scholarly journals Implementing Sustainable Construction Principles and Practices by Key Stakeholders

Author(s):  
Nnamdi Maduka ◽  
David Greenwood ◽  
Allan Osborne ◽  
Chika Udeaja

The term äóÖsustainable constructionäó» is used to highlight the responsibility of the construction industry in attaining sustainable development (SD). With the increasing necessity for resource efficiency and climate change adaptation, there is a need for construction key stakeholders to implement sustainable principles and practices in construction projects. In the UK context, engaging in such action will facilitate the government target of 80% greenhouse gas reduction by 2050 and also be a potential source of competitive advantage in the future. The aim of this study is to examine how the industry values and promotes sustainable principles and practices in construction projects. A quantitative research method was adopted in order to reach a wider audience in the industry. An online questionnaire survey was used to collect data. The key finding from the survey is that the level of construction industry promotion of sustainable principles and practices is less than it should be. The outcome of the survey suggests that the industry needs to strategise on how to champion and promote the implementation of sustainable principles and practices at a greater level if the industry is to contribute to the global quest for SD.

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Opoku ◽  
Vian Ahmed

Purpose – Adopting sustainable construction practices minimizes the overall environmental impact of the built asset throughout its whole life. Currently, there is demand from key stakeholders in the construction industry for organization to deliver sustainable built environment, however, leaders/champions within construction organizations charged with the adoption of sustainable construction practices face many challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an investigation into the challenges facing intra-organizational leaders charged with the promotion of sustainable construction practices. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interview with 15 leaders, followed by an industry-wide survey of 200 intra-organizational leaders in contractor and consultant organizations in the UK construction industry. Findings – The results revealed that increased capital cost is the most significant challenge facing construction organizations in attempt to adopt sustainability practices in the delivery of construction projects. Originality/value – This study provides the empirical evidence linking leadership within construction organizations and sustainability; filling the gap in literature and serving as a source of reference material for higher education programmes in the built environment.


Author(s):  
Abdussalam Shibani ◽  

2020 is a special year, this year the world’s economy has become extremely unstable because of the arrival of COVID-19. Idiosyncratic shocks have hit the global economy. The stock market has suspended, companies have closed, unemployment has soared, every industry has faced the biggest crisis since the Second World War. The British construction industry is certainly no exception. This time it will be the victim of this epidemic and the financial crisis. Compared with the European and American countries, the impact of the epidemic in Asia (Malaysia and China) is relatively light. The development of the epidemic situation in these countries has been controlled relatively effectively and strictly controlled. They are inextricably linked. However, the impact of construction projects in any area under the epidemic, the countermeasures adopted by the government, the epidemic prevention measures adopted by the company and the risk prevention strategy are very different. Therefore, under different circumstances, whether it is from the construction industry managers themselves or government policymakers, it is essential to apply correct and valid management measures to face the projects under construction under the epidemic actively. Simultaneously, collect statistics from questionnaire surveys of three countries in the region, then get an experimental result. Besides, different countries have different policies and forms of epidemic development. So, this research will summarize the corresponding policies and coping strategies of the project. It based on statistics of Malaysia and Chinese construction Projects, surveys for five projects to make comparisons than do statistics to the survey result.


Author(s):  
Nurazri Razali ◽  
◽  
Natasha Khalil ◽  
Asmah Alia Mohamad Bohari ◽  
Husrul Nizam Husin ◽  
...  

In the concern of sustainability and increasing awareness of environmental degradation, the Malaysian government has promoted numerous initiatives on green growth and green procurement (GP) to maintain and minimize the ecological effects in construction. However, this initiative is still in the infancy stage as to date, there is no specific guideline delineated to the construction industry, and it has yet to be enforced by the government to the construction practitioners. In construction, green procurement is a new area, and immediate actions are needed upon the principles, guidelines, and policy and implementation framework. Hence, this research aims to analyse the readiness level, barriers, and key catalysts among construction enablers towards adopting green procurement in the construction industry. Questionnaires were distributed to 102 construction enablers, focusing on quantity surveying firms in the Klang Valley area (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor), and 87 returned the responses. The analysis uses descriptive statistics via mean score, and the standard deviation was used to measure the variables and the mean's dispersion. It is revealed that the consultants are ready to adopt green procurement. However, GP's implementation's top challenges are lack of internal expertise, low awareness about green procurement, and lack of established best practices, standardized procedures and guidelines. It can be summarized that promoting GP and its implementation requires government support in policies, initiatives, and incentives. As the current practice is fragmented, ideally, GP's adoption in construction projects needs to conform to the acceptable standards that enable specific provisions to acquire eco-friendly sustainable construction.


The value management concept is becoming increasingly relevant to the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study to analyse the technical knowledge of value management practitioners concerning the sustainability aspects and its implementation all over the country. A quantitative research design used to analyse the application of value management among stakeholders associated with construction projects. The results shown that 10% of consultants and 8% of the contractors were having a useful application of value management; while, 4% consultants and 6% contractors have full maturity of the value management application. The findings have shown that unqualified individuals (24%), lack of client’s experience (24%) and not part of the project (17%) are the main reasons behind the restriction of value management implementation. Despite the implications of value management is extensive in developed and developing countries, the Saudi construction industry needs to increase the level of application of value management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangdong Wu ◽  
Guofeng Qiang ◽  
Jian Zuo ◽  
Xianbo Zhao ◽  
Ruidong Chang

Mega sustainable construction projects (MSCPs) require complex system engineering. There are various indicators available to evaluate sustainable construction, and it is difficult to determine which the key indicators are among them. Existing studies do not adequately consider the stakeholders associated with the indicators of sustainable construction, leading to key decision-makers’ lack of targeted management strategies to improve the sustainability level of MSCPs. Using literature analysis and expert interviews, this study identified the key evaluation indicators of MSCPs from a stakeholder-network perspective. Social network analysis (SNA) was used to explore the relationships between the key evaluation indicators and corresponding stakeholders. The results showed that the government and designers significantly impacted other stakeholders and played as the key stakeholders in MSCPs. Regarding the indicators, applying energy-saving and intelligent technologies plays a key role in the MSCPs. This study links key indicators of MSCPs with the associated stakeholders, which helps decision-makers to develop targeted strategies to improve the sustainability level of MSCPs, thereby not only improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the intervention strategies, but also helping to save decision-makers’ monetary and human resources which are usually limited.


2011 ◽  
Vol 243-249 ◽  
pp. 6339-6343
Author(s):  
Guang Bin Wang ◽  
Gui You He ◽  
Li Bian

Due to the great negative impact, the construction industry needs to undergo a paradigm shift from traditional construction to sustainable construction. To reach the goal of sustainable development, the construction industry needs to intensify its efforts to move to a knowledge intensive mode. Based on the analysis of e-Cognos and the concept of ontology, this paper proposes that e-Cognos ontology can be applied in the development of sustainable construction process ontology, which is a key part of knowledge management system (KMS). Following this, the application process of ontology-based KMS is analyzed using IDEF0 modeling method. Finally, this paper analyzes interorganizational collaboration model in sustainable project.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marios Stanitsas ◽  
Konstantinos Kirytopoulos

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the underlying factors that give rise to the set of sustainability indicators which are used for the implementation of sustainable construction projects and eventually the production of sustainable built assets.Design/methodology/approachTo accomplish the purpose of this research, an online questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 200 experts. By employing the statistical method of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), five distinct dimensions (factors) of stakeholders' attitudes were revealed.FindingsThe findings indicate that the sustainability indicators are based on five underlying factors, namely (1) sustainable competitiveness; (2) stakeholder engagement; (3) sustainable economic growth; (4) social sustainability; and (5) resource conservation and environmental policy.Research limitations/implicationsMore studies would be welcome to verify the underlying factors revealed in this paper.Practical implicationsThe knowledge of the underlying factors enables senior management to maintain a balance of choices during the project management (PM) phase in order to implement and deliver sustainable construction projects. Furthermore, the findings deepen the understanding toward sustainable PM practices by providing insights on its core attributes.Originality/valueAs a theoretical contribution to knowledge, this study enhances the body of knowledge by revealing the underlying factors that give rise to the predefined set of the 82 sustainability indicators which are used to enable sustainable construction projects. In practice, the findings aid senior management in adopting strategies that enhance the delivery of sustainable construction projects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (S1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Mohd Shazreen Seman ◽  
Mohd Reza Esa ◽  
Mohd Reeza Yusof

In recent decades, the construction industry has been widely criticized for its lack of efficiency and productivity, and it has been shown that the Malaysian construction industry records poor quality on its projects. To overcome this issue, the Technical Committee on Quality Assessment in Construction with the support of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has introduced Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC). QLASSIC is a scoring system that is used to assess and evaluate the performance of construction buildings. It is based on the Construction Industry Standard (CIS 7:2006). Unfortunately, this assessment system had poor implementation since its introduction in November 2006. QLASSIC was not extensively implemented and was taken lightly by the contractors and developers in Malaysia. There are still a huge number of contractors that are not aware of QLASSIC even the big construction companies. Thus, this research is aimed at investigating the contractor’s perspective towards the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry in Malaysia. Three objectives are developed to achieve the aim: (1) identification of the needs to implement QLASSIC; (2) investigation of issues and challenges to implement QLASSIC and (3) recommendation of strategies to implement QLASSIC. Structured questionnaire surveys were distributed to the G7 and G6 contractors in the Klang Valley area; which may have or may not have experience in implementing QLASSIC in their projects. The result revealed that majority of the respondents were aware and understand the needs of QLASSIC implementation, but there were still few who were unfamiliar with the QLASSIC. The current level of implementation of QLASSIC in Malaysia is still not satisfactory due to several issues and challenges acting as barriers to its implementation. Therefore, the initiatives from the government are important to promote QLASSIC implementation in the construction industry. By doing this, the contractors would be aware of the implementation of QLASSIC in the construction industry. The significance of this research is that it will assist contractors and other construction players in comprehending the implications and importance of QLASSIC implementation.


Author(s):  
Habeeb Kusimo ◽  
Lukumon Oyedele ◽  
Olugbenga Akinade ◽  
Ahmed Oyedele ◽  
Sofiat Abioye ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges faced in resource management in the UK construction industry and to propose some solutions to these problems. Design/methodology/approach Based on a qualitative research methodology, 14 experts from the UK construction industry were chosen to be participants in the study. The participants were equally divided into two focus groups to discuss resource management using five projects as case studies. Thematic analysis of the discussion reveals seven key factors that affect resource management. Findings The results show that most of the problems identified are due to poor data management processes and the practice of having data in silos. Overcoming this challenge requires the adoption of big data approaches for resource management to allow the integration of large and different forms of data. Originality/value This study seeks to bring to the fore challenges faced in resource management by the UK construction industry and to outline some solutions to address them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 251 ◽  
pp. 05017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azariy Lapidus ◽  
Ivan Abramov

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis and the complicated international situation, the government pays great attention to reforming the construction industry, creating the conditions for adapting construction firms to the existing situation and associated entrepreneurial and production risks. Concurrently, as the ever-increasing competition places higher requirements on potential participants in construction projects under state-financed and municipal contracts, new laws and regulations are being developed and improved, and bidding rules are systemized and optimized to help select the most reliable contractors resistant to various impacts. The purpose of this paper is to describe the term “sustainability of a construction firm” and to set the tasks of research into the ways of increasing sustainability of construction firms based on efficient organization of construction operations and up-to-date production and labor technology. The scientific problem suggested for review lies in ensuring guaranteed sustainability of construction firms amid uncertainties of construction operations. This paper focuses on research into and the methods for determining a correlation between sustainability of a construction firm and its resource potential that depends on a number of diverse factors.


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