Policy Tools for Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals in Building Development

The construction industry is pivotal to sustainable development through its relationships with activities that contribute to sustainability of the built environment. However, this sector in many developing countries lacks the relevant policy instrument to facilitate actions needed to achieve SDGs. SDGs policies for construction are also bespoke to regional needs, yet increasingly applied to develop policy for new markets. Despite adjustment in this practice, global experiences show policies are infrequently comprehensive to account for all the essential requirements. Due to continuous improvement, policy reviews are also common but the knowledge of the fundamental issues has attracted limited research attention. This chapter evaluates the attributes and roles of effective Green Building (GB) policy tools and examines the status of related instruments in Nigeria to determine the region’s readiness to accelerate SDGs through building development. Worldwide, SDGs policies show inclination towards energy efficiency requirements principally. The current tool for Nigeria, Building Energy Efficiency Guidelines (BEEG), requires further development into an actionable instrument. Improvement is needed in SDGs policies for construction in terms of learning requirements. Policy tools need to articulate clear learning needs of stakeholders and the imperative framework to achieving the requirements.