A Roadmap for Sustainable Development Through Responsible Sourcing in Construction

Responsible sourcing and green supply chains are becoming dominant tools towards procuring materials in a sustainable manner across the architecture, engineering and construction sector to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The aim of this study was to provide a structured review of responsible sourcing literature to identify the potential opportunities and obstacles towards the accomplishment of a roadmap for the sector to support delivery of the goals. The main opportunities included competitive advantage, stakeholder value and improved supply chain management. The main obstacles included cost, deficiencies in structured frameworks and an array of industry specific constraints. These were aligned with the goals to produce a roadmap, validated by industry experts. For fruition, it is surmised that refocusing the industry in recent years combined with achievement of the goals will stimulate innovative technical solutions to produce truly sustainable development.