The importance of logistics in sustainable urban building construction: a systematic literature review

• State-of-the-art review on sustainable logistics in building engineering research. • Environmental leverage of construction logistics is underrecognized in the sector. • Research opportunities to enhance transport data and transport modeling detail. • Comparative analyses on city-level and regulatory impact are lacking. • EPD and LCA accuracy would improve with interdisciplinary alignment. The urban construction industry is a vital cornerstone of human society. European Union (EU) policies are in support of transforming the industry towards becoming more sustainable and adopting the circular economy concept. To achieve the EU targets, the transformation of construction logistics is essential. The transport of building materials accounts for a large share of urban freight volumes and environmental emissions and is a significant lever in creating sustainable cities. This systematic literature review highlights building and environmental engineering research and its intersection with transport logistics. It shows how interest in sustainable logistics evolved in the scientific literature of building construction, identifies key topics providing impetus for research, and uncovers concerns for greater involvement in logistics research. A descriptive analysis shows the temporal, spatial, and methodological development of the field, while a content analysis highlights research streams in environmental sustainability. The results indicate that logistics research has found its access point to building construction research only on the surface. The environmental leverage of construction logistics is still not sufficiently recognized. A lack of reliable, reproducible, valid data for transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially considering different construction methods and materials, and a missing level of detail in transport modeling impede progress.