In 2015, the UN member countries, on mutual understanding, identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be achieved by 2030. According to several reports, some countries are reflecting good progress, but overall, no country is on track towards achieving all the UN SDGs. This paper aims to show the progress and commitment of the UAE towards UN SDGs. A qualitative research approach using a

Sustainability has become a recognised important sector and a main concern in modern life. The attention towards sustainability was particularly increased when the UN set the target of achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The role of universities cannot be ignored in promoting sustainability, but to play this role effectively, universities first need to be sustainable. This paper aims

Round tables discussing the resilience of critical infrastructure systems held in the UK, the USA and New Zealand have provided insight into how organisations are changing the basis of planning and investment decisions to enhance resilience. The events convened stakeholders to explore how resilience is embraced in their sectors and to identify how to advance practice. The overarching premise was to

Interviews were undertaken with expert bridge designers to reveal their opinions on environmental considerations and the possibility of integrating life-cycle assessment into the bridge design process. Bridge designers were generally found to consider that the need for the bridge, access for future maintenance, use of quality materials, longevity, cost savings and sustainability are matters more important

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly significant area of focus for company operations in a wide variety of economic sectors. Organisations committed to CSR go beyond regulatory compliance and meeting their legal and economic duties, to take into account their broader social and environmental responsibilities. Almost all organisations operate in, and sometimes commission, buildings

National energy standards of countries worldwide require a wide range of measures to be used in energy policies. It has become a challenge to fulfil different measures of building envelope design optimisation through enhancement of energy conservation. To overcome this challenge, this study proposes an optimisation model for determining the optimum envelope design of a reference building in four climate

Building energy efficiency (BEE) is regarded as the key sector in the world for addressing climate change and energy problems, since buildings consume around one-third of global energy and produce a substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to utilise BEE standards (BEESs) to ensure that cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities are incorporated into new and existing buildings

Construction industries are bulk generators of waste globally; improper management leads to environmental catastrophes. This paper identifies the significant factors through exploratory factor analysis and presents a novel approach to determining the causal relationships of various factors that lead to waste generation at construction sites by structural equation modelling. The analysis identifies

An integrated study based on the development of road infrastructure related to transport modes is one of the main methods to reduce both social and safety and pollution impacts. In this sense, optimal planning aims to reduce the use of private vehicles and reduce pollutant emissions and accidents. In general, the most successful cities have been those where different types of interventions have been

Sustainable buildings are regarded as one of the most effective approaches to saving resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting sustainable development. In the absence of prior research, Delphi as a group model-building approach for building a system dynamics model is appropriate for capturing the knowledge of construction professionals to identify the relationship between procurement

An evaluation system has been established for assessing carbon dioxide emissions associated with asphalt pavement construction in China. As described in this paper, the system is based on the European driving force–pressure–state–impact–response model and uses the analytic hierarchy process combined with subjective and objective weighting and the comprehensive index method. It shows that state, response

Greenhouse gas emissions originating from the built environment play a significant role towards climate change. Carefully planning the future of the building sector is key to mitigating these emissions. Addressing this problem by using a predictive approach may miss possible futures that cannot be anticipated. Using explorative scenarios to perform futures analysis helps widen the range of futures

Currently, given the rapid growth and implementation of inadequate planning policies in African cities, the gap between formal and informal urbanisation is becoming increasingly evident. Spontaneous and unplanned settlements are home to more than half the urban population in Africa, where lost and forgotten spaces within cities are claimed by the urban poor as their ‘right to the city’. This study

The property and construction sector is known to be a laggard in the adoption of sustainability practices, possibly due to its fragmented nature. Yet there is an increasing demand from key stakeholders, such as institutional investors, as well as civil society, for greater transparency on sustainability disclosures. This paper highlights a case study conducted in a publicly listed Malaysian property

Concrete is one of the main structural materials used in the world; hence, improvement of the concrete mix design with respect to variable issues and requirements is of great importance. Moreover, environmental issues and waste materials have become major concerns these days. In this study, to move towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly construction industry, recycled waste glasses were used as

As cities work to reduce their total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the transportation sector is lagging, accounting for a growing percentage of total emissions in many cities. The provision of public transit, and specifically urban rail transit, is widely seen as a useful tool for reducing urban transportation GHG emissions. More research, however, is needed to understand the net impact of new metro

While the sustainability of civil infrastructure is critical to professionals, project owners, regulators, funding agencies and the public, little is done to link individual project sustainability to the UN’s 17 global sustainable development goals for 2030. This paper not only provides some answers, but also exposes many questions that need resolution by the infrastructure sector. Using empirical