IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i20p5545-d274382.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grease the Green Wheels: A Framework for Expediting the Green Building Movement in the Arab World

Author

Listed:
  • Mostafa J. Sabbagh

    (Faculty of Environmental Design, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia)

  • Osama E. Mansour

    (School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA)

  • Abdulaziz A. Banawi

    (Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University Rabigh, Rabigh 25732, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

It has been over three decades since the term “sustainable development” was coined in Brundtland’s report in 1987, and 28 years have passed since the world’s first sustainability assessment method for buildings was founded by the Building Research Establishment in UK in 1990. During these three decades, many sustainability standards, codes, and rating systems were created and used to help in designing, constructing, maintaining, rating, and labeling buildings with attaining the principles of sustainability. Yet by looking at the Arab world at the beginning of 2019, one can argue that, although the Arab countries have dedicated the effort and budget to save energy, water, and natural resources, the region as a whole is still struggling to shift the paradigm of the building industry from conventional to sustainable. This struggle raises some questions; are there any challenges that Arab countries must overcome to leap forward to a prosperous sustainable building design and construction practices? Why are existing green building rating systems such as Estidama in United Arab Emirates, global sustainability assessment system (GSAS) in Qatar, and ARZ in Lebanon lagging behind the trends of green building rating systems in the developed countries? What are the coordinated steps needed to expedite this movement across the region? The current study explores the limits and potentials of the green building industry in the Arab world through analysis of the green building initiatives, academic scholarship activities in architecture and engineering sectors, and feedback from green building professionals across the Arab world. This article introduces a theoretical framework to expedite the green building movement in the Arab region; the framework is shaped by the environmental, social, and economic factors that are crucial to the transformation of the building industry from conventional to sustainable. The study seeks to support a line of research that could help governments in the Arab world catch up with the global green building trends.

Suggested Citation

  • Mostafa J. Sabbagh & Osama E. Mansour & Abdulaziz A. Banawi, 2019. "Grease the Green Wheels: A Framework for Expediting the Green Building Movement in the Arab World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:20:p:5545-:d:274382
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5545/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5545/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tom Kuhlman & John Farrington, 2010. "What is Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(11), pages 1-13, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdul-Aziz Banawi & Alia Besné & David Fonseca & Jose Ferrandiz, 2020. "A Three Methods Proactive Improvement Model for Buildings Construction Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-14, May.
    2. Bassem Jamoussi & Asad Abu-Rizaiza & Ali AL-Haij, 2022. "Sustainable Building Standards, Codes and Certification Systems: The Status Quo and Future Directions in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-24, August.
    3. Oriol Pons-Valladares & Jelena Nikolic, 2020. "Sustainable Design, Construction, Refurbishment and Restoration of Architecture: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Amri, Tariq Al & Otaibi, Naif Al & Marey-Perez, Manuel, 2023. "The Major Obstacles and Factors Facing Green Building in the KSA: A Background Study," OSF Preprints a352b, Center for Open Science.
    5. Ayyagari Ramani & Borja García de Soto, 2021. "Estidama and the Pearl Rating System: A Comprehensive Review and Alignment with LCA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-31, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lea Primožič & Andreja Kutnar, 2022. "Sustainability Communication in Global Consumer Brands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Oana Țugulea, 2017. "City Brand Personality—Relations with Dimensions and Dimensions Inter-Relations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Maria Iglesias-Mendoza & Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo & Sara Hadleigh-Dunn & Ashraf Labib, 2021. "Learning How to Learn from Disasters through a Comparative Dichotomy Analysis: Grenfell Tower and Hurricane Katrina Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Wenyu Zeng & Shiyong Wu & Wei Chen, 2023. "Studying at a New Remote University Campus: Challenges and Strategies in Students’ Sustainable Self-Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, February.
    5. Per Engelseth & Remiguisz Kozlowski & Karolina Kamecka & Lukasz Gawinski & Richard Glavee-Geo, 2021. "Framing Sustainable Healthcare Services," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Ignacio Llanez-Caballero & Luis Ibarra & Angel Peña-Quintal & Glendy Catzín-Contreras & Pedro Ponce & Arturo Molina & Ricardo Ramirez-Mendoza, 2023. "The “Smart” Concept from an Electrical Sustainability Viewpoint," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-22, March.
    7. Svatava Janoušková & Tomáš Hák & Bedřich Moldan, 2018. "Global SDGs Assessments: Helping or Confusing Indicators?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-14, May.
    8. Samar Ben Romdhane & Sang Lee & Salem Al-Shaebi, 2023. "Enhancing Sustainability Communication among UAE’s Higher Education Students: The Relationship between Sustainable Living Knowledge and Intention to Live Sustainably," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.
    9. Pattarin Sanguankaew & Vichita Vathanophas Ractham, 2019. "Bibliometric Review of Research on Knowledge Management and Sustainability, 1994–2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Elizabeth C. Teixeira & Victor E. L. Silva & Nidia N. Fabré & Vandick S. Batista, 2020. "Marine shrimp fisheries research—a mismatch on spatial and thematic needs," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 591-606, January.
    11. Juan Gabriel Martínez-Navalón & Vera Gelashvili & José Ramón Saura, 2020. "The Impact of Environmental Social Media Publications on User Satisfaction with and Trust in Tourism Businesses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Robert L. Oxley & Larry W. Mays & Alan Murray, 2016. "Optimization Model for the Sustainable Water Resource Management of River Basins," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(9), pages 3247-3264, July.
    13. Farboud Khatami & Erfan Goharian, 2022. "Beyond Profitable Shifts to Green Energies, towards Energy Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-28, April.
    14. Robert J. DiNapoli & Carl P. Lipo & Terry L. Hunt, 2021. "Triumph of the Commons: Sustainable Community Practices on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-23, November.
    15. Fidel Molina-Luque, 2020. "The Art of Living as a Community: Profiguration, Sustainability, and Social Development in Rapa Nui," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-13, August.
    16. Michela Faccioli & Nick Hanley & Catalina M. Torres Figuerola & Antoni Riera Font, 2015. "Do we care about sustainability? An analysis of time sensitivity of social preferences under environmental time-persistent effects," Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics 2015-17, University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development.
    17. Ahteshamul Haq & Umar Muhammad Modibbo & Aquil Ahmed & Irfan Ali, 2022. "Mathematical modeling of sustainable development goals of India agenda 2030: a Neutrosophic programming approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11991-12018, October.
    18. Adam Sulich & Letycja Sołoducho-Pelc, 2021. "Renewable Energy Producers’ Strategies in the Visegrád Group Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    19. Juan Martín-Miguel & Camio Prado-Román & Gabriel Cachón-Rodríguez & Lilliana L. Avendaño-Miranda, 2020. "Determinants of Reputation at Private Graduate Online Schools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    20. Giuseppe Cornelli, 2017. "Cosa s’intende per sostenibilità economica? Riflessione sul significato di sistema economicamente sostenibile/What is meant by economic ustainability? Reflection on the definition of today’s concept o," IRCrES Working Paper 201710, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:20:p:5545-:d:274382. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.