Developing sustainable building assessment scheme for Saudi Arabia: Delphi consultation approach

Scientific evidence suggests important discrepancies between simulated and real energy performance of buildings. This is exacerbated in developing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, by the reliance on leading international building environmental and sustainability assessment schemes (e.g. BREEAM and LEED). The paper proposes to test the overarching hypothesis that the leading international environmental and sustainability assessment schemes are not adapted to the Saudi built environment, with a focus on the residential sector. The paper aims to (a) test the applicability of international leading schemes such as BREEAM and LEED for the assessment of Saudiʹs built environment, and (b) identify applicable building assessment categories and criteria for Saudiʹs built environment. As building assessment methods involve multi-dimensional criteria, a consensus based approach is used to conduct the research. Hence, the Delphi technique is selected and conducted in three successive consultation rounds involving world leading experts in the domain of environmental and sustainable assessment schemes, as well as professionals and highly-informed local experts from academia, government and industry. The results reveal that international assessment schemes are not fully applicable to the Saudi built environment, as reflected in the development of a new building environmental and sustainability assessment scheme.