Investigating sustainability parameters of administrative buildings in Saudi Arabia

•Identifying of key sustainability parameters for office and administrative buildings in Saudi Arabia•Benchmarking regional and international rating systems for buildings•Analyzing survey results using severity index and exploratory factor analysis•Introducing new rating system that considering cultural differences

Cultural differences have always been considered a crucial factor in the implementation of ready-made models. Following international interest, Arabian communities have promoted the need to adopt sustainability strategies in construction, with the vital goal of minimizing environmental impacts and overcoming resource limitations. This paper presents a generic framework for selecting the key sustainability parameters for office and administrative buildings in Saudi Arabia because these types of buildings consume huge amounts of resources and generate a massive amount of waste and carbon dioxide emissions. The framework building blocks start with benchmarking regional and international rating systems. Next, a swift review of regional literature and emerging concepts is performed. The results are then tabulated to establish a pool of criteria. For this effort, a total of 112 criteria have been identified and grouped into five main groups. The next step involves industry engagement, which is best investigated through a questionnaire. The final step is the survey results analysis using two techniques: severity index (SI) and exploratory factor analysis. The resulting factors are considered to be key parameters when constructing a new rating system that considers cultural differences.