a document and measure the close relationship between them by the number of co-occurrences. The top 50 levels of most cited or occurred items from each slice (1998 to 2007; 2008 to 2015; 2016 to 2018) per year were selected. After merging the similar words (singular or plural form), the final keyword knowledge maps were generated as follows.

Initial phase (1998–2007)

In the early stage (Fig. ​ (Fig.11), 11 ), “green building” and “sustainability” were the main two clusters. Economics and “environmental assessment method” both had high betweenness centrality of 0.34 which were identified as pivotal points. Purple rings denote pivotal points in the network. The relationships in GB were simple at the initial stage of development.

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Co-word analysis from 1998–2007

Sustainable construction is further enabled with tools that can evaluate the entire life cycle, site preparation and management, materials and their reusability, and the reduction of resource and energy consumption. Environmental building assessment methods were incorporated to achieve sustainable development, especially at the initial project appraisal stage (Ding 2008 ). Green Building Challenge (GBC) is an exceptional international research, development, and dissemination effort for developing building environmental performance assessments, primarily to help researchers and practitioners in dealing with difficult obstacles in assessing performance (Todd et al. 2001 ).

Quick development (2008–2015)

In the rapid growing stage (Fig. ​ (Fig.12), 12 ), pivot nodes and cluster centers were more complicated. Besides “green building” and “sustainability,” “energy efficiency” was the third hotspot word. The emergence of new vocabulary in the keyword network indicated that the research had made progress during 2008 – 2015. Energy performance, energy consumption, natural ventilation, thermal comfort, renewable energy, and embodied energy were all energy related. Energy becomes the most attractive field in achieving sustainability and green building. Other aspects such as “life cycle assessment,” “LEED,” and “thermal comfort” became attractive to researchers.

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Co-word analysis from 2008–2015

The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a popular technique for the analysis of the technical side of GBs. LCA was developed from environmental assessment and economic analysis which could be a useful method to evaluate building energy efficiency from production and use to end-use (Chwieduk 2003 ). Much attention has been paid to LCA because people began to focus more on the actual performance of the GBs. Essentially, LCA simplifies buildings into systems, monitoring, and calculating mass flow and energy consumption over different stages in their life cycle.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) was founded by the USGBC and began in the early twenty-first century (Doan et al. 2017 ). LEED is a not-for-profit project based on consumer demand and consensus that offers an impartial GB certification. LEED is the preferred building rating tool globally, with its shares growing rapidly. Meanwhile, UK’s Building Research Establishment Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Japan’s Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE) have been in use since the beginning of the twenty-first century, while New Zealand’s Green Star is still in its earlier stages. GBs around the world are made to suit regional climate concerns and need.

In practice, not all certified green buildings are necessarily performing well. Newsham et al. ( 2009 ) gathered energy-use information from 100 LEED-certified non-residential buildings. Results indicated that 28–35% of LEED structures actually consumed higher amounts of energy than the non-LEED structures. There was little connection in its actual energy consumption to its certification grade, meaning that further improvements are required for establishing a comprehensive GB rating metric to ensure consistent performance standards.

Thermal comfort was related to many aspects, such as materials, design scheme, monitoring system, and human behaviors. Materials have been a focus area for improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption. Wall (Schossig et al. 2005 ), floor (Ansuini et al. 2011 ), ceiling (Hu et al. 2018 ), window, and shading structures (Shen and Li 2016 ) were building envelopes which had been paid attention to over the years. Windows were important envelopes to improve thermal comfort. For existing and new buildings, rational use of windows and shading structures can enhance the ambient conditions of buildings (Mcleod et al. 2013 ). It was found that redesigning windows could reduce the air temperature by 2.5% (Elshafei et al. 2017 ), thus improving thermal comfort through passive features and reducing the use of active air conditioners (Perez-Fargallo et al. 2018 ). The monitoring of air conditioners’ performance could also prevent overheating of buildings (Ruellan and Park 2016 ).

Differentiation phase (2016–2018)

In the years from 2016 to 2018 (Fig. ​ (Fig.13), 13 ), “green building,” ”sustainability,” and “energy efficiency” were still the top three hotspots in GB research.

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Co-word analysis from 2016–2018

Zero-energy building (ZEB) became a substitute for low energy building in this stage. ZEB was first introduced in 2000 (Cao et al. 2016 ) and was believed to be the solution to the potential ramifications of future energy consumption by buildings (Liu et al. 2019 ). The EU has been using ZEB standards in all of its new building development projects to date (Communuties 2002 ). The USA passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, aiming for zero net energy consumption of 1 out of every 2 commercial buildings that are yet to be built by 2040 and for all by 2050 (Sartori et al. 2012 ). Energy consumption became the most important factor in new building construction.

Renewable energy was a key element of sustainable development for mankind and nature (Zhang et al. 2013 ). Using renewable energy was an important feature of ZEBs (Cao et al. 2016 ; Pulselli et al. 2007 ). Renewable energy, in the form of solar, wind, geothermal, clean bioenergy, and marine can be used in GBs. Solar energy has been widely used in recent years while wind energy is used locally because of its randomness and unpredictable features. Geothermal energy is mainly utilized by ground source heat pump (GSHP), which has been lauded as a powerful energy system for buildings (Cao et al. 2016 ). Bioenergy has gained much popularity as an alternative source of energy around the globe because it is more stable and accessible than other forms of energy (Zhang et al. 2015 ). There is relatively little use of marine energy, yet this may potentially change depending on future technological developments (Ellabban et al. 2014 ).

Residential buildings receive more attention because people spend 90% of their time inside. Contrary to popular belief, the concentration of contaminants found indoors is more than the concentration outside, sometimes up to 10 times or even 100 times more (agency). The renovation of existing buildings can save energy, upgrade thermal comfort, and improve people’s living conditions.

Energy is a substantial and widely recognized cost of building operations that can be reduced through energy-saving and green building design. Nevertheless, a consensus has been reached by academics and those in building-related fields that GBs are significantly more energy efficient than traditional buildings if designed, constructed, and operated with meticulousness (Wuni et al. 2019b ). The drive to reduce energy consumption from buildings has acted as a catalyst in developing new technologies.

Compared with the article analysis, patents can better reflect the practical technological application to a certain extent. We extracted the information of green building energy-related patent records between 1998 and 2018 from the Derwent Innovations Index database. The development of a technique follows a path: precursor–invention–development–maturity. This is commonly known as an S-type growth (Mao et al. 2018 ). Two thousand six hundred thirty-eight patents were found which were classified into “Derwent Manual Code,” which is the most distinct feature just like “keywords” in the Derwent Innovations Index. Manual codes refer to specific inventions, technological innovations, and unique codes for their applications. According to the top 20 Derwent Manual Code which accounted for more than 80% of the total patents, we classified the hotspots patents into three fields for further S-curve analysis, which are “structure,” “material,” and “energy systems” (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

Top 20 keywords in classified patents

Sustainable structural design (SSD) has gained a lot of research attention from 2006 to 2016 (Pongiglione and Calderini 2016 ). The S-curve of structure* (Fig. ​ (Fig.14) 14 ) has just entered the later period of the growth stage, accounting for 50% of the total saturation in 2018. Due to its effectiveness and impact, SSD has overtime gained recognition and is now considered by experts to be a prominent tool in attaining sustainability goals (Pongiglione and Calderini 2016 ).

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The S-curves of different Structure types from patents

Passive design is important in energy saving which is achieved by appropriately orientating buildings and carefully designing the building envelope. Building envelopes, which are key parts of the energy exchange between the building and the external environment, include walls, roofs, windows, and floors. The EU increased the efficiency of its heat-regulating systems by revamping building envelopes as a primary energy-saving task during 2006 to 2016 (Cao et al. 2016 ).

We analyzed the building envelope separately. According to the S-curve (Fig. ​ (Fig.14), 14 ), the number of patents related to GB envelops are in the growth stage. At present, building envelops such as walls, roofs, windows, and even doors have not reached 50% of the saturated quantity. Walls and roofs are two of the most important building envelops. The patent contents of walls mainly include wall materials and manufacturing methods, modular wall components, and wall coatings while technologies about roofs mainly focus on roof materials, the combination of roof and solar energy, and roof structures. Green roofs are relatively new sustainable construction systems because of its esthetic and environmental benefits (Wei et al. 2015 ).

The material resources used in the building industry consume massive quantities of natural and energy resources consumptions (Wang et al. 2018 ). The energy-saving building material is economical and environmentally friendly, has low coefficient heat conductivity, fast curing speed, high production efficacy, wide raw material source and flame, and wear resistance properties (Zhang et al. 2014 ). Honeycomb structures were used for insulating sustainable buildings. They are lightweight and conserve energy making them eco-friendly and ideal for construction (Miao et al. 2011 ).

According to the S-curve (Fig. ​ (Fig.15), 15 ), it can be seen that the number of patents on the GB “material” is in the growth stage. It is expected that the number of patents will reach 50% of the total saturation in 2022.

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The S-curves of a different material from patents

Building material popularly used comprised of cement, concrete, gypsum, mortar compositions, and boards. Cement is widely used in building material because of its easy availability, strong hardness, excellent waterproof and fireproof performance, and low cost. The S-curve of cement is in the later period of the growth stage, which will reach 90% of the total saturation in 2028. Composite materials like Bamcrete (bamboo-concrete composite) and natural local materials like Rammed Earth had better thermal performance compared with energy-intensive materials like bricks and cement (Kandya and Mohan 2018 ). Novel bricks synthesized from fly ash and coal gangue have better advantages of energy saving in brick production phases compared with that of conventional types of bricks (Zhang et al. 2014 ). For other materials like gypsum or mortar, the numbers of patents are not enough for S-curve analysis. New-type green building materials offer an alternative way to realize energy-saving for sustainable constructions.

Energy system

The energy system mainly included a heating system and ventilation system according to the patent analysis. So, we analyzed solar power systems and air conditioning systems separately. Heat* included heat collecting panels and a fluid heating system.

The results indicated that heat*-, solar-, and ventilation-related technologies were in the growth stage which would reach 50% of the total saturation in 2022 (Fig. ​ (Fig.16). 16 ). Photovoltaic technology is of great importance in solar energy application (Khan and Arsalan 2016 ).

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The S-curves of energy systems from patents

On the contrary, air conditioning technologies had entered into the mature stage after a decade of development. It is worth mentioning that the design of the fresh air system of buildings after the COVID-19 outbreak is much more important. With people spending the majority of their time inside (Liu et al. 2019 ), volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and carbon dioxide received the most attention worldwide (Wei et al. 2015 ). Due to health problems like sick building syndrome, and more recently since the COVID-19 outbreak, the supply of fresh air can drastically ameliorate indoor air quality (IAQ) (Liu et al. 2019 ). Regulating emissions from materials, enhanced ventilation, and monitoring air indoors are the main methods used in GBs for maintaining IAQ (Wei et al. 2015 ). Air circulation frequency and improved air filtration can reduce the risk of spreading certain diseases, while controlling the airflow between rooms can also prevent cross-infections. Poor indoor air quality and ventilation provide ideal conditions for the breeding and spreading of viruses by air (Chen et al. 2019 ). A diverse range of air filters coupled with a fresh air supply system should be studied. A crucial step forward is to create a cost-effective, energy-efficient, intelligent fresh air supply system (Liu et al. 2017 ) to monitor, filter outdoor PM2.5 (Chen et al. 2017 ), and saving building energy (Liu and Liu 2005 ). Earth-air heat exchanger system (EAHE) is a novel technology that supplies fresh air using underground soil heat (Chen et al. 2019 ).

A total of 5246 journal articles in English from the SCI and SSCI databases published in 1998–2018 were reviewed and analyzed. The study revealed that the literature on green buildings has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. The findings and results are summarized:

Data analysis revealed that GB research is distributed across various subject categories. Energy and Buildings, Building and Environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Sustainability were the top journals to publish papers on green buildings.

Global distribution was done to see the green building study worldwide, showing that the USA, China, and the UK ranked the top three countries, accounting for 14.98%, 13.29%, and 8.27% of all the publications respectively. Australia and China had the closest relationship on green building research cooperation worldwide.

Further analysis was made on countries’ characteristics, dominant issues through keyword co-occurrence, green building technology by patent analysis, and S-curve prediction. Global trends of the top 5 countries showed different characteristics. China had a steady and consistent growth in publications each year while the USA, the UK, and Italy were on a decline from 2016. The big data method was used to see the city performance in China, finding that the total publications had a high correlation with the city’s GDP and Baidu Search Index. Policies were regarded as the stimulation for green building development, either in China or the UK. Also, barriers and contradictions such as cost, occupants’ comfort, and energy consumption were discussed about the developed and developing countries.

Cluster and content analysis via CiteSpace identified popular and trending research topics at different stages of development; the top three hotspots were green buildings, sustainability, and energy efficiency throughout the whole research period. Energy efficiency has shifted from low to zero energy buildings or even beyond it in recent years. Energy efficiency was the most important drive to achieve green buildings while LCA and LEED were the two potential ways to evaluate building performance. Thermal comfort and natural ventilation of residential buildings became a topic of interest to the public.

Then, we combined the keywords with “energy” to make further patent analysis in Derwent Innovations Index. “Structure,” “material,” and “energy systems” were three of the most important types of green building technologies. According to S-curve analysis, most of the technologies of energy-saving buildings were on the fast-growing trend, and even though there were conflicts and doubts in different countries on GB adoption, it is still a promising field.

Future directions

An establishment of professional institutes or a series of policies and regulations on green building promulgated by government departments will promote research development (as described in the “Further Analysis on China, the USA, and the UK” section). Thus, a policy enacted by a formal department is of great importance in this particular field.

Passive design is important in energy saving which is ensured by strategically positioning buildings and precisely engineering the building envelope, i.e., roof, walls, windows, and floors. A quality, the passive-design house is crucial to achieving sustained thermal comfort, low-carbon footprint, and a reduced gas bill. The new insulation material is a promising field for reducing building heat loss and energy consumed. Healthy residential buildings have become a focus of future development due to people’s pursuit of a healthy life. A fresh air supply system is important for better indoor air quality and reduces the risk of transmission of several diseases. A 2020 study showed the COVID-19 virus remains viable for only 4 hours on copper compared to 24 h on cardboard. So, antiviral materials will be further studied for healthy buildings (Fezi 2020 ).

With the quick development of big data method and intelligent algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) green buildings will be a trend. The core purpose of AI buildings is to achieve optimal operating conditions through the accurate analysis of data, collected by sensors built into green buildings. “Smart buildings” and “Connected Buildings” of the future, fitted with meters and sensors, can collect and share massive amounts of information regarding energy use, water use, indoor air quality, etc. Analyzing this data can determine relationships and patterns, and optimize the operation of buildings to save energy without compromising the quality of the indoor environment (Lazarova-Molnar and Mohamed 2019 ).

The major components of green buildings, such as building envelope, windows, and skylines, should be adjustable and versatile in order to get full use of AI. A digital control system can give self-awareness to buildings, adjusting room temperature, indoor air quality, and air cooling/heating conditions to control power consumption, and make it sustainable (Mehmood et al. 2019 ).

Concerns do exist, for example, occupant privacy, data security, robustness of design, and modeling of the AI building (Maasoumy and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli 2016 ). However, with increased data sources and highly adaptable infrastructure, AI green buildings are the future.

This examination of research conducted on green buildings between the years 1998 and 2018, through bibliometric analysis combined with other useful tools, offers a quantitative representation of studies and data conducted in the past and present, bridging historical gaps and forecasting the future of green buildings—providing valuable insight for academicians, researchers, and policy-makers alike.

(DOCX 176 kb)

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed throughout the current study are available in the Web of Science Core Collection.

(From Web of Science Core Collection)

Topic: (“bioclimatic architect*” or “bioclimatic build*” or “bioclimatic construct*” or “bioclimatic hous*” or “eco-architect*” or “eco-build*” or “eco-home*” or “eco-hous*” or “eco-friendly build*” or “ecological architect*” or “ecological build*” or “ecological hous*” or “energy efficient architect*” or “energy efficient build*” or “energy efficient construct*” or “energy efficient home*” or “energy efficient hous*” or “energy efficient struct*” or “energy saving architect*” or “energy saving build*” or “energy saving construct*” or “energy saving home*” or “energy saving hous*” or “energy saving struct*” or “green architect*” or “green build*” or “green construct*” or “green home*” or “low carbon architect*” or “low carbon build*” or “low carbon construct*” or “low carbon home*” or “low carbon hous*” or “low energy architect*” or “low energy build*” or “low energy construct*” or “low energy home*” or “low energy hous*” or “sustainable architect*” or “sustainable build*” or “sustainable construct*” or “sustainable home*” or “sustainable hous*” or “zero energy build*” or “zero energy home*” or “zero energy hous*” or “net zero energy build*” or “net zero energy home*” or “net zero energy hous*” or “zero-carbon build*” or “zero-carbon home*” or “zero-carbon hous*” or “carbon neutral build*” or “carbon neutral construct*” or “carbon neutral hous*” or “high performance architect*” or “high performance build*” or “high performance construct*” or “high performance home*” or “high performance hous*”)

Time span: 1998-2018。 Index: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI。

Author contributions

Ying Li conceived the frame of the paper and wrote the manuscript. Yanyu Rong made the data figures and participated in writing the manuscript. Umme Marium Ahmad helped with revising the language. Xiaotong Wang consulted related literature for the manuscript. Jian Zuo contributed significantly to provide the keywords list. Guozhu Mao helped with constructive suggestions.

This study was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51808385).

Declarations

This manuscript is ethical.

Not applicable.

The authors declare no competing interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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As construction accelerates globally, implementing sustainable building practices is critical

A filled paintbrush on top of a pot of white paint, illustrating pollution from tool cleaning

Construction tool cleaning can contribute to pollution Image:  Photo by henry perks on Unsplash

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Stay up to date:, urban transformation.

  • Liquid waste on construction sites is impacting productivity and contributing to urban wastewater pollution problems.
  • Current practices for cleaning tools are outdated, it's time for sustainable innovation across the construction sector.
  • One technology has proven that both construction sites and the environment will benefit from a change of process.

Global building floor space is projected to double by 2060. This is the equivalent of adding an entire New York City to the world, every month, for 40 years. While most advocates focus on carbon reduction emissions to mitigate climate change, another pollution issue goes largely unnoticed. During construction, finishing trades need to wash their tools regularly. This everyday task uses large volumes of fresh water, turning it into liquid waste pollution that most sites discharge into sewage systems.

The world is facing a fresh-water shortage and a rapidly growing pollution problem from the environmental discharge of liquids and solids from wastewater treatment plants. Eliminating this pollution at the source can deliver transformational benefits to construction site productivity and safety.

Have you read?

Partnering against corruption: why real estate and construction are the first to test new anti-corruption initiative, sustainable construction will help those living in the world's many informal settlements, 5 startups making the billion-dollar mass timber construction market sustainable, is zero liquid discharge the future of construction site tool washing.

Technological innovation has the power to transform construction site productivity and environmental impact at the same time. The construction industry is burdened with many legacy practices that must be addressed as the industry pivots to a green building economy.

Historically, green building efforts have been geared towards sustainable material choices and building technologies that create efficiency during the operational life of the building, while site-based construction practices have been of lesser concern. For this reason, many project teams have been slow to recognise the impact of legacy construction practices on productivity, health and the environment.

The Global Risks Report 2023 ranked failure to mitigate climate change as one of the most severe threats in the next two years, while climate- and nature- related risks lead the rankings by severity over the long term.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate is a multistakeholder platform that seeks to safeguard our global commons and drive systems transformation. It is accelerating action on climate change towards a net-zero, nature-positive future.

Learn more about our impact:

  • Scaling up green technologies: Through a partnership with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and over 65 global businesses, the First Movers Coalition has committed $12 billion in purchase commitments for green technologies to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry.
  • 1 trillion trees: Over 90 global companies have committed to conserve, restore and grow more than 8 billion trees in 65 countries through the 1t.org initiative – which aims to achieve 1 trillion trees by 2030.
  • Sustainable food production: Our Food Action Alliance is engaging 40 partners who are working on 29 flagship initiatives to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe foods in ways that safeguard our planet. In Vietnam, it supported the upskilling of 2.2 million farmers and aims to provide 20 million farmers with the skills to learn and adapt to new agricultural standards.
  • Eliminating plastic pollution: Our Global Plastic Action Partnership is bringing together governments, businesses and civil society to shape a more sustainable world through the eradication of plastic pollution. In Ghana, more than 2,000 waste pickers are making an impact cleaning up beaches, drains and other sites.
  • Protecting the ocean: Our 2030 Water Resources Group has facilitated almost $1 billion to finance water-related programmes , growing into a network of more than 1,000 partners and operating in 14 countries/states.
  • Circular economy: Our SCALE 360 initiative is reducing the environmental impacts of value chains within the fashion, food, plastics and electronics industries, positively impacting over 100,000 people in 60 circular economy interventions globally.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us .

What's in the waste?

From office fit-outs at 40 square feet per gallon, to high-rise residential construction at five square feet per gallon, the pollution generated is extreme. But the biggest impact isn't just the volume of water wasted, it’s also the liquid waste pollution and the volume of solids that are washed from tools and discharged into local watersheds. This amounts to 7-10% of the liquid volume and up to 40 tonnes on a large construction project.

How do we know this? A recent study by Western Sydney and Deakin Universities verified and highlighted the waste volumes that are being recorded and eliminated by Washbox, one of the winners of the World Economic Forum’s Yes SF Uplink innovator challenge.

This waste contains microplastics, PFAS , titanium dioxide, dyes and various chemicals and toxins that originate from the resin and masonry-based finishes used in buildings, such as paint, stain, plaster, grout, adhesives and patching compounds.

The construction industry either directs trades to self-manage this waste or to install sewer-connected drums or slop sinks for trades to use, which discharge this waste directly into the sewer.

research topics on green construction

In simple terms, wastewater treatment plants are waste-separating facilities, removing solids from liquids before they each re-enter the environment. They do this primarily by letting solids settle before the wastewater is discharged back to the closest river or ocean as a liquid. This liquid is loaded with all the contaminants that were not removed by the process. Anything that was removed as a solid is called biomass and becomes fertiliser or landfill.

research topics on green construction

Why combined sewer overflows are an added burden

Making matters worse is the prevalence of combined sewer overflow systems that co-mingle both stormwater and wastewater in a single wastewater plant. When stormwater exceeds the plant’s capacity, raw wastewater from all points of source, including commercial and industrial sources, is diverted to the nearest waterway, without passing through the plant.

research topics on green construction

These discharges are having a significant impact on the quality of rivers and oceans around the world's major cities. As an example, Sydney Water in Sydney, Australia discharges 62% of wastewater after only a primary screening.

research topics on green construction

To mitigate pollution from entering the watershed, a large construction site called One Sydney Harbour , being built by Lendlease, has replaced the sewer-connected wastewater drums with Washbox. This closed-loop, multi-trade wash station continuously recycles a small batch of water from its holding tank to provide daily washing for trades' tools. The water is purified by the system after the automatic removal of the waste solids that have been washed off the tools. The waste solids dry in a series of filter bags and are responsibly disposed of as a solid.

Washbox records usage metrics, which in this case amounts to the equivalent of 735,000 litres of water, and the capture of over 35 tonnes of washed-in solids, such as paint, plaster and grout. Without Washbox this total volume of 735,000 litres of pollution would be discharged to the sewer.

Through innovative design thinking and the adoption of technology solutions, the construction industry has a big opportunity to change the way things have traditionally been done. By inspiring interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing and collaboration between diverse stakeholders, including the water and waste industry, environmentalists and construction professionals, we can drive transformative change.

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Best Practices

Major green construction trends that are emerging in 2023.

Sustainable construction is becoming more important than ever. Even in the face of the post-pandemic, the green building market remained resilient this year. According Acumen Research And Consulting Research green construction market size projected $774 Billion by 2030. It is important to follow green construction trends to understand the direction of the market.

In today’s modern world, green construction is becoming increasingly important as we strive towards a more sustainable way of living. As we look ahead to 2023, there are a number of trends in green construction that should be taken into consideration. From new materials and innovations to newer methods for reducing waste, this article will explore some of the most notable green construction trends for the year 2023.

What Are the Biggest Green Construction Trends of 2023?

After spending so much of 2022 focused on battling the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental concerns are now at the bottom of our priority lists. This crisis has disrupted so many aspects of people’s lives and industries, including the construction industry. Trends such as social distancing, adjustments in cash flow, changes in resources, and breaks in supply chains now have been integrated into the protocols of virtually every business to prioritize every person’s welfare and safety.

Although COVID-19 has made some cities more sustainable , it has also created a lot of environmental hazards. Moreover, we also have to acknowledge the sad reality that the global pandemic has contributed to the increase in material waste such as discarded face masks and protective equipment in the medical field. Thus, the need for sustainable trends will also possibly increase in 2023.

The global trend of green buildings continues to rise even today. It will likely grow even more, especially in most of North America, Europe, and in fast-growing countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. More government agencies, property developers, corporate real estate managers, and universities now acknowledge and even incorporate green design ideas and measures in their construction projects. Against all odds, the green construction trends will not be stopped and will keep on changing.

Before the year ends, let us look at these green construction trends on the horizon for 2023, as more companies embrace green building practices . You might even try incorporating these trends for your construction projects in the long run.

Government-Driven Expansions and Projects

When it comes to renewable projects, government support has already proved vital over the past decade. In 2023, we might see more increased partnerships between business leaders and companies, and politicians. The UK recently introduced the Green Homes Grant , so similar schemes are likely to be introduced around the world.

Future renewable projects and the implementation of sustainable energy will depend more on the commitment of political leaders. Almost half of solar and wind projects will likely tie to planned government-backed incentives. To reduce costs, states with higher available capital need to partner with less wealthy regions to ensure that all green projects will proceed smoothly, safely, and successfully. While there are already countries around the world that already have programs for using sustainable energy, we can see in the year ahead that job creation and stimulating economic growth will also center on the same. Governments may even focus on reducing electrical costs and start onshore wind and solar power projects, which are surprisingly cheaper than fossil fuel plants.

The Rise of Green Hydrogen

In recent years, green hydrogen has continuously lacked popularity because of the financial constraints that it brings. However, it is likely going to be even more important as a major green construction trend this year.

Green hydrogen, in contrast with its grey counterpart, can be four times more expensive. It is why we will see greater adoption of this environmentally friendly matter in 2023. In a Hydrogen Council’s prediction , green hydrogen will be cheaper than unabated fossil-fuel H2 by 2030. Moreover, it can serve as a new renewable solution that politicians and businesses worldwide can focus on when they innovate bulky goods transportation and industrial manufacturing processes.

The Use of Green Materials to Achieve LEED Certification

This is another very big green construction trend. There is also what we call Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification– one of the most popular green building certification programs designed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It promotes the idea of “green building,” a practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings using fewer resources. It aims to minimize waste and environmental impact to achieve a safer environment and building productivity. Nowadays, construction materials and equipment are already LEED-certified, such as LEED access doors and panels and other building parts. In 2023, we will see more of these green building materials that help achieve LEED certification:

  • Insulated concrete forms
  • slate/stone roofing
  • Natural fiber
  • Polyurethane
  •  Polystyrene and isocyanurate
  • Non-VOC paints
  • Fiber cement

The Emergence of Living Materials

The development of living materials is probably one of the most exciting construction trends to watch in 2023. When we say living materials, we refer to the biological compounds that grow and are ready to produce full-scale production soon. No one would probably expect that the most promising natural materials consist of bacteria and fungi. One promising living material that we are yet to see is self-mending concrete, saturated with bacteria that bind the materials around them into a new material form. This material can grow in the pores of the concrete, which adds to its impermeability.

The Growth of Global Hydropower

Around the globe, hydropower is considered the number one renewable energy source, which encompasses 71% of the world’s total renewable electricity comprises almost one-fifth of the total global electricity. We will see this significant figure soar in the coming year. China is currently rivaled in hydropower generation by America, Canada, Russia, and Brazil. However, the most vigorous capacity expansion and water availability seen by Chinese suppliers and resources in 2019 contributed to its 25-year status as the champion and key generator of hydropower. Although renewable development in China slowed down in recent years, we are yet to see an increase in both investment and success for the Chinese sustainable energy market in 2023.

Takeaways for 2023 Construction

It is noteworthy that although it is impossible to predict what is to come in the future, we can continue to make educated guesses and closely inspect history for guidance. Moreover, starting sustainability and maintaining it for a long time depends not only on one individual or institution. There are already so many green options in the market that we can only find reliable suppliers and resources of green building materials.

Going green with construction is the best way to keep up with the times, especially now that the world is experiencing all sorts of problems. One of those problems is with the environment and how it’s rapidly changing. It’s great to know that there are many construction companies searching for several ways to incorporate green innovation into the construction industry.

If you are looking for sustainable access doors and panels, Best Access Doors is a trustworthy supplier that promotes energy efficiency and sustainability. All of the products they have to offer are made from high-quality materials and hardware. You can never go wrong choosing them for your future green construction projects.

Green Construction Trends Are Accelerating in the Coming Year

There are a number of major green construction trends in 2023. You need to pay close attention to them as you try to invest in a sustainable building model.

Chris Jackson is an experienced Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the construction industry. He is currently employed by Best Access Doors, an access door supplier in the US and Canada, and has been working for the company for more than 12 years now. His area of expertise is on Negotiation, Roofers, Sales, Project Estimation, and Facility Management (FM).

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Sustainable green roofs: a comprehensive review of influential factors

  • Review Article
  • Published: 03 October 2022
  • Volume 29 , pages 78228–78254, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

  • Mohsen Shahmohammad 1 ,
  • Majid Hosseinzadeh 1 ,
  • Bruce Dvorak 2 ,
  • Farzaneh Bordbar 3 ,
  • Hamid Shahmohammadmirab 4 &
  • Nasrin Aghamohammadi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7063-1671 5 , 6  

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Green roofs have gained much attention as a modern roofing surface due to their potential to deliver many environmental and social benefits. Studies have indicated that different GR designs deliver different ecosystem services, and there are important factors that affect GR performance. This article reviewed significant factors that influence GR performance and sustainability. Substrate and drainage layer material choice significantly affects stormwater retention potential, leachate quality, plant survival, and determines GR environmental footprints. Subsequently, type of plants, their form, and kinds used on GRs impact GR ecosystem function. Leaf area is the most studied trait due to its influence on the cooling potential and energy performance. In order to achieve a sustainable GR, it is essential to select the type of plants that have a high survival rate. Perennial herbs, particularly forbs and grass as dominant groups, are heat and drought tolerant, which make them suitable in GR experiment. Furthermore, selecting a suitable irrigation system is as important as two other factors for having a sustainable GR. Irrigation is essential for plant survival, and due to the current pressure on valuable water sources, it is important to select a sustainable irrigation system. This review presents three sustainable irrigation methods: (i) employing alternative water sources such as rainwater, greywater, and atmospheric water; (ii) smart irrigation and monitoring; and (iii) using adaptive materials and additives that improve GR water use. This review sheds new insights on the design of high-performance, sustainable GRs and provides guidance for the legislation of sustainable GR.

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Water Through Green Roofs

research topics on green construction

Green roofs against pollution and climate change. A review

Yanling Li & Roger W. Babcock Jr.

Climates and Microclimates: Challenges for Extensive Green Roof Design in Hot Climates

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Global disruptions such as COVID-19 (Yu et al. 2021 ) and climate change have brought attention to the importance and quality of our built and natural environments. How we construct and build cities must change if we want to move toward cities with more resilience, sustainability (Addanki and Venkataraman 2017 ; Bibri and Krogstie 2017 ; Teixeira et al. 2021 ), and greater access to nature (Sharifi 2021 ). Green infrastructure is an essential part of sustainable and healthy cities that include parks, green spaces, and low-impact development practices such as green roofs (GRs) (Suppakittpaisarn et al. 2017 ; Langemeyer et al. 2020 ; Liberalesso et al. 2020 ). Green infrastructure has a wide range of environmental benefits (Santamouris and Osmond 2020 ; Changsoon et al. 2021 ) and can increase the resilience and health of the urban systems toward several risk categories like mitigating stormwater runoff (Kim and Song 2019 ; Parker and Zingoni de Baro 2019 ).

GR guidelines and standards have been developed in Europe and North America to enlighten about state-of-the-art performance expectations for GRs. For example, the “Guidelines for the Planning, Construction and Maintenance of Green Roofing,” commonly referred to as the German FLL Guidelines for GRs (FLL  2018 ), are one the most widely used and detailed guidelines among others (Dvorak 2011 ). The German FLL guidelines for GRs specify desirable material choices, the weights of various reclaimed materials that can be used as drainage layers, weights of common forms of plants, nutrient and chemical ranges for substrates, and ranges of water flow through and retention rates among many other system elements (FLL  2018 ). The FLL guidelines for GRs include information about how GR can be made to be resilient and sustainable, such as how to minimize environmental pollution and add positive benefits for urban ecosystems and building owners and users.

Three types of GRs are recognized based upon their level of complexity: extensive, semi-intensive, and intensive GRs (Raji et al. 2015 ; FLL  2018 ). Extensive GRs are shallow light-weight systems (60 to 150 kg/m 2 ) that typically have a growing medium depth of 5 to 15 cm (FLL  2018 ). Plant diversity is generally limited due to the shallow substrate depths; however, these are the most frequent kind of application of GRs due to their low cost.

Semi-intensive GRs (also known as simple intensive) have intermediate characteristics of extensive and intensive GRs. This type has weight and thickness greater than extensive GRs and lower than intensive GRs. Semi-intensive GRs typically have substrate depths of 15–25 cm (FLL  2018 ). Semi-intensive GRs generally accommodate a wide variety of types of vegetation due to their substrate depth. Intensive GRs have deep substrates (> 25 cm) and a wide variety of vegetation that can include shrubs and trees (Droz et al. 2021b ; Manso et al. 2021 ). Our review addresses application of extensive and semi-intensive GR, because of their intended widespread application and environmental benefits.

GRs have several layers of materials (Fig.  1 ), including the vegetation layer, substrate layer (growing media), water retention layer, filter layer, drainage layer, root barrier, and protection layer (Bozorg Chenani et al. 2015 ). Vegetation is planted into the substrate; therefore, the materials and nutrients of the substrate layer support plant growth and plants’ physiological performance (Young et al. 2014 ).

figure 1

Source: author’s design

Layers common to multilayer GRs.

The water retention layer captures stormwater and reduces rooftop runoff, and also provides water for plants (Simmons et al. 2008 ). The filter layer is above the drainage layer and prevents substrate fine particles from passing through the drainage layer. By removing excessive water through its porosity, the drainage layer is responsible for providing a balance between drainage and water retention and adequate root aeration. The protection layer and root barrier are placed at the lowest level of the layers, protecting the building structure from penetration of vegetation roots and small-sized particles into the structures (Bozorg Chenani et al. 2015 ).

Some cities require the use of GRs on some buildings due to the many ecosystem services that GRs provide. GRs can reduce air pollution (Banirazi Motlagh et al. 2021 ), reduce urban heat islands (Kolokotsa et al. 2013 ; Santamouris 2014 ; Imran et al. 2018 ; Yang et al. 2018 ; Asadi et al. 2020 ; Tiwari et al. 2021 ), sequester carbon (Shafique et al. 2020 ; Sultana et al. 2021 ; Seyedabadi et al. 2022 ), reduce rooftop stormwater runoff (Shafique et al. 2018 ; Jusić et al. 2019 ; Kolasa-Więcek and Suszanowicz 2021 ; Wang et al. 2022b ; Wang et al. 2022a , b ), cool down the ambient temperature (Zhang et al. 2020 ; Dandou et al. 2021 ; Jamei et al. 2021 ; Zheng et al. 2021 ), and mitigate urban heat islands (Aghamohammadi et al. 2021a , b ; Aghamohammadi et al. 2021b ) and air pollution (Hong et al. 2021 ; Wang et al. 2021a , b ). The vegetation and substrates of GRs are also known to reduce energy demands (Aboelata 2021 ; Bevilacqua 2021 ; Movahed et al. 2021 ; Rafael et al. 2021 ; Alim et al. 2022 ). Because of the wide variety of ecosystems services provided by GRs, many cities have implemented legislation and development incentives (Carter and Fowler 2008 ; Chen 2013 ). For example, in Toronto, Canada, commercial, institutional, and residential buildings with more than 2000 m 2 roof area are required to include 20–60% of the roof area as GRs (Chow et al. 2018 ). In Tokyo, Japan, new buildings are required to include 20% roof vegetation coverage, while 15% GR coverage is required in Basel, Switzerland and 70% in Portland, USA (Townshend and Duggie 2007 ). In Chicago, the USA, up to 50% of the cost of implementation will be supported if the GR covers higher than 50% of the net roof area (Berardi et al. 2014 ). However, most of these policy actions only focus on GR coverage and speeding up the implementation of GRs around the cities, regardless of their performance and environmental impacts. In spite of the fact that GR performance, sustainability, and environmental impacts can be significantly altered by only changing some of the influential factors.

Sustainable aspects of GRs include their inert materials, live materials (vegetation), and the use of water. Inert materials include the GR substrate and drainage layers, both of which can be made from recycled, reused, and locally sourced materials (“ Substrate and drainage materials ” section).

The appropriate selection of vegetation is essential to the overall performance of GRs (Lundholm and Williams 2015 ). In this paper, we investigate plant traits and other factors related to plants that influence GR performance (“ Plants and green roof performance ” section).

The third aspect influencing sustainable GRs is water-use and irrigation. We investigate ways that irrigation influences GR sustainability and improves its performance. In some climates, irrigation is vital for GRs since the plants’ survival relies on it, and also, GR cooling potential can be enhanced by a suitable irrigation approach (Van Mechelen et al. 2015 ). Sustainable GRs employ alternative water sources such as rainwater, greywater and innovative sources (atmospheric water). GRs can make use of smart irrigation and monitoring, and also adaptive materials and additives can be used to improve water use in GRs (“ Sustainable irrigation ” section).

Since GRs are becoming employed and legislated into municipal ordinances, it is important to understand how GRs can be made to be sustainable and resilient interventions. This study aims to reveal influential factors of high-performing GRs and GRs with minimal adverse environmental impacts. To address these important aspects of GRs, we employ a systematic review of the literature to investigate these aims.

Methodology of the systematic literature review

A systematic review of the literature was used to identify, review, evaluate, synthesize, and report on the findings from peer-reviewed research (Denyer and Tranfield 2009 ). A five-phase process was used to establish a systematic review and is described below, and its phasing is shown in Fig.  2 . The process included a pilot search and development of aims of the study, the location of research, the selection and study of literature, the analysis and synthesis of research, and the reporting of results.

figure 2

Diagram of the five phases of the systematic literature review used in this study

Pilot search

A pilot search was conducted in order to gain an understanding of the categorical nature of existing literature. We also consulted with GR experts about the categorical topics of GRs to understand if there might be gaps in the existing literature and to develop the aims of this study (Counsell 1997 ).

Locating studies and relevant literature

Selecting suitable online search engines is important to identify scientific peer-reviewed research. Web of Science, Springer, MDPI, Google Scholar, and Scopus were used to identify potential articles. Papers that included “green roof” or “green infrastructure” in their keywords, title, and abstracts were located. Keywords for searches included GR material, plant, vegetation, water-use, irrigation, sustainable, ecosystem services, and life cycle.

Study selection and evaluation

We established a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria for the scope of the review. First, the time span of the existing literature was set between January 2000 and July 2022. Furthermore, since English is the common language of peer-reviewed science, only research written in English were selected. Authors worked independently to identify high-quality peer-reviewed and relevant studies. Types of literature included peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and books. The authors read the abstracts and examined the compliance of the selected studies with the aims. Afterwards, the remaining articles were evaluated in greater detail. The authors synthesized their findings and compiled the list of articles for analysis and synthesis.

Analysis and synthesis

In order to analyze the content of the selected literature, it was sorted into categories based on their association with the research questions and aims. The categories include GR ecosystem services, GR sustainability, GR life cycle, GR plant types, GR materials, GR water-use, and irrigation. The authors then surveyed each of these categories and summarized them to reach an approach for presenting the results which targeted the questions properly.

Reporting of results

We report the results and discussion in three sections, including (1) substrate and drainage materials, (2) plants and GR performance, and (3) sustainable irrigation. This study highlights the current knowledge and suggestions of the scholars, reviews critical points and outcomes, presents influential factors and considerations, and uses figures and a table to answer the study questions.

Results and discussion

Substrate and drainage materials.

The literature indicates that the selection of substrate and drainage materials for GR construction can influence the water holding capacity of the substrate, the runoff water quality, plant growth, and environmental footprints.

Material impacts on GR water holding capacity

One of the main aims of GRs is to store and slow the flow of water. Many researchers have utilized different materials in order to increase the stormwater capacity of GRs (Table  1 ). For instance, Vacek et al. ( 2017 ) used hydrophilic mineral wool (HMW) in the substrate layer. It was observed that HMW holds more water for longer periods than a substrate with a standard dimple membrane. However, HMW production increases adverse environmental impacts; because the HMW manufacturing process consumes relatively high amounts of energy (Vacek et al. 2017 ). Therefore, GR designers have faced a challenge to find suitable materials that improve GR water holding without increasing the environmental footprints GRs.

In this regard, different materials like concrete waste, biochar, mineral wool, etc. have been tested (Bisceglie et al. 2014 ; Cao et al. 2014 ; Vacek et al. 2017 ). Utilization of some of these materials such as concrete waste would be beneficial to reduce the consumption of natural materials, and materials like biochar would help to reach a lighter substrate layer. Table  1 presents the results of some studies that have worked on different substrate and drainage layer materials.

Material impacts on runoff quality

The leachate from GRs might contain different amounts of pollutants, and its combination with stormwater runoff turns it into a new non-point pollution source in urban areas. Substrate and drainage layer materials significantly impact the GR runoff quality (Xu et al. 2022 ). Whether GRs act as a sink for substances through deposition or as non-point sources of pollution depends on the substrate and drainage materials (Berndtsson et al. 2009 ; Alsup et al. 2011 ; Karczmarczyk et al. 2014 ; Wang et al. 2017 ; Baryła et al. 2018 ; Jennett and Zheng 2018 ; Qianqian et al. 2019 ). Additionally, the fact that water flowing from GRs has potential for non-potable uses adds to the importance of using materials that prevent water pollution (Santana et al. 2022 ).

In order to assess the impacts of GR substrate materials on leachate quality, many studies on different materials have been conducted. Some of them showed that some materials like Arkalyte (an expanded clay) could lead to a high concentration of heavy metals in the leachate that exceeded standards (Alsup et al. 2011 ). Therefore, in order to avoid the negative effects of materials on the leachate, different materials need to be tested. Table  2 provides an overview of the studies that investigated materials’ impact on runoff quality.

Influence of GR substrate materials on plant growth

Selecting suitable GR materials in a way to maximize plant growth and survival is complicated due to the great influence of materials on GR plants. Furthermore, when edible plants are decided to be planted on GR, the importance of substrate layer design would be greater. Since it is indicated that plants’ nutrient levels are affected by GR substrate, and Nitrates, Aluminum, Magnesium, Lead, and Selenium might lead to safety issues for producing crops like lettuce and tomato on GRs (Nektarios et al. 2022 ).

Therefore, many GR researchers have done studies and tested different materials to investigate the impacts of substrate materials on plant survival and physiological performance. Table  3 summarizes the results of some of these studies that tested different GR layer materials’ impacts on the plants.

Materials and green roof environmental footprints

Substrate and drainage layer materials significantly affect the environmental footprints of GR life cycle (Table  4 ) (Gargari et al. 2016 ; Koroxenidis and Theodosiou 2021 ). Generally, to avoid an unnecessary contribution of additional environmental pollution and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, long-distance transportation of materials must be avoided, when local materials are available (Lira and Sposto 2016 ). In addition, material sourcing that requires high energy consumption, water consumption, and waste production as part of their manufacturing must be avoided. For example, in order to show adverse environmental impacts of the manufacturing of some materials for GRs, Bianchini and Hewage ( 2012 ) analyzed air pollution attributed to GR material manufacturing processes. The study demonstrated that air pollution through the polymer production process can be balanced by GRs in 13–32 years (Bianchini and Hewage 2012 ). They suggested that there is a need to replace current GR materials with more environmentally friendly and sustainable products.

Using local materials is recommended to avoid environmental pollution (Eksi et al. 2020 ). One example of sustainable sourcing of materials is GR on the EcoCenter education building at Heron’s Head Park in San Francisco, California (Dvorak and Drennan 2021 ). Designers sourced stone for a rooftop pond for wildlife, and the gravel edging for the entire GR, from a gravel quarry less than 1 km away. Additionally, the substrate on the GR of a kitchen house at the Slide Ranch (north of San Francisco) is made entirely from gravel, sand and soil found on the property (Dvorak and Drennan 2021 ). Because the site had appropriate materials to assemble a suitable substrate, no offsite delivery of materials was needed.

To select suitable materials for substrate and drainage layer, GR designers need to consider all the aspects that are influenced by the selection of GR materials. They need to select the materials that improve GR performance and reduce its environmental footprints. For example, recycled and renewable materials have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of GRs by 73% (Tams et al. 2022 ); however, it is indicated that some recycled materials can cause water contamination (Chen et al. 2018 ). Accordingly, assessing the results of previous studies on different materials is an important step in the material selection process to reach sustainable GR.

Plants and green roof performance

One of the most critical aspects of establishing ecosystem services on GRs is the selection of suitable plant forms and taxa. Among the reviewed studies, the type of plants, their form, and kinds used on GRs impact GR ecosystem functions (Lundholm et al. 2010 ; Lundholm and Williams 2015 ; Xie et al. 2018 ) and can significantly change GR performance. Figure  3 illustrates the frequency of different GR functions reported in our chosen studies. The effect of plants on energy performance is the most frequently studied function. Other important functions include carbon sequestration, water retention, purification of water, and support of biodiversity.

figure 3

Functional categories and frequency of studies investigating the roles of plants on GRs

Carbon sequestration potential

The ability of plants to sequester carbon is multifactorial. Different traits and environmental determinants are involved, such as how plants use water, air temperature, and relative humidity. Due to difficulties in measuring such traits on live GRs, studies were conducted under controlled conditions. In a review on influential factors that affect carbon sequestration on GRs, Wan Ismail et al. ( 2019 ) identified sixteen influential factors that affect carbon sequestration on GRs.

GR plants assimilate carbon through photosynthesis and return some of it to the atmosphere through respiration (Kavehei et al. 2018 ; Shafique et al. 2020 ). Several studies (Chen 2015 ; Heusinger and Weber 2017 ; Cascone et al. 2018 ) have investigated different plant species and examined the carbon sequestration potential of different plants. Some plants sequester more than others. Grasses for example, offset more CO 2 emissions during the life cycle of GRs (Kuronuma et al. 2018 ) and were found to reduce a building’s carbon footprint by about 26 kg/m 2 (Seyedabadi et al. 2021 ). A study (Kuronuma and Watanabe 2017 ) indicated that physiological and morphological traits of vegetation types have a considerable effect on the carbon sequestration of GRs. In a study, Kuronuma et al. ( 2018 ) calculated the total annual carbon sequestration of three grass species and a flowering plant and converted it to annual CO 2 sequestration, determined that Zoysia matrella (L.) Merr. sequestered 2.459, Festuca arundinacea (Schreb.) sequestered 2.754 Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. sequestered 2.530 Sedum aizoon (L.) sequestered 1.684 kg of CO 2 per square meter per year (Kuronuma et al. 2018 ). Moreover, Charoenkit and Yiemwattana ( 2016 ) revealed that the GRs annual carbon storage capacity is between 0.37 and 30.12 kg/m 2 , and the plant species have a significant role in this number (Charoenkit and Yiemwattana 2016 ).

Whittinghill et al. ( 2013 ) found the results quite remarkable on GR plant type. Plants with woody structure and higher biomass volume are able to sequester more carbon, e.g., Perennial herbs, grasses as well as ornamental landscapes (67.70 kg.m 2 ). In line with Whittinghill’s study, Rowe ( 2016 ) also represented that plants with the greatest biomass act more effectively on carbon capturing and storing.

Getter et al. ( 2009 ) conducted a study on some sedum -based GRs to evaluate the natural capacity of plant selection on carbon sequestration. Sedum album L. stored 239 ± 53.6 C \({\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\) (g), which shows the highest rate of above-ground carbon storage among other sedum species. In 2015, Luo and his colleagues used sewage sludge in a GR to analyze the carbon accumulation in each selected plant species. The highest carbon storage (4.23 kg C \({\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\) ) and carbon sequestration (3.85 kg C \({\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{year}}^{-1}\) ) found in Ligustrum  ×  vicaryi Rehder. (Luo et al. 2015 ).

Importance of suitable plant species for air purification

The role of plant forms and different taxa of vegetation in air pollution reduction is significant. There are two main mechanisms in this function: trapping particulate matter and other pollutants physically (Yang et al. 2008 ) and pollution absorption into plant tissues (Clark et al. 2008 ; Currie and Bass 2008 ). Plant pollution uptake rate varies between plant taxa. For instance, Speak et al. ( 2012 ) studied the differences between diverse plant species and showed a 664% difference between plants that trapped the most particulates and the least. They expressed that this difference is mainly due to leaf characteristics like leaf hairs and ridges (Speak et al. 2012 ).

Moreover, a positive relationship was observed between leaf hair densities, leaf wax quantities, and plant height with particulate matter accumulation (Speak et al. 2012 ). The importance of these findings shows itself in the large-scale implementation of GRs. For example, Currie and Bass ( 2008 ) used the urban forest effects (UFORE) model and estimated that about 109 ha of GRs in Toronto, Canada, with herbaceous plants, would reduce 7.87 metric tons of air pollutants every year. In another research, Yang et al. ( 2008 ) showed that by implementing 19.8 ha of GRs in Chicago, Illinois, approximately 1675 kg of air pollutants could be removed in 1 year.

Plants as cooling effects and temperature reduction (energy performance)

Several studies have shown the effect of plant type on temperature reduction (Lundholm et al. 2010 ; MacIvor and Lundholm 2011 ; MacIvor et al. 2011 ; Sookhan et al. 2018 ). For the cooling effects of plants on GRs, the essential role of plants and vegetation is through evapotranspiration (Bass et al. 2003 ). Also, plants increase the roof albedo and reduce the urban heat island effect; in some cases, plants drop the absorbed energy in half (Sanchez and Reames 2019 ). A study (Cao et al. 2019 ) showed that the cooling generated by the GR is related to the yield of the plants, which is strongly associated with the type of plants with the different photosynthetic and water-use strategies. In this study, C4 grasses demonstrated the highest transpiration (4.4 mm day −1 of Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers . ), which means a greater cooling effect than the C3 grasses. CAM plants contribute to the cooling effect by absorption and insulation. Moreover, in a study for investigating the energy performance of a GR, Foustalieraki et al. ( 2017 ) indicated that different plant species offer different thermal behavior on GRs and expressed that an optimum selection among different plant species is necessary to reach the best GR performance. They also showed that having plants with dense foliage (compacted leaves and/or canopy that block the path of sunlight reaching the ground) will result in more reduction in surface temperature (Foustalieraki et al. 2017 ).

Studies that examined different vegetation found 9.7–24% differences in substrate temperature between vegetation types, with some proofs that this differentiation increased over time as vegetation cover increased (Lundholm et al. 2010 ; MacIvor and Lundholm 2011 ; MacIvor et al. 2011 , Dvorak and Volder 2013a , b ). Schindler et al. ( 2019 ) compared two GRs with different vegetation types and observed a 1.5 °C temperature difference between them and expressed that high albedo, evapotranspiration, and shading are the essential factors in a GR's cooling effect (Schindler et al. 2019 ). Many studies (Zhou et al. 2018 ; Samah et al. 2020 ; Cavadini and Cook 2021 ; Grala da Cunha et al. 2021 ; Tadeu et al. 2021 ) unanimously expressed that the vegetation Leaf Area Index (LAI) significantly impacts temperature. For example, Rakotondramiarana et al. ( 2015 ) conducted a study in Madagascar Island on an extensive GR and showed that indoor air temperature decreases about 1 °C by increasing LAI from 1 to 5 (more LAI means more dense foliage) (Rakotondramiarana et al. 2015 ). The thermal behavior of different types of vegetation can greatly change the energy consumption of the building. Karachaliou et al. ( 2016 ), by planting shrubs and perennial herbs with diverse thermal behavior showed that different species of vegetation can cause an 11% reduction in energy consumption for heating the building and 19% for cooling the building (Karachaliou et al. 2016 ).

Influence on water quality and water retention

Plants also influence the quality of runoff (Rowe 2011 ; Hashemi et al. 2015 ) and stormwater reduction (Kemp et al. 2019 ). Gong et al. ( 2021 ) indicated that diverse plant species have different effects on nutrient loads. Aitkenhead-Peterson et al. ( 2011 ) compared the effects of different succulent species on nitrate leachate and showed an 1120% difference between the best and worst-performing. Moreover, they showed that by cultivating different types of plants in the same media, there was a striking reduction in the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the runoff water (Aitkenhead-Peterson et al. 2011 ).

Cook-Patton and Bauerle ( 2012 ) reviewed the benefits of plant diversity on GRs and indicated that species differ in when and how they absorb nutrients and showed that through having higher plant diversity, more nitrogen was consumed efficiently than when there were monocultures. This means that the utilization of fertilizer nitrogen and the possible leaching of the nitrogen from GRs could be decreased by having diverse species on the roof (Czemiel Berndtsson 2010 ). Regarding plant type effect on water retention, Talebi et al. ( 2019 ) indicated that vegetation type had a greater influence on water retention than increasing the substrate storage. Maclvor et al. ( 2011 ) and Lundholm et al. ( 2010 ) conducted studies on this subject. The first one showed a 20% increase in retention in the best mixture treatment compared with the best monoculture, and the latter one found an 8.4% increase with using more species (Lundholm et al. 2010 ; MacIvor et al. 2011 ).

Use of native plants for conservation of biodiversity

One of the unique opportunities to make GRs sustainable is their potential to support local plants, plant communities, and wildlife (Brenneisen 2005 ; Chen et al. 2021 ; Dvorak and Bousselot 2021 ). Although alien plants on GRs can serve some forms of wildlife (MacIvor et al. 2015 ), native plants can serve local and migratory wildlife (Cook-Patton 2015 ). The composition of wildlife community and biodiversity is different between intensive GRs and extensive GRs, and studies have shown that community biodiversity is higher in intensive GRs (Coffman 2007 ; Nagase et al. 2018 ). To assess the elements and GRs’ characteristics that enhance arthropod biodiversity and ecological functioning, Fabián et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a study and analyzed these characteristics. They selected 30 GRs situated in Argentina in different urbanization contexts (from small towns in semi-rural regions to large towns). They found that total species richness, total abundance of arthropods, and species richness of most functional feeding groups were positively associated with the GRs area. They also expressed that promoting high plant diversity and lessening roof isolation favored entomophagous arthropod diversity (Fabián et al. 2021 ).

Not only GRs are potential homes for the local biodiversity, i.e., spiders and beetles, but they also are a refuge for rare and endangered species like birds. GRs provide a safe habitat for invertebrates and vertebrates in urban areas (Brenneisen 2003 ; Gedge and Kadas 2005 ).

Current challenges and discussions

It has become clear that the GR ecosystem services rely on the plant types, and individual traits or trait combinations can influence them. However, the priority for selecting the GR plants is their survival on the GR. GRs are often planted with low water-using succulents to have a better chance of survival. These plants can tolerate shallow substrates and extremely hot and dry summers (Dvorak and Volder 2010 ; Rayner et al. 2016 ). However, because of their low water-use, these plants when compared to grasses and herbaceous perennials, do not deliver the highest stormwater retention and cooling (Azeñas et al. 2018a , b ). Plants with high water-use optimize stormwater mitigation on GRs as they assist substrate drying after rainfall (Farrell et al. 2013 ). However, supplemental irrigation may be necessary to keep these plants thriving in some climates. Therefore, shallow depth substrates, low water availability, extreme climate events, and prolonged drought challenge designers for suitable plant selection. This selection must consider two important factors; plant survival and delivering the best GR performance. Climates with hot and dry conditions throughout much of the year may not need high functioning stormwater retention performance from GRs. Instead, cooling and shading rooftops is a primary ecosystem service.

Many researchers have worked to specify the factors related to plant survival on GR. Du et al. ( 2019 ) experimented on 15 shrub species from a range of climates and showed that plant survival was not related to water-use, drought response, or climate of origin. They suggested that plant survival on GRs is expected to be determined by a combination of physiological traits (traits like leaf thickness, roots, and stomata). Another study examined whether plant traits like succulence are related to plant survival and resulted that survival was not related to water-use, succulence, or leaf heat tolerance (Guo et al. 2021 ). Farrell et al. ( 2012 ) evaluated severe drought impact on the survival of five succulent species and showed that plants survived longer on the substrate with higher WHC. They expressed that increasing leaf succulence is not related to plant survival, but survival was related to reduced biomass under drought. That study showed that to maximize survival, GRs should be planted with species that have great leaf succulence and low water-use in substrates with high WHC (Farrell et al. 2012 ). Taking to account some fast traits, e.g., relative growth rate (RGR) and leaf area for water-use in nine native plants, showed more plasticity in water treatments (Schrieke and Farrell 2021 ).

Analysis of studies

An analysis was conducted on the plants investigated in “ Plants and green roof performance ” section to determine the trend in the GR plant studies. Most researched plant families, measured traits, and lifeform were determined.

Plant families

Eighty-six plant families have been applied in our examined studies in order to find suitable species to achieve the best performance. Three families represented the most species-rich, namely Crassulaceae (22), Asteraceae (15), and Poaceae (14) (Fig.  4 ).

figure 4

The taxonomic spectrum of plant families and the number of GR studies

Crassulaceae are widely distributed. This family comprises perennial herbs with fleshy leaves that are able to tolerate arid conditions, i.e., shortage of water and high temperatures. These features make the species (e.g., Sedum ) perfect to grow on GRs. Among 20 Sedum species, Sedum spurium M.Bieb. and Sedum acre L. are the foremost planted taxa in reviewed research experiments, nine and eight research, respectively.

Poaceae, known as the grass family, is one the most species-rich families in the plant realm that provides diverse species with various characteristics which make them suitable for GRs.

Measured traits

Among all the plant traits, for assessing plants’ influence on GR ecosystem services, most authors studied leaf area more than other traits. Leaf area is related to the relative growth rate (RGR) as well as net assimilation rate (NAR). As shown in Fig.  5 , the other traits are less focused.

figure 5

Measured traits for plant selection based on the review of the literature

Heat stress is one of the challenges on GRs that influences the root that alters the water use efficiency as well as plant survival. The root vulnerability to heat stress is discussed by Savi et al. ( 2016 ) and Tomasella et al. ( 2022 ). While the crucial role of this trait is one of the main determinants of GRs performance, more investigations into this issue are recommended.

Lifeforms of plants

The lifeform of GR vegetation is one of the significant plant attributes which reveals the adaptive structure of a plant in a given habitat. Perennial herbs are the most frequent lifeform used on the GRs in research. Moreover, perennial herbs used on GRs demonstrate ground cover, which protects the surface from direct sunlight, consequently contributing to the cooling effect (Table  5 ).

Perennial herbs are the dominant lifeform in conducting GR experiments. To look more closely at the plant type of perennial herbs, it was forbs that represented the greatest group, followed by grass (Fig.  6 ). Heat and drought tolerance and having below and above groundwater storage structures are the significant features of the forbs, grass, and succulents which make them suitable and popular in GR experiments. Using multiple lifeforms in GR showed better ecosystem performance compared to monocultures (Lundholm et al. 2010 ).

figure 6

Plant types of perennial herbs used in GR research

  • Sustainable irrigation

Irrigation is one of the critical aspects that must be considered for constructing and maintaining sustainable GRs. Water is the most critical aspect of life on Earth, and due to human destructive actions and climate change, there is high stress on water resources and an urgent need for water resource management. There are several different strategies and solutions for reducing water consumption. In the review of the literature, it was found that GR water-use can be reduced by using appropriate irrigation strategies (Bousselot et al. 2010 ; Van Mechelen et al. 2015 ).

In tropical areas or humid climates, it is possible to establish unirrigated GR if suitable vegetation and materials are selected. Criteria for selecting vegetation for unirrigated GR systems are explained in the FLL guidelines (Breuning and Yanders 2008 ; FLL  2018 ). The guidelines specify that GRs are designed to depend primarily on precipitation for their water supply but considering all types of climate, such as hot and dry climates where experiencing low precipitations, it may not be possible to depend on precipitation alone (Dvorak and Volder 2013a , b ).

Therefore, there is a strict relationship between GR irrigation management and GR plants survival, and it has been indicated plant survival rate on unirrigated GRs has not been satisfying (Dvorak and Volder 2013b ). Besides, some studies have shown that GR irrigation has a cooling effect and increases evapotranspiration (Wang et al. 2021a , b ) and considerably improves building thermal performance (Porcaro et al. 2021 ; Yazdani and Baneshi 2021 ). A study in a semi-arid climate in Mexico showed that after irrigating GR, the maximum temperature of vegetation and substrate reduced by 6.4 and 4.8 °C, respectively (Chagolla-Aranda et al. 2017 ). Lin and Lin ( 2011 ) showed that a substrate that is irrigated twice a week is able to reduce the heat amplitude under the roof slab surface up to 91.6%. However, in some cases, due to the fact that water has higher thermal conductivity than air, lower heat fluxes have been reported from GRs with limited irrigation than well irrigated GRs (Azeñas et al. 2018a , b ). It means that higher substrate water is not always effective in controlling evapotranspiration and providing the related cooling effect (Jim and Peng 2012 ).

The optimal frequency and rate of irrigation required for GRs have been investigated in various ways by several studies. For example, a study in a Mediterranean climate on extensive GRs with testing four types of plants showed that the GR water requirement ranges between 2.6 and 9 L/m 2 /day, and it differs due to plant type species (Schweitzer and Erell 2014 ). In other studies conducted in the Mediterranean climate on the GRs water-use in summer, the water required for GR irrigation ranged from 1.96 L/m 2 /day in Athena, Greece (Papafotiou et al. 2013 ) to 7 L/m 2 /day in Rende, Italy (Brunetti et al. 2018 ). Pirouz et al. ( 2021 ) showed that the average water-use of GRs in the summer in humid regions is about 3.7 L/m 2 /day, in the Mediterranean regions about 4.5 L/m 2 /day, and in arid regions about 2.7 L/m 2 /day.

Therefore, it is necessary to know the sustainable irrigation strategies to reach maximum performance of GR with minimum water consumption. Reviewing the literature showed that GR irrigation strategies can be divided into three main sections: (1) Employing alternative sources, (2) smart irrigation and monitoring, and (3) using adaptive materials and additives that improve GR water-use.

Employing alternative sources

In recent years, it has become popular to utilize alternative water sources to avoid potable water use on GRs. This section aims to discuss and introduce suitable alternative sources to reduce potable water usage on GRs. Due to a lack of comprehensive knowledge in this section, some of the references are not GR related. In each section, literature gaps have been indicated.

Rainwater harvesting

One of the most available sources of free water that has a long history of use is harvested rainwater. The effectiveness of rainwater harvesting systems depends on the region’s climate type and precipitation frequency. The quantity of rainfall affects the degree of rainwater-use. Rainwater harvesting has gained popularity for GRs in some regions (Almeida et al. 2021 ; Burszta-Adamiak and Spychalski 2021 ). Different studies proposed multiple approaches for rainwater harvesting, such as rainwater cisterns or tanks, treatment trains, and constructed wetlands (Hardin et al. 2012 ; Coutts et al. 2013 ; Chao-Hsien et al. 2014 ; Hafizi Md Lani et al. 2018 ; Kucukkaya et al. 2021 ). For example, Coutts et al. ( 2013 ) studied the potential of water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) (WSUD is an approach to design urban areas to make use of valuable resources like rainwater). They demonstrated that WSUD provides a mechanism for retaining water through stormwater harvesting and can be a dependable source of water across Australian urban environments for landscape irrigation. In semi-arid regions, where rainfall is infrequent, many GRs in western North America have made use of harvested rainwater and have had success (Dvorak and Skabelund 2021 ).

Some researchers have suggested blue-green roofs as a way for using rainwater for irrigating. Generally, blue-green roofs have an extra water retention layer that allows more stormwater to be stored so that the reservoir can act as a source of water for the GR through capillary rises (Busker et al. 2022 ). Moreover, Droz et al. ( 2021a , b ) showed that blue-green roofs provided the most services with the lowest number of trade-offs and expressed that the GR system type is the most impactful on ecosystem services.

Chao-Hsien et al. ( 2014 ) examined the primary design factors of a rainwater harvesting system for GRs and conducted a case study on a university building in Keelung, Northern Taiwan. For this building and climate, the optimal tank volume was 9.41  \({\mathrm{m}}^{3}\) and the potable water replacement rate and probability of exceedance were 92.72% and 88.76%, respectively.

Besides being a sustainable source for GR irrigation, harvesting rainwater reduces erosion and stormwater pollution and helps reduce flooding in dense urban areas (Hardin et al. 2012 ; Islam et al. 2013 ). It is necessary to mention that rainwater harvesting systems need maintenance. Some studies have observed poor microbial water quality (Al-Batsh et al. 2019 ; Dissanayake and Han 2021 ). Other studies have shown that suitable treatment and disinfection methods can convert harvested rainwater into drinking water (Alim et al. 2020 ).

Greywater recycling and green roof irrigation

Greywater is wastewater that includes water from baths, showers, hand basins, washing machines, dishwashers, and kitchen sinks, excluding streams from toilets (Eriksson et al. 2002 ). Some sources exclude kitchen wastewater from the other greywater streams (Al-Jayyousi 2003 ; Wilderer 2004 ). Greywater use on GRs is an alternative and sustainable method for GR irrigation. It is more complex and more expensive than rainwater harvesting because it requires a pipe system separate from blackwater. Also, one of the advantages of greywater is the expanding place of its generators in everyday use and its availability.

Several studies suggested using greywater for GR irrigation (Mahmoudi et al. 2021 ). Chowdhury and Abaya ( 2018 ) carried out an experimental study of greywater-irrigated GR systems in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. By monitoring the greywater influents and the GR effluents from two intensive and two extensive GRs irrigated with greywater, they observed the changes in the greywater quality and organic treatments (Chowdhury and Abaya 2018 ). They showed that treated greywater effluent from the GRs met the local standards for recycled wastewater-based irrigation in parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, salinity, and total dissolved solids (TDS). For example, the values of mean TDS in the effluents from the extensive and intensive systems were ~ 1.7 g/L and ~ 1.3 g/L, respectively. They expressed that TDS removal was greater in intensive GRs due to the greater depth of the soil–sand medium in the intensive GR. One building in Seattle, Washington (Bullitt Center), uses harvested water for interior use, then uses a constructed wetland GR as a final treatment of the greywater. Research on this GR suggests that there is a proper balance between the sourcing of water and cleaning capacity of the vegetation on the GR (Dvorak and Rottle 2021 ). On the base floor of this building, a 212-m 3 cistern is located to collect 69% (128,000 gallons) of the rooftop runoff, and the stored water is used for potable and non-potable uses. After use in the building, the water is pumped on the GR through a series of drip lines so that the plants can absorb the nutrients. Then the water is collected and pumped through the system several more times to the point that the nutrients have been absorbed (Center 2013 ; WBDG 2016 ).

Thomaidi et al. ( 2022 ) conducted an experiment in Lesvos island, Greece, to assess the use of GRs as modified shallow vertical flow constructed wetlands for greywater treatment in buildings. They investigated the effects of different design parameters such as substrate material (perlite or vermiculite), substrate depth, and plant species ( Geranium zonale L., Polygala myrtifolia L., or Atriplex halimus L.) on the effluent quality. The GRs planted with Atriplex halimus and with 20 cm of vermiculite substrate had the best BOD (91%), TSS (93%), COD (91%), and turbidity (93%) average removal efficiencies. They showed that substrate depth is a highly influential factor in greywater treatment and observed when the substrate depth was decreased to 10 cm the average removal efficiencies were reduced to 60–75%. Also, the recirculation of a portion of the effluent in the influent increased the turbidity, organic matter, and nitrogen removal.

Liu et al. ( 2021 ) expressed that GRs irrigated with domestic wastewater satisfied GR irrigation requirements and improved the urban wastewater treatment system. Through using greywater for GR irrigation and planting different plant species, they showed that GRs can be considered as a nature-based solution for domestic wastewater treatment and revive the urban water resource (Liu et al. 2021 ). Using greywater for GR irrigation can have multiple benefits. Yet, there were no reported adverse effects on plants due to greywater for irrigation (Agra et al. 2018 ). In a study for indicating the plants’ response to greywater irrigation, Yalcinalp et al. ( 2019 ) compared two different greywater models and tap water for GR irrigation. They showed that the use of greywater provides more positive effects on plant growth compared to that of tap water. Also, utilizing greywater can reduce the irrigation costs of the GR (Yalcinalp et al. 2019 ). Hence, by using greywater in GRs, it is possible to sustain plant growth, reduce the use of potable water, and reduce demands on municipal wastewater treatment plants (Xu et al. 2020 ). One challenge with the use of greywater on GRs is the testing and monitoring of water quality to ensure that water quality is acceptable for local use. Special permits or permissions may be required to secure the use of greywater based on individual local authorities and guidelines.

Innovative sources for water consumption and irrigation purposes

Atmospheric water harvesting (i.e., fog) is one of the unique sources that has caught the attention of researchers (Bagheri 2018 ; Kim et al. 2018 ; Tu and Hwang 2020 ; Zhou et al. 2020 ). Water harvesting methods from the atmospheric fog and dew have been found to be useful in different applications (Jarimi et al. 2020 ). Several studies (Beysens et al. 2007 ; Tomaszkiewicz et al. 2015 ) indicated that dew water collection could serve as a potential water source in tropical, high humid, and specific climates. Also, some studies showed that dew water harvesting is a sustainable and suitable source for agriculture purposes. Tomaszkiewicz et al. ( 2017 ) in Beiteddine, Lebanon (semi-arid climate), assessed the potential of dew harvesting during the dry season for agriculture purposes. They showed that a dew harvesting system with a size of 2 m 2 could produce 4.5 L/month, which is sufficient for the irrigation of tree seedlings.

In an innovative approach to improve GR water use efficiency, Pirouz et al. ( 2021 ) assessed dew and fog harvesting potential during the dry season. The average potential for fog in humid regions is 1.2 to 15.6 L/m 2 /day and for dew is 0.1 to 0.3 L/m 2 /day, in the Mediterranean regions for fog is 1.6 to 4.6 L/m 2 /day and for dew is 0.2 to 0.3 L/m 2 /day, and in the arid regions the potential for fog is 1.8 and 11.8 L/m 2 /day and for dew is 0.5 to 0.7 L/m 2 /day. The study’s conclusion demonstrated that fog harvesting could provide the total water requirement of the GRs. Dew harvesting by PV (photovoltaic) panels could provide 15 to 26% of the water requirements (Pirouz et al. 2021 ). However, there is a need to conduct practical studies in different climates to investigate the potential of atmospheric water harvesting for GR irrigation.

Smart irrigation and monitoring

One of the direct ways to manage water use and conservation on GRs is the use of smart irrigation technology. Several studies on GRs with smart irrigation systems indicated that water requirements can be calculated by evapotranspiration data (Bandara et al. 2016 ) and precipitation information (Stovin et al. 2013 ) or by directly observing the substrate moisture with sensors (Jim and Peng 2012 ). When substrate moisture content drops below a certain level, the irrigation system can be programmed to run. When sufficient irrigation has been delivered or in the case of rainfall, the irrigation system is prevented from running a cycle so there will be no excessive watering and superfluous supply. This method was applied by Tomasella et al. ( 2022 ) on shrub vegetated Mediterranean extensive GRs, and results suggested that maintaining substrate water level at a certain threshold was significantly effective in optimizing GR benefits, reducing water consumption and favoring plant establishment. Besides, significant water savings were reported compared to the common irrigation timer maintenance method.

Other methods include a study (Gu et al. 2021 ) where a neural network model is proposed in order to learn from a process-based agricultural systems model. This process determines irrigation timing and amount by predicting soil moisture. In a similar study, Tsang and Jim ( 2016 ) used artificial intelligence modeling to optimize GR irrigation efficiency, and for simulating changes in soil moisture, used fuzzy logic and an artificial neural network. They indicated a 20% reduction in water-use and improvement in plant coverage by applying this method.

Using adaptive materials and additives that improve GR water-use

Designing GRs and selecting the appropriate materials and vegetation type can be done in a way to reduce irrigation requirements and improve GR water-use. Increasing the WHC potential of the substrate layer would greatly improve the irrigation requirement of GRs. Some materials, as mentioned in “ Material impacts on GR water holding capacity ” section, have the ability to increase the WHC.

In a study, Kanechi et al. ( 2014 ) by testing and comparing three different substrates (amended soil, turf mat, furnace bottom ash), showed that amended soil, due to the presence of decomposing organic matter, had higher water and nutrient holding capacities. Paradelo et al. ( 2019 ) investigated WHC in modified compost-based substrates and showed bentonite increased the WHC of the substrates. Some authors worked on some additives, such as hydrophilic gels, to improve the WHC (Williams et al. 2010 ; Sutton et al. 2012 ). Savi et al. ( 2014 ) assessed a GR performance amended with hydrogel and showed that hydrogels considerably increased the water content of substrate at saturation and water available to vegetation. However, increasing the water holding potential of GRs must be done with great attention to the roof’s capability to sustain heavier loads. Because heavier loads on roofs could cause damage to buildings with weak or old structure. Other research shows how the water retention layer can play an essential role in sustaining soil moisture (Tan et al. 2017 ), and through retaining water, it can reduce the irrigation requirement. A study by Roehr and Kong ( 2010 ) showed that GR summer irrigation decreased from 54.4 to 8.6 mm in Vancouver, Canada, by adding a water retention layer (Roehr and Kong 2010 ).

However, the crucial role of plant type cannot be neglected in irrigation (Zhang et al. 2021 ). Some plant types, such as mosses, have high-water retention and can be beneficial for the soil moisture content (Elumeeva et al. 2011 ). Roehr and Kong ( 2010 ) expressed that if an average roof area of 3700 m 2 /ha is assumed in Shanghai, GRs with low water-use plants could potentially reduce stormwater runoff by 903.2 m 3 per year and by using high water-use plants this number reaches 1806.7 m 3 per year (Roehr and Kong 2010 ). A study in Portugal for optimizing the water-use of GRs suggested using native plant species due to better tolerance against drought (Paço et al. 2019 ). This study showed that the mixture of mosses and vascular plants were an interesting solution for water-use improvement since mosses had a large water retention capacity, and vascular plants can use the retained water (Paço et al. 2019 ). Therefore, the selection of suitable plants and materials influences the GR water requirement.

Due to the growing popularity of GRs and various attempts to improve different aspects of GRs, it is crucial to learn and know how to build sustainable GRs to maximize their ecosystem services and reduce their negative environmental impacts. In order to achieve these purposes, considerations and influential factors must be known, and the role of each of them needs to be distinguished. By following the review methodology and its phases, this study focused on three main topics: (1) substrate and drainage materials, (2) plants and GR performance (biological GR components), and (3) sustainable irrigation. In each of these three topics, valid points are presented to be considered for building sustainable GRs, with enhanced performance. The main points include:

GR materials (Substrate and drainage layer)

The key to reach sustainable GRs is using sustainable materials in different layers of GRs. Substrate and drainage layer materials affect the GR performance and influence the adverse environmental impacts. Substrate and drainage materials significantly affect stormwater retention potential, leachate quality, and plant survival and also determine GR environmental footprints.

The use of recycled, reused, or locally available materials can reduce GR environmental footprint and improve GR’s life cycle. However, the influence of these materials on GR performance must be examined carefully. In some cases, using the materials that improve GR sustainability results in a reduction in GR performance.

Transportation of GR materials is another issue that can cause environmental pollution and CO 2 emissions. The solution is using locally available materials. However, the GR supply market has not developed in some regions, and demand for more research and more suitable local materials is rising.

Plants on GRs

GR vegetation is a critical element of the overall performance of the GR. Different forms of plants have different potentials in CO 2 sequestration, air pollution absorption, temperature reduction, stormwater retention, local habitat provisions, and improving water quality and consumption. However, plant survival must not compromise in the strive for improving GR performance. It has shown that having higher plant diversity would benefit GR sustainability.

Vegetation LAI has an important effect on temperature reduction, as an increase in LAI can offer more summertime cooling and reduce the urban heat island effect. In ecoregions where there are few plants with large leaves, it may be possible to cluster plants or use different forms of plants to shade the rooftop.

Lifeform is one of the significant plant attributes which reveals the adaptive structure of a plant in a given habitat. Based on the conducted review, perennial herbs are the most frequent lifeform for selected vegetation on GRs. They do not need to be replanted each year and are heat and drought tolerant.

A critical aspect of a sustainable GR is managing irrigation by avoiding excessive use of potable water. Irrigation is vital for plant survival and has a major influence on GR performance (i.e., temperature reduction).

Several ways to improve GR irrigation include employing alternative water sources, monitoring and smart irrigation, adding additives, and using materials that increase WHC. Lack of knowledge about sustainable irrigation has caused many GRs to use the traditional irrigation method and stress limited water sources.

Using alternative irrigation sources like rainwater, greywater, and atmospheric water, besides satisfying water-use of GRs, can be considered as sustainable water sources for other purposes. Smart irrigation and using sensors in GRs reduce the amount of irrigation requirement. Greywater shows promise for satisfying GR irrigation demand since it has no adverse effect on GR performance and can benefit plant growth. Many projects have used GR for greywater treatment and have had success.

Considering the potential of some vegetation and some substrate and drainage materials to reduce the water-use of GR is important. Materials and plant species have the ability to increase WHC so that little irrigation will be needed. Also, some additives are introduced by researchers that have the ability to reduce the water-use of GRs by increasing WHC.

The results of this study can be useful to GR designers and legislators to establish and make use of knowledge to support regulations that follow common goals and help build sustainable GRs with better performance. This paper addresses the current lack of knowledge and challenges of building sustainable GRs. It may also be useful to help other GR researchers better understand research gaps and needs for future studies.

Data availability

The datasets collected and/or analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

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Mohsen Shahmohammad & Majid Hosseinzadeh

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Shahmohammad, M., Hosseinzadeh, M., Dvorak, B. et al. Sustainable green roofs: a comprehensive review of influential factors. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29 , 78228–78254 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23405-x

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81 Green Building Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best green building topic ideas & essay examples, ✅ simple & easy green building essay titles, 🔎 good research topics about green building, ❓ green architecture research questions.

  • The Use of Green Materials for Sustainable Buildings Green materials used on the sustainable buildings reduce the environmental hazardous impacts such as the global warming effects, depletion of resources, and toxicities.
  • Green Buildings and Indoor Air Quality The idea of “green buildings” has in many ways helped enhance indoor air quality.”Green buildings” are made possible by designing and constructing buildings which have high quality of indoor air as one of their major […] We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
  • Green Buildings Impact on the Environment The most outstanding benefit of green buildings is the reduction in wastes and this is something that other developments have not taken care of.
  • Green Building in the United Arab Emirates Consequently, the government in the United Arab Emirates resolved for the implementation of better and advanced construction strategies that would ensure energy was conserved therefore providing a solution to the increased rate of pollution that […]
  • Green Design: Sustainable Landscaping and Garden Design The perfect designing of sustainable landscapes in the urban centers has led to efficient use of land in cities and the surrounding regions.
  • Green Buildings and Their Efficiency Water Consumption The resources are useful in terms of provide regulation of buildings, components of green buildings, selection of green materials and where to purchase such materials.
  • Green Buildings and Environmental Sustainability This paper scrutinizes the characteristics that need to be possessed by a building for it to qualify as green coupled with questioning the capacity of the green movements across the globe to prescribe the construction […]
  • Green Building in the Boston Area On the whole, this project illustrates how innovative technologies and creative decisions of the architects can improve the sustainability of buildings.
  • Green Industrial Cities’ Designing A green environment includes the geographical area and the natural state that has not yet been developed and development must not negatively impact the existing infrastructure and the environment.
  • Indoor Air Quality in Green Building Movement To check the hypothesis it is necessary to consider such issues as the history of green building, the impact of green building on environment and people’s health, the importance of the high indoor air quality […]
  • Green Building Codes and Standards The building industry in the United States is not spared when it comes to the question of embracing the green paradigm in building and construction.
  • Australian Green Building Innovation and Ethics The field has a direct impact on the quality of life and the environment. The concepts to be discussed include the origins of the project, its impacts, and how the innovation addresses sustainability concerns.
  • Green Building Programs Assessment Each of the initiatives evaluates the impact that buildings have on the environment as well as the way these buildings were built and how they can be disposed of in the future. The main objective […]
  • Green Building: The Impact of Humanity on the Environment A growing awareness of humanity’s impact on the environment resulted in the emergence of regulations and evaluation systems across the world. Green Globes is online-based and requires a design team and a project manager for […]
  • Green Building and Green Practices Promotions One of the aspects of LCA is life cycle costing, which evaluates the financial cost of the design and maintenance of the building and is important for estimating the expenses associated with green buildings’ characteristics.
  • Green Design Parameters in High-Rise Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate The core of the issue lies in the need to determine the pressure differences as applied to windward and leeward faces.
  • Green Building Leeds Certification – Childcare Center These provide regulations for the design of the facility, the infrastructure required, the size required and the specific services to be provided by the child care facility.
  • Lightening Solution for a Green Building Now better is the efficiency of electricity to light conversion, lesser is the electrical energy wasted and lesser is the amount of fossil fuel burnt and greenhouse gases produced to get the same amount of […]
  • The Relationship Between Green Buildings and Operations Management Once a total budget for a green building project is set, project management should think in terms of the possible impact of different combinations: the extremes of spending the total budget, and the results expected […]
  • Operations Management vs. Green Building (GB) Introduction Green Building and Operations Management Importance and Role of Operations Management Conclusion Green building depends upon effective management process and resource allocation.
  • Green Building Design Management The concert of service and product design involves environmentally friendly technologies and effective use of natural resources and materials. It influences allocation of resources, design of the building an selection of materials and technologies.
  • Business Opportunities and the Future of Green Building Constructions
  • Analysis of Business Plans About Green Building
  • Can Green Building Councils Serve as Third Party Governance Institutions?
  • Comparing Green Building Rating and Sustainable Building Rating Construction
  • Water Ecological Aspects in Developing a Quantitative Climatic Model of Green Building
  • Encouraging L.E.E.D. Green Building Technology
  • Ethical and Sustainability Issues in Green Building
  • Explicating Mechanical and Electrical Knowledge for Design Phase of Green Building Projects
  • Adoption and Impact of L.E.E.D.-Based Green Building Policies at the Municipal Level
  • Fire Risk Analysis and Fire Prevention Management Optimization for Green Building Design
  • Global Green Building Materials Market: Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Forecast
  • Linking Green Building, Advertising, and Price Premium
  • Green Buildings Affect the Environment Construction
  • The Relationships Between Green Building and Sustainability
  • Analysis of Green Building and Sustainable Construction
  • Linking Green Building and Zero Energy Trends
  • Overview and Analysis of Benefits of Green Building
  • Green Building Construction From an Accounting Perspective
  • Mapping the Green Building Industry: How Local Are Architects and General Contractors
  • Green Building Councils: Their Economic Role as Governance Institutions
  • Property Tax Assessment Incentive for Green Building: Energy Saving Based-Model
  • Green Building Evaluation From a Life-Cycle Perspective in Australia
  • The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector
  • Green Building Laws and Incentives Provided by NY City and State
  • Overview of Singapore’s Green Building Program
  • Green Building Occupant Satisfaction: Evidence From the Australian Higher Education Sector
  • State Environmental Policies: Analyzing Green Building Mandates
  • Green Building: Passive House or Zero Energy Building
  • Strategies for Promoting Green Building Technologies Adoption in the Construction Industry
  • Green Building Pro-environment Behaviors: Are Green Users Also Green Buyers
  • Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery
  • Green Building Project Management: Obstacles and Solutions for Sustainable Development
  • Benefits and Barriers to Promoting Bamboo as a Green Building Material in China
  • Green Building Research: Current Status and Future Agenda
  • The Market for Green Building In Developed Asian Cities
  • Green Building: Taking Advantage of All Natural Resources
  • The Pros and Cons of Green Building
  • Thermal Eco-Cities: Green Building and Urban Thermal Metabolism
  • Understanding Green Building Construction in Singapore
  • Using Green Building and Energy Efficient Resources
  • Can Green Building Councils Serve as Third-Party Governance Institutions?
  • What Is Green Building?
  • What Does Green Building Construction Look Like From an Accounting Point of View?
  • What Are the Business Opportunities and the Future of Green Architecture Structures?
  • What Are the Ethical and Sustainability Issues in Green Building?
  • How Are Mechanical and Electrical Knowledge Used in the Design Phase of Green Building Projects?
  • How Do Green Buildings Affect the Environment?
  • What Is the Relationship Between Green Architecture and Sustainability?
  • What Is the Connection Between Green Building Trends and Zero Energy Consumption?
  • What Is Green Building Industry Mapping?
  • What Are the Green Building Councils?
  • What Is the Green Building Practice Plan?
  • How Are Green Building and Energy Efficiency Resources Used Together?
  • What Is Green Building College?
  • What Is the Property Tax Incentives for Green Building?
  • What Does the NYC Green Building Initiative Look Like?
  • What Materials Are Used for Green Architecture?
  • What Resources Are Used for Green Building?
  • What Is Rethinking the Socio-Technical Transformations of Green Entrepreneurship?
  • What Is Green Building Aimed At?
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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Renewable Energy Is Green, but We Can Make It Greener

Nrel’s code-based life cycle assessments confront environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies from cradle to grave.

Solar photovoltaic arrays and wind turbines at sunset.

The U.S. energy transition is gaining speed, accelerated by government renewable energy goals and billions of dollars through the Inflation Reduction Act. As we race toward a greener future, understanding the potential adverse effects of renewable energy technologies before they are deployed has never been more critical.

Dozens of researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have spent decades studying the life cycles and environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies. This work—called life cycle assessment—is crucial for making sure energy technologies are as clean as they can be.

"A lot of what we do at NREL is designed to make the world better through cheaper, cleaner, more equitable, sustainable energy," said Rebecca Hanes, a researcher in NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis Center (SEAC), where most of the laboratory's life cycle assessment work takes place. "But we're also making sure energy technologies are not causing unintended consequences. By looking at the entire supply chain, we can determine if there are ways to lessen the impacts of these technologies."

Three Life Cycle Phases of Renewable Energy Technologies

Graphic of the three life cycle phases of renewable energy technologies, including upstream, operation, and downstream. Life cycle analysis looks all three phases of a technology’s life cycle.

Life cycle assessment uses a "cradle-to-grave" evaluation of the environmental impacts of a product over three phases of its life:

  • Upstream: Resource extraction, component and product manufacturing, and related transportation
  • Operation: Product use and maintenance
  • Downstream: Dismantling, decommissioning, and disposing or recycling at the end of the product's life.

Because renewable energy technologies like wind or solar do not produce emissions during use, most of their environmental impacts occur before and after operation. Life cycle assessment can track manufacturing materials and processes, model supply chain impacts, and evaluate circular economy strategies. These data can inform decisions about research, design, development, and deployment of renewable energy technologies.

For renewables, there's a heavy emphasis in life cycle assessment on the burdens coming from upstream—where materials are taken from the earth, processed, and manufactured into components that are then manufactured into full technologies. — SEAC researcher Garvin Heath, who co-led the Life Cycle Assessment Harmonization Project, one of the first efforts at harmonizing life cycle assessment methods, data, and assumptions across studies.

A Niche in Code

Typically, life cycle assessment practitioners evaluate the phases of a product's life cycle using specific, fixed assumptions around inputs such as the type of power used. Often these assessments are conducted using software with graphical user interfaces that require each change to be done manually. However, with increasing interest in assessing technologies across changing conditions, NREL has shifted to more novel and scalable methods.

NREL is the only U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory with a dedicated team of researchers working in code-based life cycle assessment, which scales traditional life cycle assessment to accommodate greater amounts of life cycle data, processes, and technologies. This approach creates a more comprehensive picture of a technology's impact across time and location.

"While code-based life cycle assessment encompasses all the methods and standards of typical, process-based life cycle assessment, it has the added benefit of automation," said SEAC researcher Patrick Lamers, who has spearheaded NREL's code-based life cycle assessment work. "We can now automatically account for system dynamics, like a changing economy or power sector, and we can do this over a series of environmental impacts and resource-use metrics at the same time."

A few years ago, he encouraged researchers within SEAC's life cycle assessment community of practice to go all-in on code-based life cycle assessment. The team needed a more comprehensive way to help NREL's primary client, DOE, make informed and equitable decisions on long-term renewable energy investments, ideally preemptively addressing possible adverse side effects for the environment and society.

Since Lamers launched the effort, NREL's code-based life cycle assessment practice has taken off.

"Once we saw what code-based life cycle assessment is capable of, more and more of my SEAC colleagues tried it out within their projects," he said. "Our work on code-based life cycle assessment is one of the most rewarding achievements of my career. What began as an idea led to a team of funded and highly motivated people working in a space where clients and NREL leadership are seeing huge value."

NREL's code-based life cycle assessment uses an open-source Python library that was originally created by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute. NREL is now collaborating with these researchers across several projects designed to advance open-source life cycle assessment code and data sets and to make them accessible to a larger community of users across the world.

"This work includes years of relationship building with the Swiss entities, now our partners—making NREL a front-runner in code-based life cycle assessment both internationally and within the DOE laboratory system," Lamers said.

Present-Day Technologies at Scale, in a Future Context

Code-based life cycle assessment uses spatial data sets that enable users to directly compare different technologies over time, space, and specific metrics. Following are two examples of this type of code-based life cycle assessment work.

  • Evaluating two promising direct air capture technologies across a series of climate change mitigation scenarios while considering structural changes of the power sector: Results of this work revealed that electricity sector decarbonization and direct air capture technologies are both indispensable to avoid environmental problem shifting (that is, when solving one environmental problem, another emerges). Decarbonizing the electricity sector improves carbon storage efficiency, but the environmental impact of direct air capture varies across regions, highlighting the importance of smart energy-system siting and integration.
  • Comparing two power-to-hydrogen technologies across a series of future decarbonization scenarios while accounting for structural changes in the cement, steel, fuel, and power sectors: In this study, researchers deciphered the nonlinear relationships between future technology and energy system dynamics over time and determined which of these changes had the strongest influence on the technology's environmental impacts.

NREL researchers have also linked their life cycle assessments to NREL flagship tools, such as the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), which simulates the evolution of the bulk power system from present day through 2050 or later. By integrating with tools like ReEDS, NREL can assess a technology in any region of the future U.S. power system over time. An example of this type of analysis showed that closed-loop pumped storage hydropower systems are the most climate-friendly method for storing energy when accounting for the full impacts of materials, construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning over the systems' assumed 80-year lifetime.

The Future of NREL's Code-Based Life Cycle Assessment

Photo of two people talking in front of a wall of computer displays.

Another leading NREL figure in this space is Tapajyoti "TJ" Ghosh, who has been working side by side with Lamers over the past three years.

"Code-based life cycle assessment represents a tectonic shift in the way we analyze renewable energy technology materials, processes, and impacts," Ghosh said. "By moving to a code-based platform that utilizes NREL's high-performance computer, we can reveal a wealth of insights that would have taken us much longer to achieve in any other fashion."

Lamers and Ghosh predict that in five years, all of NREL's core life cycle assessment work will be code based. They are actively working on several open-source prospective life cycle assessment tools, enabling the analysis of new technologies under projected energy, economy, land, and/or climate scenarios. The tools share the same platform—the Li fe-cycle A ssessment I ntegration into S calable O pen-source N umerical models ( LiAISON )—yet allow for single or multisector dynamics, such as changing the regional energy or electricity mix (e.g., LiAISON-ReEDS) or larger climate and economic contexts (e.g., LiAISON-Global Change Analysis Model [GCAM]).

"Code-based life cycle assessment provides the platform that's needed to assess present-day technologies at scale in a future context," Lamers said. "It also ensures that we can make investment decisions in renewable energy technology options today more confidently, knowing that we have evaluated possible trade-offs of such technologies across the various possible system contexts of tomorrow."

NREL has developed a variety of life cycle assessment tools that provide industry practitioners, lenders, utility executives, and lawmakers with the best information about greenhouse gas emissions from various sources of energy.

Cambium : An annually updated, publicly available data set, Cambium includes modeled hourly emission, cost, and operational metrics for a range of possible futures of the U.S. electricity sector through 2050. Cambium helps answer life cycle assessment questions about the transition to more reliable, resilient, low-carbon power systems, enabling better decisions by the people planning the grid and grid-connected systems.

Circular Economy Lifecycle Assessment and Visualization (CELAVI): This code-based circular supply chain simulator models the impacts of renewable energy supply chains as they transition toward circularity by reusing, recycling, and upcycling materials, resulting in environmental, social, and economic benefits or drawbacks. In addition to incorporating life cycle assessment, CELAVI also breaks down environmental impacts by materials and processes over time and space.

LiAISON : An open-source, prospective life cycle assessment framework, Life-cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-source Numerical models (LiAISON) enables the life cycle analysis of present-day new technologies under different future energy-economy-land-climate system contexts. This enables the assessment of novel technologies at scale in various contexts to preemptively evaluate potential trade-offs over metrics, time, and regions.

Materials Flows through Industry (MFI): This open-source, process-based life cycle assessment tool helps inform the manufacturing process from resource extraction to the factory gate ("cradle to gate"). By creating an inventory of the energy and materials used in the initial manufacturing stages through final production, MFI can model the energy use and greenhouse gas impacts of a range of manufacturing scenarios, including the effects of changes in production technology, increases in industrial energy efficiency, and supply chains.

Learn more about NREL's life cycle assessment work , and subscribe to receive updates on NREL energy analysis, including our quarterly newsletter .

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A look at black-owned businesses in the u.s..

The owner of Marcus Book Store, the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the U.S., talks with her employee about a shop display in Oakland, California, in December 2021. (Amy Osborne/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

More than one-in-five Black adults in the United States say owning a business is essential to financial success, according to a September 2023 Pew Research Center survey . While Black-owned businesses have grown significantly in the U.S. in recent years, they still make up a small share of overall firms and revenue, according to our analysis of federal data.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine the characteristics of Black-owned businesses in the United States. The analysis relies primarily on data from the 2022  Annual Business Survey  (ABS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

The survey – conducted annually since 2017 – includes all non-farm U.S. firms with paid employees and receipts of $1,000 or more in 2021. Firms are defined as businesses “consisting of one or more domestic establishments under its ownership or control.” Majority business ownership is characterized in the survey as having 51% or more of the stock or equity in the firm. The Census Bureau counts multiracial firm owners under all racial categories they identify with; Hispanic firm owners may be of any race. Read more about the ABS methodology .

A bar chart showing that about 3% of U.S. businesses were Black-or African American-owned in 2021.

In 2021, there were 161,031 U.S. firms with majority Black or African American ownership , up from 124,004 in 2017, according to the latest estimates from the Annual Business Survey  (ABS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. Black-owned firms’ gross revenue soared by 43% during this timespan, from an estimated $127.9 billion in 2017 to $183.3 billion in 2021.

Despite this growth, majority Black-owned businesses made up only about 3% of all U.S. firms that were classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners in 2021. And they accounted for just 1% of gross revenue from all classifiable companies that year. By comparison, in 2021, roughly 14% of all Americans were Black.

As has  long been the case , White majority-owned businesses made up the greatest share of classifiable firms (85%) and their revenue (93%) in 2021. About one-in-ten classifiable firms (11%) were majority-owned by Asian Americans, and no more than 7% had majority ownership by someone from another racial and ethnic group.

The Annual Business Survey classifies businesses as “majority Black- or African American-owned” if a Black owner has at least 51% equity in the firm. The same standard holds for business owners of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The U.S. Census Bureau counts multiracial firm owners under all racial categories they identify with; Hispanic firm owners may be of any race. 

Not all U.S. businesses are classifiable by the race or ethnicity of their owners. In 2021, about 4% of all businesses in the U.S. were  not  classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners – though these firms accounted for 61% of total revenue. Ownership and revenue figures in this analysis are based on the roughly 5.7 million firms that  were  classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners in 2021, most of which are smaller businesses.

How many workers do Black-owned businesses employ?

Black or African American majority-owned firms provided income for roughly 1.4 million workers in 2021. Their annual payrolls were estimated at $53.6 billion.

Still, most Black-owned firms tend to be smaller businesses. Two-thirds had fewer than 10 employees in 2021 ; 13% had 10 to 49 employees and just 3% had 50 or more. Another 16% reported having no employees. (The ABS determines employment size by the number of paid workers during the March 12 pay period.)

What’s the most common sector for Black-owned businesses?

By far, health care and social assistance. About 45,000 of the roughly 161,000 U.S. companies with majority Black or African American ownership, or 28% of the total, were part of this sector in 2021.

Looked at a different way, 7% of  all  classifiable U.S. businesses in the health care and social assistance sector were majority Black-owned that year .

A chart showing that health care and social assistance is the most common sector among Black-or African American-owned businesses.

Other common sectors that year included:

  • Professional, scientific and technical services (comprising 14% of all Black-owned businesses)
  • Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (8%)
  • Transportation and warehousing (8%)
  • Retail trade (6%)
  • Construction (6%)

Where are Black-owned businesses located?

A map showing that Black- or African American-owned businesses made up greatest share of firms in District of Columbia, Georgia and Maryland in 2021.

Most Black or African American majority-owned businesses (87%) are located in urban areas. Just 5% are in rural areas – that is, places with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, under  the Census Bureau’s definition .

Some of the most populous states also have the greatest number of Black majority-owned businesses. Florida had 18,502 such businesses in 2021, California had 15,014 and Georgia had 14,394.

Black majority-owned businesses made up the greatest  share  of all classifiable firms in the District of Columbia (15%), Georgia and Maryland (8% each).

Who are Black business owners?

  • They’re more likely to be men than women. Some 53% of Black-owned firms in 2021 had men as their majority owners, while 39% had women majority owners. Another 8% had equal male-female ownership. The gender gap is larger among classifiable U.S. firms overall: 63% were majority-owned by men in 2021, 22% were majority-owned by women and 14% had equal male-female ownership.
  • They tend to be middle-aged. Roughly half (49%) of Black or African American business owners who reported their age group were ages 35 t0 54 in 2021. Another 28% were 55 to 64, and just 7% were younger than 35.
  • A majority have a college degree. Among owners who reported their highest level of education completed, 27% had a bachelor’s degree and 34% had a graduate or professional degree in 2021.

What motivates Black entrepreneurs?

When asked to choose from a list of reasons why they opened their firm, about nine-in-ten Black or African American majority owners who responded said an important reason was the opportunity for greater income; a desire to be their own boss; or wanting the best avenue for their ideas, goods and services. Balancing work and family life (88%) and having flexible hours (85%) were also commonly cited.

For most Black or African American majority owners, their business is their primary source of income . Seven-in-ten of those who reported income information in 2021 said this was the case.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Feb. 21, 2023.

research topics on green construction

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  • [News] Intel Submits Conceptual Drawings for Fab Construction in Germany, Installing High-NA EUV Exposure Machines

research topics on green construction

In June 2023, leading processor manufacturer Intel reached an agreement with the German federal government, announcing the signing of an amended investment memorandum. The plan involves investing over EUR 30 billion to construct two new fabs in Magdeburg. The German federal government has agreed to provide a subsidy of EUR 10 billion, including incentives and subsidies from the European Chips Act and government initiatives.

According to a report by Tom’s Hardware citing sources , Intel has submitted conceptual drawings for a new fab in Germany. The initial plans include two fabs, designated as Fab 29.1 and Fab 29.2, equipped with the world’s most advanced semiconductor tools.

Moreover, Intel reportedly has ample space for up to six additional fabs. The first batch of two fabs is expected to commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2027, with both the Intel 14A (1.4nm) and Intel 10A (1nm) advanced processes believed to be part of the plan.

As per previous reports from TechNews , Intel has not disclosed any details regarding the 10A node, but it promises at least double-digit improvements in power consumption and performance. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has previously stated that new processes typically improve critical dimensions by approximately 14% to 15%. Therefore, it is plausible that the 10A and 14A nodes will also experience similar improvements.

research topics on green construction

Source: Intel

As per Intel’s roadmap, Intel 14A is also optimized in 2027, so it seems that 10A falls between 14A and 14A-E.

The report from  Tom’s Hardware  further indicates that Fab 29.1 and Fab 29.2, the two three-story buildings, occupy approximately 81,000 square meters, with a total length of 530 meters and a width of 153 meters. Each floor has a height ranging from 5.7 to 6.5 meters. Including the roof structure for air conditioning and heating, the building reaches a height of 36.7 meters.

The High-NA EUV exposure machines are installed on the second floor with a height of 6.5 meters, while the upper and lower floors are used for material logistics, providing necessary resources such as water, electricity, and chemicals.

ASML models that the 1st generation of the High-NA-enabled production node will employ between 4 to 9 High-NA EUV exposures and a total of 20 to 30 EUV exposures, encompassing both Low-NA and High-NA.

  • [News] Advancing into Intel 10A! Intel’s 2027 Blueprint Adds 1-Nanometer Process
  • [News] Intel Promotes 1.8-Nanometer Process in South Korea, Reportedly Pledges Various Benefits to Startups

(Photo credit: Intel)

Please note that this article cites information from   Tom’s Hardware .

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  1. A comprehensive review on green buildings research ...

    The SCI-E and SSCI database determined 155 subjects from the pool of 5246 articles reviewed, such as building technology, energy and fuels, civil engineering, environmental, material science, and thermodynamics, which suggests green building is a cross-disciplinary area of research. The top 3 research areas of green buildings are Construction ...

  2. A systematic review of green construction research ...

    Three major themes of green construction research are summarised and collated. ... With this method, several potentially trendy research topics within different time spans can be identified. In Fig. 4, a total of 15 terms that demonstrate the highest citation bursts were picked out from Fig. 3. The top 5 terms are energy consumption (strength ...

  3. Green building research-current status and future agenda: A review

    Green building is one of measures been put forward to mitigate significant impacts of the building stock on the environment, society and economy. However, there is lack of a systematic review of this large number of studies that is critical for the future endeavor. The last decades have witnessed rapid growing number of studies on green building.

  4. The Construction Industry Is Getting Greener: Why, How, And ...

    More than half (51%) of engineering and construction respondents use mobile technology during the design phase, and 37% use mobile in maintenance processes. Many respondents (46%) said this ...

  5. Research: Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities

    The Center engages in four interrelated streams of research that represent various dimensions and scales of the sustainable built environment: Modeling Dimension: Design and Operation. Application Dimension: High Performance Materials and Construction. Economic Dimension: Technology Adoption and Diffusion. Macro Dimension: Sustainable Planning.

  6. Sustainable and resilient construction: Current status and future

    The mapping demonstrates the breadth and complexity of construction projects and the need for research at multiple levels, both topic and subdomain-specific and holistically. The paper offers an updated and comprehensive definition of green supply chain management, distinguishing objectives and constituent activities.

  7. Sustainability

    This Special Issue aims to contribute to the outstanding collection of research, reviews, designs, and technical papers on sustainable construction management aspects of green built environments. The key focus areas of the Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

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    The key focus areas of the Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following research topics: Green buildings with low carbon emissions; Green construction and site management; Digital technology applications in green design and construction; Use of recycled materials for green buildings; Green procurement towards low-carbon ...

  9. A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric

    The SCI-E and SSCI database determined 155 subjects from the pool of 5246 articles reviewed, such as building technology, energy and fuels, civil engineering, environmental, material science, and thermodynamics, which suggests green building is a cross-disciplinary area of research. The top 3 research areas of green buildings are Construction ...

  10. Buildings

    Contractors are the main implementers to achieve green construction, and the contractor's green construction capability (CGCC) is far-reaching for green construction. Research on CGCC exists in a number of disciplines, with major contributions in construction management, environment management, and sustainable management research. Despite the fact that CGCC is widely utilised in both ...

  11. The construction industry is trying to end waste pollution

    Scaling up green technologies: Through a partnership with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and over 65 global businesses, the First Movers Coalition has committed $12 billion in purchase commitments for green technologies to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry. 1 trillion trees: Over 90 global companies have committed to conserve, restore and grow more than 8 ...

  12. Green Construction Trends That Are Emerging in 2023

    Major Green Construction Trends That Are Emerging in 2023. Sustainable construction is becoming more important than ever. Even in the face of the post-pandemic, the green building market remained resilient this year. According Acumen Research And Consulting Research green construction market size projected $774 Billion by 2030.

  13. Sustainable green roofs: a comprehensive review of ...

    A systematic review of the literature was used to identify, review, evaluate, synthesize, and report on the findings from peer-reviewed research (Denyer and Tranfield 2009).A five-phase process was used to establish a systematic review and is described below, and its phasing is shown in Fig. 2.The process included a pilot search and development of aims of the study, the location of research ...

  14. (PDF) Green and Sustainable Construction Industry: A Systematic

    Contractors are the main implementers to achieve green construction, and the contractor's green construction capability (CGCC) is far-reaching for green construction. Research on CGCC exists in ...

  15. Sustainable Buildings: Opportunities and Challenges for New ...

    Keywords: Sustainable Buildings, Energy Eficiency, Building Retrofitting, Low Carbon Technologies, Green Buildings . Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements.. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or ...

  16. Productivity Improvement Strategies in Green Construction Project

    Productivity is regarded as one of critical importance aspects of construction projects success and persistently deliberated in research topics in the construction industry. Previous researchers have determined different factors that influence construction productivity in conventional construction project, but there is limited research on ...

  17. 81 Green Building Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

    The idea of "green buildings" has in many ways helped enhance indoor air quality."Green buildings" are made possible by designing and constructing buildings which have high quality of indoor air as one of their major […] We will write. a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts. 809 writers online.

  18. Sustainability in the construction industry: A systematic review of the

    We labeled each cluster manually (Research Topic) based on the observed keywords in each cluster, where all groups there was relationship with Sustainability term. Thus, Table 6 presents the clusters' panorama, grouped by co-occurrences of the documents' keywords. For example, in the red cluster, keywords related to green methodologies and ...

  19. Research on the Integration of Lean and Green Construction Based on

    Topics. Coasts, Oceans, Ports, Rivers Engineering; Construction Engineering; Environment & Water Resources Engingeering; ... (2017). "The research on green construction management model based on lean construction". Journal of Changchun Institute, (02), 77-79,91. (in Chinese). Google Scholar. Ye, M. (2016). "Research on Green Construction ...

  20. Implementation of Sustainable Technology of Green Roofs ...

    2 Central Research and Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation, 29, Vernadskogo Avenue, Moscow, ... Further described the possibility of using innovative technology of green roofs especially for Moscow region. The article is considering green roofs as a very effective ...

  21. Renewable Energy Is Green, but We Can Make It Greener

    Combining renewable energy expertise with years of experience studying the life cycles and environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies, NREL's life cycle assessment efforts provide the information industry needs to help ensure renewable energy technologies are as green as possible for industries and people who rely on clean electricity.

  22. A look at Black-owned businesses in the U.S.

    Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine the characteristics of Black-owned businesses in the United States. The analysis relies primarily on data from the 2022 Annual Business Survey (ABS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.. The survey - conducted annually since 2017 - includes ...

  23. PDF Acoustic Emission Behaviour of Reinforcement Concrete Beams ...

    2 National Research University Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation, 111250, Krasnokazarmennaya str., 14 3 JSC SIC Construction, Moscow, Russian Federation, 109428, 2nd Institute's str., 6 Abstract: The paper presents the results of the conducted experimental studies on three-point bend testing of

  24. PDF Increase in Population Density and Aggravation of Social and

    from other cities of Russia have participated in a research. 3 Results In practice of desin and construction the most various views of buildings thereore it is possible to classiy them by a large amount of signs meet he most important in this research is classiication by the following sins: to destination and on number of storeys.

  25. Critical analysis of green building research trend in construction

    Abstract. In recent years, green building (GB) has become the flagship of sustainable development, leading to a number of published works on the topic. This paper examines GB research trend in construction management (CM) through analyzing selected GB research papers published in 10 selected CM journals from 1990 to 2015 (as of end of August).

  26. The Research Center of Construction

    JSC Research Center of Construction is the leading company in the Russian building science, architecture and engineering. Company implements key governmental initiatives and projects. Our mission: To lead in invention, development and implementation of construction materials and technologies to make urban living environment safe and comfortable.

  27. [News] Intel Submits Conceptual Drawings for Fab Construction in

    As per Intel's roadmap, Intel 14A is also optimized in 2027, so it seems that 10A falls between 14A and 14A-E. The report from Tom's Hardware further indicates that Fab 29.1 and Fab 29.2, the two three-story buildings, occupy approximately 81,000 square meters, with a total length of 530 meters and a width of 153 meters. Each floor has a height ranging from 5.7 to 6.5 meters.