1 Introduction

Since the 1970s, the extraction of natural resources has increased threefold and estimations show that by 2060 material use could further double to 190 billion tonnes and greenhouse gases could increase by 43% (UN, 2019). Data from the United Nations (UN) (2019) suggest that extraction and processing of materials, fuels and food produces half of the total global greenhouse gases and this together with water stress is responsible for more than 90% of biodiversity loss. Othman and Nadim (2010) noted that the AEC sectors use around 50% of the natural resources consumed, utilise 40% of the energy generated and produce 50% of the waste created globally. This makes the building sector a significant contributor to harmful emissions (Ade and Rehm, 2019; Cucuzzella, 2009). Furthermore, the building sector also consumes 12% of freshwater and 30% of raw materials and it is responsible for around 20% of wastewater and up to 40% of landfill waste globally (Ade and Rehm, 2019). It is, therefore, clear that the AEC sectors have enormous potential for making a considerable impact in terms of sustainability in a positive or negative manner.

The UN, (2020a) estimated that in terms of most vulnerable countries (MVC) and their populations, in 2020, another 71 million people would be pushed back into poverty and that 2.2 billion people would lack safe drinking water. Water scarcity could displace 700 million people by 2030 (UN, 2020b). The Circle Economy, (2020) notes that 50.8 billion tonnes of minerals are consumed each year and 38.8% of that goes into housing. Along with these data, the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC states that all European Union (EU) member countries need to achieve at least 70% re–use, recycling, or other recovery of non–hazardous Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) by 2020. These figures suggest that the AEC sectors have a huge impact on sustainability and through their efforts could make a huge contribution to the fulfilment of the SDG objectives, by utilising a cradle-to-cradle approach (McDonough and Braungart, 2002). This study sets out to use institutional theory to determine the usefulness of ISO 14001 as a tool within the AEC sector and to demonstrate how the organisational benefits could facilitate the delivery of the SDGs.

Sustainability within the AEC sectors, particularly within construction, has received increasing attention over recent years (Berardi, 2012). AEC sectors impacts will be varied, and it is acknowledged that to mitigate the potential impacts effective sustainable development action is required. Boyko et al., (2012) and Villeneuve et al., (2017) highlighted the risks these activities can impose on the natural environment and their impact in terms of the social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions of sustainability.

The current predictions suggest that by 2050, two-thirds of the global population will be living in urban areas (Mattoni et al., 2018). There is an expectation that there will be 14 new mega cities with a demand for over 500 million m2 of new office space and more than 250 million new houses (Ade and Rehm, 2019; Ding, 2008). The design and construction of these cities will have a major impact on the delivery of the SDGs and the future health of the planet.

It has been noted by researchers that for business to be truly sustainable it needs to go beyond the traditional economic approach and short-term issues (Næss, 1994; Goubran et al., 2019). Cucuzzella, (2016) has suggested a multistep framework requiring system-wide innovations to change unsustainable practices. Dyllick and Muff, (2015) proposed four levels for sustainability in business, the first being business as usual. However, this is discounted as it is generally accepted that business as usual is no longer acceptable. As a result, there are only actually three options, namely: (i) sustainability with economic considerations, (ii) sustainability with the creation of value across the pillars of sustainability, or (iii) focussing on the sustainability challenges to bring about a better society (Dyllick and Muff, 2015). In this paper, the SDGs are used to enable organisations to work towards solutions, using an existing standard, ISO 14001.

Environmental management systems (EMS) (particularly ISO 14001) aim to enable organisations to prevent pollution, deliver continual improvement, and comply with legislation (BSi, 2015). Although it is acknowledged that environmental standards have focused on continual improvement, they do not actually specify a level of improvement or harm reduction (i.e. pollution prevention). Therefore, they have been accused of not enabling a transformation in terms of sustainability (Brown, 2016). Others had suggested that standards are being used increasingly to create economic value, cost savings, or increased market share and opportunities for business rather than environmental improvements (Jones and Laquidara–Carr, 2018). However, it must be acknowledged that while businesses exist to create wealth, this does not mean that they cannot make a positive environmental contribution at the same time. It is possible that companies can be sustainable in terms of economics, society, and the environment. Some researchers have suggested that potential links exist between environmental rating tools and the SDGs (Alawneh et al., 2018; Gibberd, 2015). Gibberd, (2015) combined the ecological footprint criteria and the human development index to suggest a BEST index. Alawaneh et al. (2018) looked at how a combined water and energy efficiency method could be developed to assess and improve United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) delivery. However, there has been no focus on a tool to enable companies to demonstrate the benefits that can be achieved through working on the SDGs. It must be noted that there is a risk that the benefits, which are being achieved, are those that can be delivered at the lowest cost to the organisations or that the organisations use the system as purely a public relations (PR) tool, rather than to improve their environmental performance. This has promoted the view of the standards being less effective in promoting sustainability than market mechanisms, such as carbon trading (Bon and Hutchinson, 2010). This study intends to demonstrate the opportunities that can be created using a roadmap.

The previous section has highlighted the contribution that the construction sector has in relation to the achieving of the SDGs, but it is noted that there is a lack of research in the relationship between the sectors and engagement with the SDGs (Gade and Opoku, 2020). Analytical mapping tools have been created to trace the integration of the SDGs within projects (Goubran and Cucuzzella, 2019). Thuesen and Opoku, (2018) noted that a potential route for addressing this issue within research would focus on: understanding the links between the goals, means to measure the impact of progress, working with specific projects to attain the target and knowledge transfer. But there is no mention in this or other articles of what benefits the organisation will gain from engagement with the SDGs.

Researchers have reviewed how the construction sector could contribute to the SDG work with Lynch and Mosbah, (2017) highlighting SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). Goubran et al., (2019) also notes that buildings play a part in the use of renewable energy (SDG 7), in sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), and in climate adaptation (SDG 13). Di Foggia, (2018) agrees that SDGs 11 and 13 are the significant ones. However, if research continues to focus on standard tools and regional case studies, the findings will remain of limited use when the aim should be transformational change.

There are of course issues in terms of the potential trade-offs that could occur if organisations only focus on one or two of the SDGs as their work to improve those could have negative impacts on other targets (Allen et al., 2019; Maes et al., 2019; Moyer and Bohl, 2018). Therefore, a roadmap is necessary to ensure that companies have the tools to deliver effectively on the SDGs. Then they can make a positive contribution to them without negatively affecting the work of others. The aims of this study are to complete a structured review of AEC sector literature on the benefits and barriers of ISO14001 implementation; to produce a roadmap that utilises the known benefits of implementing environmental management systems in the AEC sectors; and use the road map to support the delivery of the SDGs. The question is can ISO 14001 be used to create a roadmap by organisations to aid the delivery of the SDGs?

The study used a PRISMA review of AEC literature to identify articles that were then scrutinised for known benefits and barriers of implementing environmental management systems (da Silva and Amaral, 2019). These were then endorsed by environmental experts. A roadmap linking these benefits to each of the SDGs was produced and then validated by AEC industry experts, before drawing conclusions and recommendations for future research.

The theoretical framework selected was that of institutional theory (Hoffman, 1997), which proposes that external (social and environmental) factors influence action at an institutional level (Meyer and Rowan, 1977). This suggests that organisations are in the position of being encouraged to conform to social standards of legitimacy and to abide with social expectations (Orrù et al., 1991). This theory of the need for institutional and social legitimacy will be the framework for this research. In the next section, the background to the SDGs will be reviewed, followed by the results section where the benefits and barriers of the use of ISO 14001 will be assessed in relation to the creation of the roadmap, this will be followed by the discussion and conclusions sections.

2 Sustainable development goals

Sustainability and environmental management have become key in our society since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (UN, 2020c). Governments and organisations have tried a variety of ways to promote engagement with environmental sustainability from implementing legislation and issuing guidance to recommending management systems and voluntary standards. This has led to increasing interest in the implementation of schemes such as ISO 14001 to manage the environmental impacts of organisations, which not only has resulted in cost savings and better use of resources, but also brought about an increased focus on the protection of the environment (Pesce et al., 2018). ISO 14001 enables organisations to manage their impacts on the environment, through operating procedures, objectives, and a policy, which commits them to continual improvement, legal compliance, and prevention of pollution (Owolana and Booth, 2016; Johnson, 2020). It is a tool that also allows organisations to monitor and measure the positive impacts that they are having and justify their work to insurers, customers, stakeholders across the globe (Arimura et al., 2008; Nishitani, 2009) and regulators, as well as the public (Zeng et al., 2011).

This interest in the sustainability agenda from the public has increased in recent years (Erdos, 2019; Jung et al., 2020). While there was talk about sustainability prior to 1992 (Scoones, 2007), it was the Earth Summit conference in Rio that brought the subject of sustainability to the attention of the media. Following on from Rio, a roadmap for Agenda 21 was created (Spangenberg et al., 2002), which highlighted ways for society to be more sustainable in terms of social, economic, and conservation of resources (Shah, 2008). Following on from this work in 2000, there was the release of the millennium development goals (MDG), eight in total, again the focus was on poverty, gender equality, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS and malaria. These aimed to reduce extreme poverty and improve health by 2015 but the primary focus was on the benefits to humans (Wagstaff et al., 2006). The MDGs were reviewed in 2015 and became the SDGs. These SDGs comprise of 17 goals (Table 1) that cover relevant thematic areas (e.g. energy, water, climate, urbanisation, transport, science, and technology) based around five key themes of people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership (Caldés and Rodriguez–Serrano, 2018). The SDGs are more ambitious than the MDGs with a focus not just on poverty but on the human and natural environment (Gusmão Caiado et al., 2018). These goals form a voluntary approach to deliver a better society for all, but for these to be effective they must be engaged with by industries and sectors worldwide, not just governments.

Table 1 The seventeen sustainable development goals
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In society, individuals are now more powerful in terms of their impact on companies through their purchasing power and social media. There is, therefore, both an opportunity and a risk in terms of how and whether companies engage with the SDGs. The aims and objectives of the SDGs are broader and more encompassing than is possible for any sector to achieve alone but as Goubran et al. (2019) states the construction sector has direct or indirect influence on the SDGs with 17% of the SDG targets being directly dependent and 27% indirectly dependent.

It must also be noted that the interlinkages between the various targets (Allen et al., 2019; Le Blanc, 2015; Tosun & Leininger, 2017) could result in actions being taken to advance one goal having a detrimental impact on another goal. Maes et al. (2019) supported this by highlighting 102 SDG targets, which had links to all the goals. It should also not be assumed that the only SDGs that are impacted by the AEC sectors are SDG 15 (i.e. life on land) and SDG 11 (i.e. sustainable cities and communities) (Gusmão Caiado et al., 2018; Allen et al., 2019). There is a need for more interdisciplinary research to achieve the SDG aims and objectives as a sector and society (Salvia et al., 2019). In an analysis by Goubran et al. (2019), it was found that the sector is related to all the goals but that the largest contribution was made in respect of SDGs 6, 7, and 11. It is contested here that SDGs 4, 8, 12, and 13 are also significantly impacted. Based on extensive literature searches, this is the first known study to demonstrate the potential opportunity of supporting the delivery of the SDGs through the utilisation of environmental management systems.

3 Research design and methodology

To achieve the purpose of this study, an interpretivist epistemology (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988) was used together with abductive reasoning (Bryman and Bell, 2015) with elements of positivism. In an interpretivist epistemology (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988), reality is multiple and relative, within the confines of institutional theory (Hoffman, 1997). An institutional theory approach was used as this suggests environmental problems are neither technologically or economically guided, rather they are mostly behavioural and culturally derived. While technology or economic activity may be the cause of the environmental destruction, our own beliefs, cultural norms, and societal institutions direct those activities (David, 1985). Therefore, any organisation will be influenced not only by the character of the organisation and culture itself but also the social legitimacy that comes through engagement with its stakeholders.

The research process consisted of the five stages (Figure 1). Initially, a literature review was undertaken to discover the common barriers and benefits that have been reported by other researchers in the use of ISO 14001. The review used a PRISMA evidence-based transparent process (Moher et al., 2009), whereby journal articles were identified, then screened for suitability (Table 2) before inclusion in a structured review (Liberati et al., 2009). There are many reasons for conducting a literature review (Randolph, 2009). In this study, peer-reviewed literature was the focus (Abanda et al., 2015). These findings were shared with a group of Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) professionals (n=25) whose involvement was to confirm or refute the validity of the findings. The findings were used to create a roadmap and then a second validation process was undertaken using AEC professionals to confirm the usefulness of the roadmap in terms of the specific sectors of interest.

Fig. 1
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Stages of the research design used in this study

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Table 2 Protocol for the structured review undertaken (
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A range of databases (including Scopus and Web of Science, amongst others) were used to cover a variety of different discipline areas (such as engineering, business, social science). The search was limited to common phrases or keywords (such as

ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems and EMS) within relevant fields (such as architecture, engineering, construction) and the literature search was constrained to articles from 1999 to 2020 (years inclusive), and restricted to peer-review journal papers, reviews, conference papers and book chapters, and only works published in the English language. The typical code used to search the databases was: TITLE–ABS–KEY ((‘ISO 14001’ OR ‘EMS’ OR ‘Environmental Management System’) AND (‘architecture’ OR ‘engineering’ OR ‘construction’)) AND (LIMIT–TO (LANGUAGE, "English")). In this initial stage, the focus was on identifying the benefits of ISO 14001; therefore, words connected to the SDGs (and similar) were excluded from search terms, to maximise the list of possible benefits. Of the original 155 articles, some were duplications which resulted in 137. These were then reviewed by reading the abstract and introduction. Subsequently, questions were asked to clarify whether the article should be included in the study. These questions were related to the content and the research question (Table 2). The first section of questions formed exclusion criteria where all the questions had to have a positive answer. The second question section was in the form of inclusion criteria where at least one answer had to be positive. This resulted in 44 articles which were eligible to be included in the review.

Document analysis (Bowen, 2009) was then used to identify all the known benefits and barriers of implementing EMS in the AEC sectors. This involved a structured process of examining and interpreting the information to gain an understanding and thereby increasing knowledge (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The information was then collated in a database and analysed, before the content was validated (Ezekannagha et al., 2020). The benefits were then reviewed to see if the same benefits could be achieved through working towards the attainment of the SDGs.

To validate the literature review, the list of benefits and barriers were shared via a Qualtrics questionnaire survey (recording participant details and opinions) with a panel of environmental experts, who were members of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) LinkedIn group. Eligibility criteria used to include participants as experts were that they needed to be: (i) an IEMA member of five years or more; (ii) hold the minimum of a Bachelor degree qualification; and (ii) be working in an environmental management role. Using the confirmed list of benefits, it was now possible to draft the roadmap to investigate whether similar benefits could be obtained by engaging with the SDGs. The incentive to use a roadmap was to provide a strategic abstract visual representation of information (Blackwell et al., 2008). Therefore, the roadmap created in this study was constructed by cross-linking each of the validated benefits of implementing ISO 14001 in the AEC sectors against each of the SDGs. Acknowledging that some of the SDG targets could be achieved more easily than others, an indication of the relative expected timescales was included. The creation of the roadmap was based on the collective roundtable opinions of the authorship team who have shared AEC and sustainability experiences exceeding 100 years and 50 years, respectively. However, since this approach could be considered as being subjective, a decision was made to seek the opinions of independent AEC industry experts with sustainability experience to validate its creation and, hence, Stage Two was implemented.

In Stage Two, the Roadmap was shared via a Qualtrics questionnaire survey (recording participant details and opinions) with a panel of AEC industry-facing professionals from each of the sectors and who are based in organisations that hold ISO 14001 certification. Eligibility criteria used to include participants as experts was that they needed to be: (i) a member of an AEC professional body; (ii) hold the minimum of a Bachelor degree qualification; and (iii) employed in one of the AEC sectors for a minimum of five years and to have worked on sustainability-related projects during that time.

4 Findings

This section presents the outcomes of the literature review and shares the opinions of IEMA experts on the information that was extracted from the review. Subsequently, the section describes the roadmap created by the authors and shares the views of the AEC experts who proffered opinion towards its validation.

4.1 Identification of the benefits and barriers of implementing EMS in the AEC sectors

The PRISMA search resulted in 137 articles being screened and checked for eligibility before a final group of articles (n=44) was used for the literature review (Figure 2). A summary of these works is presented in Table 3, highlighting the continued interest in this area across a range of sectors.

Fig. 2
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Outcomes of the various stages involved in the PRISMA literature selection and identification process

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Table 3 Summary details about the articles and reports (n = 44) identified from the PRISMA literature review
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The benefits and barriers extracted from the works presented in Table 3 are listed and cross-referenced to their sources (Tables 4 and 5). These have been reviewed and the frequency of each benefit and barrier being reported is presented (Figs. 3 and 4). In terms of the benefits (Table 3 and Figure 3), the most widely reported benefits are: improved environmental performance (Owolana and Booth, 2016; Shen and Tam, 2002), improved corporate image (Shen and Tam, 2002; Turk, 2009, 2012), and compliance with regulations (Turk, 2009; Johnson, 2020), whilst some of the least reported ones are: subcontractor relations (Turk, 2009) and to facilitate trade (Sakr et al., 2010). These are primarily institutional benefits. In terms of barriers (Table 5 and Figure 4), the most widely reported ones are: cost (Shen and Tam, 2002; Babakri et al., 2003; Johnson 2020), lack of expertise (Turk, 2012; Schmidt and Osebald, 2017), and lack of training (Turk, 2009; Schmidt and Osebald, 2017). The least reported barriers are industry not being ready (Kein et al., 1999) and complexity of the standards (Turk, 2009). Once again, the barriers are institutional in their perspective. From this work, it was possible to group the benefits to enable an effective roadmap to be created from the groupings: corporate image, market share, cost saving, environmental impact, operations, compliance, and CSR. This produced a more user-friendly list in terms of benefits.

Table 4 List of the known benefits of implementing environmental management systems in the architecture, engineering and construction sectors reported in published articles and reports
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Table 5 List of the known barriers to implementing environmental management systems in the architecture, engineering and construction sectors reported in published articles and reports
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Fig. 3
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Top 10 most frequently reported benefits of implementing environmental management systems in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sectors

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Fig. 4
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Top 10 most frequently reported barriers to implementing environmental management systems in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sectors

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It should be noted that during the review process it became clear that the benefits and barriers can differ depending on the sector and the maturity of the sector in terms of their environmental engagement. Nonetheless, common themes were found. Researchers have highlighted the economic benefits to an organisation who choose to engage in ISO 14001 (Gavronski et al., 2008; Pokinski et al., 2003), and the environmental benefits have tended to be those that focus on cost or material savings (Haklik, 1997; Hibiki and Arimura, 2011), such as using less energy, lower waste charges, reduction in the materials used, and ensuring legal compliance, thereby avoiding fines. This is the traditional economic business approach, conforming to institutional theory (Hoffman, 1997), that has existed for many years. In this research, it is noted that there are both institutional and social legitimacy factors as to why a company engages in environmental management. In terms of ISO 14001, traditionally it has been used to focus on the significant aspects of the company’s operations and the mitigation of negative impacts. A change in perspective from this to how positive impacts can be instigated would help companies who are compliance focused to move to society focused approaches and help deliver on projects connected to the delivery of the SDGs. However, as it is the companies who choose what the focus of their operation is and whether they choose to be sustainable or not, there would need to be an incentive to enable more to choose the more altruistic options. For instance, a grading to all ISO 14001 certificates that demonstrated a company’s contribution to global issues may encourage more engagement in the SDG objectives.

This study found that there were 63 barriers to engagement with ISO 14001 from the papers reviewed, mainly in the construction sector but with a great variety in the countries involved. These factors would need to be considered in future research as potential limiting factors to the delivery of the SDGs.

One of the most often cited barriers is that of keeping pace with requirements: either of the standard or legislation. These were closely followed by the need to have environmental expertise, the cost involved, and the lack of perceived value. All these barriers will potentially also impact on a company’s willingness to engage with the SDGs.

The SDGs cover a range of sustainability issues with many underlying targets in the topic areas. From these issues, it was possible to map against the benefits of ISO 14001 to establish that the same benefits could be achieved while making a positive societal impact (Table 1). The aim of the roadmap is to enable the sector to map their contribution to sustainability and to highlight the positive impacts that can be delivered through their operations. Thus, by using the SDGs in areas of operation it is possible that they can also deliver the benefits of engaging with ISO 14001. The difference would be that the SDGs enable an organisation to engage positively with the sustainability agenda outside the walls of their organisation and be seen to be making a positive difference to society.

4.2 Validation of the identified benefits and barriers of implementing EMS in AEC sectors

The lists of benefits and barriers (Tables 4 and 5) extracted from the literature were presented to IEMA experts for verification as being accurate and complete. The profiles of the participants show they are all IEMA members, with the minimum of a Bachelor degree and they have all been working in environmental management roles for more than five years (Table 6).

Table 6 Participant profiles of the Environmental Management professionals used to validate the lists or benefits and barriers identified in the literature review
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All participants (100%; n=25) confirm both lists as accurate. Most participants (84%; n=21) agreed that both lists were complete. Some participants kindly qualified their responses to the completeness questions by suggesting that there are other known benefits and barriers outside those extracted from the AEC literature. Whilst this is duly acknowledged, this study is focussed solely on the AEC sectors so inclusion of benefits and barriers outside the AEC sectors would not be appropriate for the purpose of inclusion in the roadmap output from this study.

4.3 Creation of a roadmap to deliver the SDGS

The roadmap was created by mapping the benefits of ISO 14001 against the SDGs to ascertain which benefits could be delivered through engagement with the SDGs. The roadmap (Figure 5) shows 1,462 total potential cells where benefits could be achieved of which 503 were considered to produce a tangible opportunity to the organisation in terms of similar benefits to those achieved using ISO 14001. Blank cells have been excluded due to their minimal cost benefit profile and hence the following percentages are calculated from the more realisable benefits. Most of these are green (74%; n=372), suggesting achievable opportunities for AEC organisations operating EMS to contribute to the delivery of the SDGs and these could be achieved quite swiftly. There are blue coloured cells (equating to 21%) and grey coloured cells (equating to 5%) for the medium- and longer-term benefits. The intention is that organisations could use this as a tool to focus work to achieve their desired outcomes but also by contributing to the work on delivery of the SDGs.

Fig. 5
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Roadmap of how EMS benefits link to the SDGs (✓ Green block = short-term achievement; ✓ blue block = medium-term achievement; ✓ grey block = long-term achievement) resources

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All the EMS benefits have linkages across to the SDGs. SDGs 8, 12, and 13, link with at least one of the sub-benefits for each of the group benefits. SDG 8 links with the greatest number of sub-benefits (n=59), while SDG 2 links with the least number of sub-benefits (n=12). All SDGs link with at least ten of the sub-benefits, with four (SDG 4, 8, 12, and 13) linking with at least half of the benefits. The public relations, market, and social group benefits link to the most SDGs (mostly 5, 8, 10, 12). In terms of the sub-benefits: customer satisfaction, commitment to environmental responsibility, green image, improved community relations, and improved industry/government relations link to the most SDGs (3, 5, 10, 12, 13).

4.4 Validation of the roadmap

After the roadmap was created by the research team, it was presented to a group of 12 AEC industry experts to validate. The group of experts are from all parts of the AEC sectors, and all met and/or exceeded each of the participant criteria detailed earlier. As with a similar study (Ezekannagha et al., 2020), where validation was sought, a small cohort of participants were invited because the profile of the experts was deemed to be an overriding factor in the validation process. Table 7 shows the professional requirements for the nine experts who shared their thoughts and opinions of the roadmap. Most of the experts have between 6 and 10 years’ experience working in the AEC sectors and in some cases participants have even more experience in the sectors. All have worked on sustainability projects, and everyone had a minimum of a Bachelor degree, with the majority qualified above this level.

Table 7 Participant profiles of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector professionals used to validate the roadmap
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They were invited to review the document and to make comments about its usefulness in assisting organisations to engage with the SDG agenda. While most of the participants thought that the roadmap was useful there were requests for instructions for the roadmap to make the process simpler. This roadmap tool was thought to be of use in one of two ways, depending on if the focus is on achieving the SDGs where it will show the potential benefits of this or, if the objective is to gain the benefits and, therefore, see which SDGs would help in the achievement of these. In terms of the green, blue, and grey blocks, the green blocks are mapped to areas which area closely linked to the sector and would be easiest to achieve in the short term. The blue blocks tend to be areas outside the standard operations of this sector and will therefore require collaboration with other parties to deliver on the goal. The grey blocks are areas where it is more likely to be longer term before benefits are seen, as in the case of partnerships where the stakeholders may not be at the same point of the journey towards sustainability and therefore may not wish to be involved now but in the long term.

5 Discussion

This study sets out to establish if the potential benefits and barriers of ISO 14001 could facilitate the AEC sectors to move towards a more sustainable approach and whether these benefits could also be achieved within organisations while facilitating the delivery on the SDGs. The SDGs are a global challenge and provide a means for organisations to focus on the economic, environmental, and societal needs of the planet and to increase their social legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). The SDGs may appear a huge challenge but if all organisations contributed, the combined effect would create a greater impact. The roadmap is a means of encouraging organisations to move from their current institutional focus to a more socially legitimate position (Suchman, 1995) and enable them to consider what they are achieving through their EMS and to establish how they can achieve similar benefits while having an increased positive impact on the global issues. In many cases, this could bring bigger rewards in terms of positive stakeholder relations (Jizi, 2017), genuine positive impact on societal issues and well-being of their staff and neighbouring communities.

To enable this to happen, there needs to be a clear understanding of which SDGs will be the easiest to target first. While other researchers have highlighted SDG 1, 9, and 11 (Lynch & Mosbah, 2017) 7, 12, and 13 (Goubran et al., 2019), it is suggested here that first and foremost the AEC sectors should be focusing on: SDG 4—quality education to ensure that the workforce has understanding about the environment and sustainability; SDG 8—decent work and economic growth; 12—responsible consumption; and 13—climate action. If these are combined with SDG 17, which is partnership for goals, this would enable construction companies, architects, planners, and government to work together to achieve sustainability. As previously noted, the construction sector has a huge impact on the sustainability of society. This roadmap is a method to improve the performance of this sector in delivering positive impacts for society. It should be acknowledged that there will be restrictions in terms of how companies can engage. Some will not have the finances or staff to make huge impacts due to their size (Hahn and Kühnen, 2013), but every person and every organisation can make some impact. It may be that they focus on small positive steps to move to a more sustainable agenda within their strategy or work on a local project. Nonetheless, whatever they do, there is clear interest in terms of sustainability from the public (Erdil et al., 2018) and this will only increase over time. Currently there are huge challenges in terms of biodiversity, food, and health throughout the world (Daszak et al., 2000) and the SDGs will help as a global focus on improving our interactions (Georgeson et al., 2017) and how we can maintain work to improve the issues.

6 Conclusions

Literature shows there is worldwide interest in the adoption of sustainable practices within the AEC sectors. Therefore, it is proposed that a need exists for an amalgamated approach that is relevant for the sectors and all organisations working within them. In terms of the benefits and barriers of implementation of ISO 14001 noted here are similar to research that has been conducted in other industry sectors. This study has highlighted an extensive list of benefits to support the implementation of ISO 14001 within the AEC sectors, and while it is acknowledged that there are also barriers, to move forward in a sustainable manner the use of ISO 14001 as a framework would enable companies to focus on delivery of SDG objectives. This linking of the benefits of ISO 14001 to the SDGs in a roadmap has shown how organisations could help in the delivery of the SDGs. There is a general desire amongst the global population for sectors to be seen as being more responsible in terms of sustainability. The market mechanisms, however, limit the options in terms of what can be delivered, and it is suggested here that the standards could be used more effectively. One potential way forward is for the professional bodies to push for a level to be created for their individual sectors, that companies could then sign up to. A gold standard: they could gain a sector specific badge, meaning, that while organisations can use an EMS for the benefit of the impacts of the organisation and monitoring of their progress; they could also utilise it to demonstrate their commitment to the SDGs, by going above and beyond the standard.

If the AEC sectors are to play a leading role in the journey to sustainability, there is a need for a clear delivery plan for achieving the SDGs. This would help to ensure not just environmental survival but social and economic success against issues such as climate change and the resultant migration of populations. The sectors, need to work on the SDGs and to align with the 5 Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership, which require actions to be taken by a range of stakeholders including governments and businesses to go beyond the purely environmental objectives of sustainable development. This provides a huge opportunity for the AEC sectors to be ahead of the curve in terms of using the roadmap to help demonstrate the economic viability of delivery of the SDGs and the resulting social legitimacy.

As the SDGs will benefit the whole of society, it must be remembered that the achievement of these goals will result in an increased standard of living for all; everyone will benefit. Going forward it would be useful to understand:

  • The impact of the roadmap when used by an organisation to focus on the delivery of the most relevant SDGs.

  • An investigation into the opportunities and challenges of using the roadmap within the sector.

  • Whether the roadmap changes an organisations perspective on the deliverability of the SDGs.

  • Whether the roadmap could be focused on the national and local issues to gain a true perspective of where society is in terms of sustainability.

  • How the roadmap could be used in other sectors that have an impact on a global scale.

  • How the barriers to implementation of ISO 14001 may delay the delivery of SDGs through businesses.

Industries such as construction are dependent on the environment, and therefore, it would be expected that they should be amenable to promoting sustainability, not just in terms of their operations but also in terms of how they interact with the communities that are situated around their operations. More research is needed in the application of the roadmap in practical terms to test the validity of the design and use. It is suggested that this should be a first step to understand the usefulness of the roadmap in helping organisations assess where they can make positive changes and how these can be highlighted to stakeholders.

This roadmap will improve the opportunities for organisations to promote their involvement with the local community, which will promote social legitimacy and allow stakeholders to have an increasingly transparent view of the company’s sustainable performance. It will enable the process to highlight any conflicts that have occurred and how the response to these conflicts was appropriate and had been justified. This would result in a system which not only enables the SDGs to be worked towards on a global scale, but also the actions and impacts of those organisations who are engaging can be measured, recorded, and actions justified, benefiting society, the environment, and the economic performance of the organisation involved, thereby, increasing both their institutional and social validity. Data provided to the sector bodies from the organisations would deliver more information on how their sectors are progressing in terms of the SDGs and demonstrate to all stakeholders which sectors and particular organisations are truly committed to sustainability.