Multi-Criteria Decision Making to Improve Performance in Construction Projects with LEED Certification

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and later adopted by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), has been widely accepted by public and private owners. Nevertheless it has been proven that adherence to LEED requirements has various effects on construction worker performance and productivity, construction cost and schedule and the environment. As a result, this limits the extent to which industry professionals apply the LEED principles, and are faced with difficulties in selecting the credits to be implemented in LEED certified projects. Therefore, there is a growing need to improve the sustainable goals by optimizing the LEED credit selection process to gain higher efficiency and productivity, which would result in increased popularity among contractors and design consultants. It has been identified that each LEED credit would have a different impact on cost, schedule, environment and the construction productivity. A considerable amount of literature has been published regarding these impact areas and it is clear that the impact is different from each credit and each project. However, very little research has been carried out that considers the combined effect of the identified factors. This paper describes the development of a multi-criteria prediction model that has the ability to model phenomena with significant uncertainty in inputs and multiple criteria such as project cost variation, the environmental impact, the impact on schedule and the impact on construction productivity. This simulation tool can be used by the design team at an early stage of the design process to optimise the benefits and minimise the negative impacts of LEED implementation in a new construction project.