Innovating for a greener future: Novelty in green patents and its impact on sustainable development goals in China's construction sector

Recent attention on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has spurred investigations into green innovation, pivotal for sustainable industry transformation through green patents. Yet, the green innovation performance lacked a more comprehensive measurement with both internal and external criteria; meanwhile, the nexus between green innovation and SDGs remains underexplored in the construction sector. This study pioneers a comprehensive framework to measure green innovation performances by citation-based analysis and to uncover their potential impacts on the achievement of the 17 SDGs by content analysis across 1.8 million patents, identifying 61,951 as green patents by three classification methods. Based on the construction of citation network, results show 79.64 % of citations within single domains, with mere 1.34 % integrating non-construction knowledge, signaling limited novelty. The similarity analysis has been conducted based on contents between novel green patents and 17 individual SDGs. Emphasis on specific SDGs varies, notably on SDGs 13 (climate action), 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), 5 (gender equality), and 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), while SDGs 3, 4, 7, and 11 relating to health and well-being, quality education, affordable and clean energy, and sustainable cities and communities receive less attention. These findings underscore the need for enhanced cross-domain collaborations and a refined classification system to achieve a more balanced contribution across SDGs, promoting sustainable construction. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.