Assessing the contribution of water and energy efficiency in green buildings to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Jordan

Abstract

Water and energy efficiency are given high priority in all green building assessment systems. However, a method to assess and improve their contributions to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has not been developed. This research aims to fill this gap. At the time of this research, most certified green buildings in Jordan were under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) v2.2 new construction. The relationships between the LEED v2.2 "water efficiency" (WE) and "energy and atmosphere" (EA) standards and the UN SDGs were explored using a quantitative descriptive methodology. Structured questionnaire surveys yielded 55 responses from Jordanian building industry experts. Pearson's Chi-square and frequency tests were carried out to examine these relationships. We propose a new Comprehensive Contribution to Development Index (CCDI) to assess the contributions of the implementation of LEED v2.2 WE and EA to achieve the UN SDGs. The results show a positive relationship between LEED v2.2 prerequisites and credits in both WE and EA categories with the UN SDGs 6-9, 12-13, and 15, suggesting that the proposed CCDI is a reliable and robust tool for the evaluation of the contribution of water and energy efficiency in LEED v2.2-certified green buildings to achieving the UN SDGs in Jordan.

Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals in Building Projects

“…https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20190010 et al were able to find that the current practices and criteria in the design of non-residential buildings-through quantitative indicators-can contribute to the SDGs; they specifically found direct links to 9 of the 17 SDGs (Table 5 compares their findings with the connections made to the UQROP case). What is important to highlight, however, is that the 8 SDGs selected for the UQROP case intersect with the ones proposed by Alawneh et al [23,24] and the World Green Building Council [125]-with the exception of SDG 4. However, and in spite of the similarity in findings, the main difference between this research and other available research lies in the approach followed.…”

“…(1) The available literature which explores the links between sustainable (or green) buildings and the SDGs use the current building practices and rating systems as the basis of their analysis [23,24]. Alawneh J Sustain Res.…”

“…The tools proposed in this research aim to raise awareness around the 2030 Agenda-its topics and targets-and to address the agenda through innovation. It is important to note that Alawneh et al's [23,24] method and findings, which are highly centred on measurable indicators and existing credit criteria, can be used in later project phases (i.e., following the schematic phase) to quantify the contribution of the building to the selected SDGs. However, it is important to note that based on the 4 levels of integration proposed in this research only targeting LEED credits requirements (as proposed in [24]) would result in a level 1 integration of the goals.…”

“…In their 2018 paper, Alawneh et al attempted to explore the nominal contribution of a number of LEED water and energy credits to SDGs 6,7,8,9,12,13 and 15 with a specific geographic focus on Jordon (middle east) [24]. The authors used a questionnaire, completed by 55 local experts in green building, to propose a contribution index.…”

Energy Production Assessment of Solar Tower Based on the Study of the Mirror Shadowing and Blocking Effects

“…The availability of alternative energy sources is not enough to take the advantage of achieving the goal of disposal of traditional energy sources, but it is desirable that technology is available to assist in the optimization of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy is a promising candidate to replace the traditional energy for that we should be mentioned that there are many ways to exploit the solar energy which is the direct way through photovoltaic cells, which convert solar energy through radiation Pick-up on photovoltaic cells into electrical energy, as well as indirect method available is to convert solar energy by get the benefit through using the usual falling of the solar radiation and convert it to heating the water to produce steam and makes it triggers various turbines to generate electricity as a by-final of this process [5][6][7][8][9][10][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”