Comprehensive Social Cultural and Economic Benefits of Green Buildings Based on Improved AHP–FCE Method

• Published in: Buildings (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 311
• Main Authors: Zhao, Weishu, Peng, Peng, Guo, Bao, Deng, Xinran, Wu, Weidong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Analysis; Architecture; Building; Building construction; Carbon; Case studies; Clean technology; comprehensive benefits; Construction industry; Cost control; Digital twins; Economic aspects; Economics; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Environmental engineering; Environmental quality; Green buildings; Green design; Green development; Green market; improved AHP–FCE method; Indicators; Methods; Payback periods; Principles; Sustainability reporting; Sustainable development; Triple Bottom Line; China; United States > US
• ISSN: 2075-5309; 2075-5309
• DOI: 10.3390/buildings13020311

Green buildings can effectively alleviate energy scarcity and improve environmental quality, and are becoming the mainstream mode of transformation and upgrading of the construction industry. It is given great importance by all sectors of society committed to implementing the “carbon peak” and “carbon neutral” goals earnestly. However, the unclear comprehensive benefits of green buildings restrict their development in China. The existing studies tend to be limited to a single aspect, such as economic benefits or environmental benefits. The purpose of this study is to establish a more systematic and complete evaluation system for green buildings’ comprehensive benefits. It can increase the consideration of the impact of social and cultural benefits, along with the first two benefits. Firstly, by also considering the triple bottom line principle and benefit principle, four primary indicators and twenty secondary indicators were selected to establish a comprehensive benefit evaluation system for green buildings. Secondly, an improved AHP–FCE method was adopted to determine the weights of each secondary indicator. Finally, the feasibility of the evaluation system was verified through a case study, and some suggestions for improving the comprehensive benefits of green buildings were put forward.