How to make decision-makers aware of sustainable construction?

Due to multi-criteria requirements in sustainable construction, complexity in decision-making processes is increasing. Limited awareness of systemic effects may lead to imprecise and/or wrong decisions early on in the design stage of building projects. At present, there is a lack of appropriate methods to manage a multicriteria decision-making process based on a systemic approach. In this article, a methodological approach for the support of decision-making in the early design stage is presented. Based on a grid of sustainability evaluation criteria, a systemic approach is applied and implemented in a three-level process model. The application of the presented process model allows the visualization of possible synergies and trade-offs by implementing sustainable construction. Depending on the expected quality level of the decision-makers’ goals, the most crucial life cycle processes can be highlighted additionally. The simplification of complex decision-making by visualizing holistic impacts should lead to increased awareness towards implementing sustainable construction.