Blockchain technology in building environmental sustainability: A systematic literature review and future perspectives

The significant environmental impact of buildings during their lifecycle has made it a critical area to address the global climate crisis. However, due to the involvement of multiple industrial sectors, a large number of related parties, and the complexity of environmental information flows in the whole lifecycle of buildings, the effectiveness of the traditional centralized management approach is limited, and it is necessary to adopt more advanced management technology tools. With its decentralized, transparent, and secure characteristics, blockchain technology has triggered various applications in several industries, as well as in the field of building environmental sustainability. Using bibliometric and content analysis, this paper comprehensively reviews the current state of research on blockchain technology in the field of building environmental sustainability. A total of 128 articles were reviewed, revealing that blockchain technology has been used to address various types of environmental problems in multiple stages of the building lifecycle, including building material production, construction, operation, and demolition phases, etc. It is shown that blockchain technology can already effectively improve the use of renewable energy and reduce overall energy consumption during the building operation phase, while the great potential for solving other environmental issues, such as the management of building embodied carbon emissions, needs to be further explored. This paper also explores potential research opportunities and future directions based on current gaps and limitations, presenting several critical topics from the perspective of building lifecycle and practice support. This review helps related researchers gain insights into the research frontier and future direction.