Research Article
Selection of Sustainable Building Material Using Multicriteria
Decision-Making Model: A Case of Masonry Work in Lideta
Subcity, Addis Ababa
Diriba Tegegne ,
1
Mebratu Abera,
2
and Esayas Alemayehu
2
1
Wollega University, College of Engineering and Technology, Department of Construction Technology and Management,
Nekemte, Ethiopia
2
Jimma Institute of Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jimma, Ethiopia
Correspondence should be addressed to Esayas Alemayehu; esayas16@yahoo.com
Received 5 August 2022; Revised 28 November 2022; Accepted 12 January 2023; Published 6 February 2023
Academic Editor: Bel´ en Gonz´ alez•Fonteboa
Copyright©2023DiribaTegegneetal. TisisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In today’s world, where the need for construction projects is increasing from time to time, especially in developing countries such
as Ethiopia, sustainability issues and principles were not exercised by construction professionals during the material selection
process. At the initial stage, the designer considers materials he/she is familiar with. However, their assumption may not work
because the structure that is going to be developed may be diferent from the previous one. Tus, the designer shall consider
sustainability issues during the design period. Tis article will guide construction stakeholders in the selection of sustainable
building materials, specifcally masonry materials in the Ethiopian construction industry. Te research was carried out in the
Addis Ababa Lideta subcity, to identify sustainable building materials for masonry work. Te selection process is not depending
on a single factor rather it depends on multifactors. Te identifcation was carried out through exploring factors afecting the
selection of sustainable building materials for masonry work. Te weights of identifed factors were determined by pairwise
comparison among the factors under consideration. Te research is of the empirical type which uses mathematical formula,
matrix concept, and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a model. In this method, pairwise comparisons were made among the
criteria and subcriteria so that the weights of the criteria or subcriteria/or alternative on the bases of the indicated criteria were
computed. Ten, prioritization was made on the bases of the weight of the criteria. Finally, an alternative with a high score shall be
selected. Te article identifes the major factor afecting the selection of sustainable building materials for masonry work as social
beneft, performance capability, sustainability of the material to reduce environmental impact, waste minimization, resource
efciency, and life cycle cost of the material. Under each criterion, there are number of subcriteria contributed to them. On the
basis of the above criteria, 4 alternatives (stone, brick, CEB, and cement block) were proposed from which compressed Earth block
(CEB) was selected.
1. Introduction
Infrastructure development and housing projects generously
cover the landscape of modern Ethiopia. Even though there
are developments, the awareness of the stakeholders towards
the selection of sustainable construction materials is not
promoted and more of the consumed material is not en•
vironmentally friendly. According to Lomite and Kare, the
consumption of unsustainable raw materials by the con•
struction industry is accumulating day by day, resulting in
a depletion of natural resources and increasing environ•
mental impacts and CO
2
emissions all over the surroundings
[1, 2].
Construction professionals rely on some factors without
consideration for other factors during material selection. Tey
focus on only the proft they get without consideration for
performance, capability, and the environmental impacts of the
constructed facilities. Some of them rely on the cost•
minimization approach without considering the project re•
quirements. Tis mechanism is not a good approach because it
Hindawi
Advances in Civil Engineering
Volume 2023, Article ID 9729169, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/9729169