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1. Introduction
The construction industry significantly contributes to improving the quality of life of people. However, the development of the construction industry and its products leads to environmental problems on a global scale (Ngowi, 2000). It is estimated that the construction industry is responsible for approximately 40 percent of energy consumption, 30 percent of CO2 emissions and 40 percent of total solid production waste globally (Copenhagen Resource Institute, 2014). Therefore, to support the global population, substantial changes are necessary to do more with less. As the built environment is a significant component of society, changes in construction are imperative. The first step is using highly renewable materials. As the construction industry typically uses various types and vast quantities of materials, a core area to implement sustainable changes is in the design and construction of buildings and other facilities. Toor and Ogunlana (2008) indicated that critical success factors for construction projects involve improvement in material design and methods of construction.
The continuous growth of the sector provides an opportunity for a wider uptake of sustainable practices and policies, contributing to a country’s aspirations of sustainable development (Papargyropoulou, 2011). The main objectives of sustainable construction are to build accessible, secure, healthy and productive buildings while minimizing the impact on society, environment and economy (WBDG, 2018). As noted, although sustainability concepts are vital to the world and to safeguard future generations, there are several potential barriers to implementation. The key barrier is perceived as the initial cost as the common perception about sustainable buildings appears to be that initial costs are more than ordinary buildings (Castillo and Chung, 2005). Castillo and Chung (2005) stated that sustainable buildings increase initial costs by an average of 2–7 percent over ordinary building costs. According to Bartlett and Howard (2000), negative perceptions regarding initial costs are one of the challenges in engaging sustainability.
Although several researchers have investigated the aspects of sustainability, the majority of these researchers have focused on green envelope components due to their effectiveness in minimizing a building’s energy consumption and providing indoor thermal comfort and other environmental benefits, as documented by several research studies (Azari, 2014; Koo et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2015). The building envelope is defined as those building components that comprise...