To complete the building construction projects sustainably, the materials used in the projects should be chosen with a well-defined set of sustainable performance indicators to advance and implement the concept of Sustainable Construction (SC) in developing countries like India. These performance indicator criteria are derived from green building rating systems, previous studies and experts’ opinions. The performance indicator criteria of sustainable building materials are evaluated according to the impact they have on the three pillars of sustainability, such as the economic, social and environmental aspects of the building construction project in general. The Analytical Hierarch Process (AHP) method is used to select the most sustainable building material depending on the evaluation of performance indicators. The performance indicators were identified during the pilot survey after getting feedbacks from experts. A total of 18 sub-criteria which are under the triple bottom line (TBL) main criteria of sustainability, and three blocks of sustainable building materials were selected as alternatives for the sake of evaluation of a case study. Then the weights and ranks of the triple bottom lines (TBL) as the main criteria and performance indicators as sub-criteria with the help of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) MCDM method were done. This study analyzed and chose the right sustainable building material based on the material’s performance indicators as criteria under the three pillars of sustainability which are the environment, economic and social, also called TBL, for the Indian construction context by framing a sustainable material performance evaluation framework.

To achieve sustainable building, it is very crucial to promote, put into practice, and defend the sustainability concept through evaluation of the sustainability of building materials based on their performance criteria. Since environmental legislation and other rules and regulations for the protection of the building construction sector becoming more and more prevalent, the concept of sustainable development is in high demand in the construction industry today. As the population that results from building construction projects grows daily, so does global warming, the consumption of natural resources, and the level of environmental degradation also grows at the same time. Considering only the environmental aspects and ignoring the social and economic impacts of construction is not adequate to achieve sustainability. In the case of companies producing building materials and using materials in the construction industry, additional environmental, social, and economic factors are added to the growing competition among these companies. The building construction sector, which includes building construction companies and industries manufacturing building materials is constantly looking for new technologies and materials, which results in a high level of sustainability for buildings and material usability in construction processes. A systematic approach to the evaluation of the sustainability of materials is required to choose the most appropriate material from the available options. Therefore, with the concept of sustainable development, a two-phase methodology is proposed in this study to evaluate the sustainability of suitable materials in the construction industry based on the Indian context. The first phase, which involved identification of the criteria for evaluating the sustainability of the building materials selection process; that we got from expert opinion during the questionnaire survey and literature review; a total of three main criteria and 18 sub-criteria were selected for the study. The second phase involved the application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology to calculate weights and rankings of the main criteria as well as sub-criteria. To show the practicality of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology in this particular study, we have computed a practical example. As a case study, the data that we gathered from a questionnaire survey from building materials manufacturing industries that are located in different parts of Gujarat State are taken and used as criteria. Merging these criteria with the three pillars of sustainable development, which are the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the building construction sector, we identified and used the main and sub-criteria for the evaluation process. Based on the criteria weights and rankings obtained using AHP, NuEarth Hallow Block is given priority as the best material alternative among all the three blocks taken up for analysis. Therefore, this study offers evaluation techniques for determining the long-term sustainability of building materials for use in the construction sector.

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