Sustainable Building Standards, Codes and Certification Systems: The Status Quo and Future Directions in Saudi Arabia

Sustainable building practices are a response to environmental issues. Businesses and industries are assessing how their activities affect the environment. The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries have significant impacts on the environment and economy, while the industry is considered one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has, therefore, been highlighted by researchers as a key area of intervention with a great potential to reduce environmental impacts. This paper critically reviews and evaluates the current state of sustainable building certification systems with the purpose of having a good understanding of the status quo and possibilities for future directions in Saudi Arabia. It reviews the academic literature on Saudi Arabia's green/sustainable building codes, standards, certification systems, methods and tools. It starts by addressing sustainability in the broadest sense. Then, it investigates sustainability strategies and evaluates the building certification systems in Saudi Arabia, followed by an introduction to the new practice of sustainable healthcare building assessment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modelling (BIM) techniques have also been investigated. The paper introduces the updated Saudi Building Code (SBC) with further evaluation of the Saudi Green Building Code (SBC 1001-CR). Finally, the paper clearly highlights the key role of sustainable building practices and the need to develop a certification system that considers the new trends and the local context.