The construction industry is a major user of non-renewable energy and contributor to emission of greenhouse gases, thus requiring to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Indeed, construction activities account for 36% of global energy consumption and 39% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing carbon emissions requires adapted government policies, carbon emission analysis and calculation models, and sustainable materials. Here, we review green construction with focus on history, carbon emissions, policies, models, life cycle assessment, and sustainable materials such as biochar, bioplastic, agricultural waste, animal wool, fly ash and self-healing concrete. Analysis of carbon emissions over the building life cycle shows that the construction phase accounts for 20–50% of total carbon emissions. The average ratio of construction phase annual emissions to operation phase emissions is 0.62. We present national policy frameworks and technology roadmaps from the United States of America, Japan, China, and the European Union, highlighting plans to achieve carbon neutrality in the building sector.

The building sector is significantly contributing to climate change, pollution, and energy crises, thus requiring a rapid shift to more sustainable construction practices. Here, we review the emerging practices of integrating renewable energies in the construction sector, with a focus on energy types, policies, innovations, and perspectives. The energy sources include solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass fuels. Case studies in Seattle, USA, and Manama, Bahrain, are presented. Perspectives comprise self-sufficiency, microgrids, carbon neutrality, intelligent buildings, cost reduction, energy storage, policy support, and market recognition. Incorporating wind energy into buildings can fulfill about 15% of a building's energy requirements, while solar energy integration can elevate the renewable contribution to 83%. Financial incentives, such as a 30% subsidy for the adoption of renewable technologies, augment the appeal of these innovations.

The concept of green building has gradually formed with the increase in public awareness of environmental protection, which also covers a wide range of elements. The green building is the fundamental platform of sustainable development. This review paper provides solutions for the multi-dimensional and balanced development of green building. Since green building is the development trend of the construction industry, it presents an opportunity to mitigate global warming and accomplish energy efficiency. However, the problem is that the development of green building’s implementation is restricted by the lack of government policies, imperfect technical abilities and unreasonable economic benefits. One conclusion drawn from the results shows that the benefits of green building implementation include environmental, economic, social, and health and safety aspects. Moreover, it is crucial to improve the awareness of stakeholders to promote the development process of green building. The government should launch campaigns to encourage developers and tenants to embrace green building, which can add value to buildings. The novelty of the paper provides a more systematic review on the sustainable considerations of green building than previous efforts in the literature. Bibliometric analysis is conducted through VOS viewer software. This review paperdiscusses the relevant benefits and challenges of green building through a critical review of existing research knowledge related to green building. The current advancements in green building are highlighted in this paper. Importantly, future recommendations for standards and policy formulation and future research directions are proposed in this review article.

In the high-energy, high-carbon landscape of the construction industry, a detailed and precise life cycle assessment (LCA) is essential. This review examines the role of building information modeling (BIM) software in streamlining the LCA process to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Despite its potential, challenges such as software interoperability and compatibility persist, with no unified standard for choosing BIM-integrated LCA software. Besides, the review explores the capabilities and limitations of various BIM software, LCA tools, and energy consumption tools, and presents characteristics of BIM-LCA integration cases. It critically discusses BIM-LCA integration methods and data exchange techniques, including bill of quantities import, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) import, BIM viewer usage, direct LCA calculations with BIM plugins, and LCA plugin calculations. Finally, concluding with future perspectives, the study aims to guide the development of advanced LCA tools for better integration with BIM software, addressing a vital need in sustainable construction practices.

The field of carbon emissions in the construction industry has drawn extensive attention from researchers and practitioners due to the issue of global warming. In this study, an in-depth analysis of the research status, trends, and frontiers in the field of carbon emissions in the construction industry was carried out. The CiteSpace tool was used to visualize and analyze relevant papers from 1985 to 2023, to describe the overall knowledge structure in the field of carbon emissions in the construction industry using dual-map overlay analysis, journal co-citation network analysis, and keyword co-occurrence network analysis, to apply cluster analysis and burst detection to identify research trends in the field and the frontiers, and to analyze the scientific collaborations in the field. Further, the core issues in the field of carbon emissions in the construction industry were explored and relevant recommendations were proposed. The results are of great significance in identifying and analyzing knowledge systems and research patterns in the field of carbon emissions in the construction industry and help us to discover and understand the current deficiencies, trends, and frontiers in this field, thus providing useful suggestions and reflections for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders.

Background. Depression, a widespread mental health issue, is often marked by impaired cognitive control, particularly in managing proactive and reactive processes. The Dual Mechanisms of Control (DMC) framework differentiates between these two modes of cognitive control: proactive control involves sustained goal maintenance, while reactive control is more stimulus-driven and transient. Stress, known to exacerbate cognitive dysfunction in depression, may influence the balance between these control processes, though the specific effects remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate how acute stress influences proactive and reactive control in individuals with depressive symptoms. Methods. A total of 88 participants were divided into high-stress and control conditions and further categorized based on their depression levels, measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Cognitive control was assessed using the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), both before and after exposure to a stress-inducing anagram task, which was designed to differentiate between high-stress and low-stress conditions. Results. Participants exposed to the high-stress condition reported significantly greater stress and fatigue levels compared to the control group, validating the stress manipulation. Although the balance between reactive and proactive control, as measured by the Proactive Behavioral Index (PBI), did not show significant changes, depressive individuals in the high-stress condition exhibited a significant decline in their ability to retain contextual information, as indicated by a reduction in the d’-context index. This suggests that depressive individuals are particularly vulnerable to stress-induced impairments in proactive control. Discussion. These findings highlight the selective impact of stress on proactive cognitive control in individuals with depressive symptoms, shedding light on a potential cognitive vulnerability in depression. While the balance between reactive and proactive control remained stable, the impaired retention of contextual information post-stress points to a specific deficit in proactive control. This could have implications for targeted cognitive interventions, such as cognitive control training, aimed at enhancing resilience against stress in depressive populations. Future research should explore the long-term effects of stress on cognitive control, particularly in clinically diagnosed individuals.