*2.3. Challenges and Opportunities for Measuring SDGs in the Construction Industry*

As discussed above, there is evidence of an increasing interest, and in some cases demand, for promoting SDG measurement in the construction industry [19,20], with one report [14] that surveyed 325 engineers having a 95% demand from practitioners, who said that this was "very important" to them, with only 30% stating that they had adequate tools, processes and systems to measure them at project level. The survey [14] indicated four primary shortfalls for measuring SDGs on infrastructure projects, namely, leadership (1), tools and methods (2), engineers' business skills in measuring SDG impact (3) and how project success is too narrowly defined as outputs (such as time, cost and scope) and not outcomes (longer-term local impacts and stakeholder value) (4). This highlights that there are several challenges that impede the practical measurement of SDGs on projects, which need to be fully acknowledged.

Whilst there is still a limited body of research on the limitations of SDG measurement, there is much that can be learned from the measurement of sustainability on projects, and this is transferable to the SDG research. For example, Arif et al. [28] identified that there is often limited sustainability knowledge, especially amongst senior leaders, and this results in weaker understanding and impact assessments of related themes, such as poverty, environmental issues, supply chain adherence to sustainability best practice, cultural evaluation, technological deficiencies and limitations of research in depth and breadth, all of which have a negative influence on the valuation of sustainability, both as an

investment lens and a delivery approach. A further barrier to the use of SDGs, which potentially mirrors sustainable construction, is what some authors have suggested is a lack of capacity and capability to implement effective and efficient sustainability [29]. Considering the aforementioned literature, it is possible to synthesise the third proposition related to SDGs in the context of the challenges and opportunities for measuring SDGs in the construction industry as follows.

**Proposition 3 (P3).** *Although there is knowledge of the importance of sustainability on infrastructure projects, there is a lack of awareness of how to measure the performance of infrastructure against the SDGs.*
