PurposeRecent reports based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have revealed that no country is in line with achieving the targets of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, with the slowest progress being witnessed mainly on goals that are focused on the environment. This study examines environmental performance indicators for assessing the sustainability of building projects.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses an explanatory sequential design with an initial quantitative instrument phase, followed by a qualitative data collection phase. An extensive critical comparative review of the literature resulted in the identification of ten environmental sustainability indicators. One hundred and sixty-seven questionnaire responses based upon these indicators from the Ghanaian construction industry were received. Data were coded with SPSS v22, analysed descriptively, and via inferential analysis. These data were then validated through semi-structured interviews with six interviewees who are fellows of their respective professional bodies, a senior academic (professor in construction project delivery) and a government official. Data obtained from the semi-structured validation interviews were analysed through the side-by-side comparison of the qualitative data with the quantitative data.FindingsThe findings from the study suggest that all the indicators were important in assessing building projects' environmental sustainability across the entire life cycle. Key among the identified indicators is the effects of the project on “water quality, air quality, energy use and conservation, and environmental compliance and management”. The interviewees further agreed to and confirmed the importance of these identified indicators for assessing the environmental sustainability of building projects in Ghana.Originality/valueCompared to existing studies, this study adopts the exploratory sequential design to identify and examine the critical indicators in assessing the environmental sustainability across the entire lifecycle of building projects in a typical developing country setting, i.e. Ghana. It reveals areas of prime concern in the drive to place the local construction industry on a trajectory towards achieving environmental sustainability.
Offsite Construction (OSC) continues to gain popularity for faster, safer, cheaper and more sustainable construction project delivery. An improved quality performance is a chief selling point in the advocacy for the widespread adoption of OSC. Paradoxically, quality issues that arise in OSC projects can be extremely costly. However, quality management (QM) is underexplored in the growing OSC literature. This paper critically reviews the QM of OSC literature to uncover the state-of-the-art and proffer recommendations for future research. 38 articles, selected from Scopus and Web of Science, published from 2009 to 2021 and distributed across 20 journals, were selected through a systematic literature review supplemented by a snowball search. An overview of QM of OSC research is provided based on the yearly distribution of articles, country/territory of affiliation, journal sources, OSC types, project life cycle stages and technologies utilised. The findings revealed a growing interest in the sub-domain. The articles were categorised under six topics: post-production quality assessment, rework and defect management, quality risk management, process improvement, requirements management and quality performance factors. This paper also proposes future research directions based on the prevailing knowledge gaps.
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