Investigating Factors Affecting Material Selection: The Impacts on Climate-Friendly Materials in Energetic Expense and Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of sustainability in environmental development, building stock makes a significant contribution to energetic expense and carbon dioxide emissions. Measures are required to address the housing situation with implications for energy consumption and potential climate change impact. Multiple factors present trade-off analysis that makes decision process in building materials selection complex. The aim of this paper is to address the following objective: identify key sustainability principal indicators that impact the selection of building materials; to establish and specify the impact weight of each indicator. With results derived from questionnaire surveys with a cross-section of house building stakeholders, key sustainability principle indicators impacting the selection of climate-friendly materials are identified, analyzed, grouped and ranked according to the relative importance that each decision factor holds, using multi-criteria approach and analytical hierarchy process technique. The rationale of this paper is built on the ground that energetic expense and carbon dioxide emissions reduction in materials selection process requires the assessment of the sociocultural, economic, environmental, and technical consequences of potential materials option.