Connection of 2022 World Build Congress Proceedings to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The built environment plays a significant role in achieving these goals. Recognizing this and embracing the role the UN played in establishing CIB, the theme of this World Building Congress is “sustainable built environment – the role of the construction community in meeting the UN SDGs”. This research evaluated the 2022 World Building Congress proceedings for their connection to the UN SDGs. A literature review, the UN SDG definations, and knowledge of the goals in relationship to the built environment helped to establish working definition for each SDG in relation to the built environment. Each published paper was evaluated for their implicit or explicit connection to each of the 16 UN SDGs. To ensure reliability and validity of the apporach, two independent raters evaluated five papers jointly and then ten papers independtly with results compared. The most frequently cited SDGs was SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Two-hundred and twenty of the three-hundred and one 2022 WBC proceedings papers reviewed were judged as being linked to a UN SDG. Eleven WBC Proceeding specifically mentioned UN SDGs. Each paper in the 2025 WBC will self-identify their primary and secondary UN SDG goal. Therefore, this research helps set a historical precedent of how CIB WBC papers have been connected to UN SDGs and establishes a methodology by which previous WBCs could also be analyzed.