Integrating culture into sustainable development (SD) has been an ongoing research topic, but has not yet been of interest to the green building community. Existing green building programs, including standards, certification and auditing schemes, focus on technical assessment. By assuming that a building is a cultural resource, which reflects the past and shapes the future of a society, we added cultural sustainability for green buildings by recognizing the three roles of cultural SD proposed by COST Action Cultural Sustainability: (1) culture in SD' - a fourth dimension to be safeguarded; (2) culture for SD'- a mediating and balancing factor for other dimensions; and (3) culture as SD' - an essential foundation to achieve SD. We proposed cultural sustainability criteria and indicators as a framework to be adopted by green building communities through an in-depth review of the relevant indicator systems, ecosystem services, sustainable regional/urban planning and existing green building programs. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment