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Sustainable Building Design and Assessment

Sustainable Building Design and Assessment is a research topic within Building and Construction. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1956. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on sustainable construction and green building research, covering topics such as environmental assessment tools, social sustainability, urban sustainability indicators, barriers and drivers for sustainable building, project management practices, regenerative sustainability, and building environmental assessment. The papers explore the current status, future agenda, challenges, and opportunities in the field of sustainable construction.

  • Sustainable Construction
  • Green Building
  • Environmental Assessment Tools
  • Social Sustainability
  • Urban Sustainability Indicators
  • LEED Certification
  • Barriers and Drivers
  • Project Management Practices
  • Regenerative Sustainability
  • Building Environmental Assessment
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1956
In the world top 10%
2.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+25%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
25% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sustainable Building Design and Assessment

Which countries lead Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (960 and 483 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 960 works
  2. 2 United States 483 works
  3. 3 India 419 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 375 works
  5. 5 Italy 351 works
  6. 6 Malaysia 257 works
  7. 7 Brazil 249 works
  8. 8 Australia 246 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 241 works
  10. 10 Nigeria 223 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 25.2%United States: 12.7%India: 11.0%United Kingdom: 9.9%6 others listed: 41.2%25%largest
China960 · 25.2%United States483 · 12.7%India419 · 11.0%United Kingdom375 · 9.9%6 others listed1,567 · 41.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Johannesburg publishes the most Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research, followed by Politecnico di Milano and Universiti Teknologi MARA.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 53 works
  2. 2 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 46 works
  3. 3 Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 40 works
  4. 4 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 38 works
  5. 5 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 37 works
  6. 6 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 37 works
  7. 7 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 32 works
  8. 8 Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 30 works
  9. 9 Politecnico di TorinoItaly 28 works
  10. 10 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and TechnologyGhana 28 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sustainable Building Design and Assessment include Lídia Morawska, Paul M. Thompson and Seeram Ramakrishna.

  1. 1 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  2. 2 Paul M. Thompson United States 196k citations
  3. 3 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  4. 4 Johan Gunnar Eriksson Finland 149k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment?

The most cited paper in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment is "Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis" (Marc Orlitzky, Frank L. Schmidt, Sara L. Rynes, 2003), with 7,659 citations. Next come "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies" (4,562) and "The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance" (3,979).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis Marc Orlitzky, Frank L. Schmidt, Sara L. Rynes · Organization Studies Review Mar 2003 7,659
2 ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies Gunnar Friede, Timo Busch, Alexander Bassen · Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment Open access 2 Oct 2015 4,562
3 The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou, George Serafeim · Management Science Open access Nov 2014 3,979
4 Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins Ben Purvis, Yong Jian Mao, Darren Robinson · Sustainability Science Open access 3 Sep 2018 3,248
5 Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings Florian Berg, Julian F Kölbel, Roberto Rigobón · European Finance Review Open access 23 May 2022 3,219
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research done?

The largest centres of Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Istanbul (Türkiye) and Cairo (Egypt). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Moratuwa, Kumasi and Akure.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 120 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 83 works
  3. 3 IstanbulTürkiye 72 works
  4. 4 CairoEgypt 68 works
  5. 5 JohannesburgSouth Africa 66 works
  6. 6 MelbourneAustralia 64 works
  7. 7 Hong KongChina 59 works
  8. 8 RomeItaly 58 works
  9. 9 NanjingChina 56 works
  10. 10 ShanghaiChina 55 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MoratuwaLK · 26.0 works36×
  2. KumasiGH · 34.0 works19×
  3. AkureNG · 21.2 works17×
  4. RichmondAU · 27.9 works16×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment than the world average.

See Sustainable Building Design and Assessment on the map

Where is the best place to study Sustainable Building Design and Assessment?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Western Sydney University and University of Johannesburg score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…University of Hong K…Western Sydney Unive…University of Johann…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 81.930.2%6.9×37 -26.7%
2Western Sydney UniversityAustralia 77.924.9%16.1×28 +70.9%
3University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 73.315.3%13.9×53 +67.9%
4University of Hong KongChina 70.725.0%3.8×22 +1.5%
5Politecnico di MilanoItaly 69.912.6%10.3×46 +18.1%
6City University of Hong KongChina 68.722.1%3.5×12 +27.7%
7Chongqing UniversityChina 66.622.0%3.7×25 +25.1%
8Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and TechnologyGhana 63.813.5%20.8×28 +53.3%
9Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 63.510.4%8.4×30 +27.0%
10Sapienza University of RomeItaly 62.114.0%4.5×32 +172.6%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sustainable Building Design and Assessment, country by country

Is Sustainable Building Design and Assessment research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 25% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sustainable Building Design and Assessment.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sustainable Building Design and Assessment as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.028% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Sustainable Building Design and Assessment0.030% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sustainable Building Design and Assessment over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sustainable Building Design and Assessment10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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