A Model for Assessing the Feasibility of Construction Project in Contributing to the Attainment of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Construction activity is commonly considered to have adverse impacts on the environment, which is the basis of sustainable development for human being. It is considered that the proper development and operation of a construction project can make significant contribution to the mission of sustainable development. However, the existing difficulty is the lack of the guidance for implementing sustainable development principles in construction business. Whilst the concept of sustainable construction has become popular in research, there is little existing work providing methods to assess the degree of the contribution of developing a construction project to the attainment of sustainable development. This paper develops an alternative quantitative model for assessing the feasibility that a construction project involves in contributing to sustainable development. The development of the model is based on the general principle of sustainable development, which carries three dimensions, namely, economic, environmental, and social development. The model is proposed for the application at project feasibility stage when project investment decision is made. A practical case is used to demonstrate the application of the developed model.

Sustainable construction practice and contractors’ competitiveness: A preliminary study

“…Special emphasis has been placed on the attempts for reducing waste generation and improving techniques in minimization of the harmful effects of construction activities on the environment. Many research efforts have been done on environmental concerns in the construction industry, including impacts of rapid infrastructure growth on the environment (Shen & Zhang, 2002;Zhang, Shen, & Scott, 2000); examination on the waste flows and control on construction sites (Shen, Tam, Tam, & Drew, 2004;Tam, Shen, Fung, & Wang, 2007); approaches for assessing the feasibility of a construction projects in contributing to the attainment of sustainable development (Shen, Wu, & Wang, 2002); assessment of sustainable performance of construction projects and contractor activities (Shen, Lu, Yao, & Wu, 2005;Shen & Tam, 2002;Shen, Wu, Chan, & Hao, 2005;Shen & Yao, 2006;Tam, Tam, Shen, Zeng, & Ho, 2006).…”

Developing a project sustainability index for sustainable development in transnational public–private partnership projects

“…Environmental category refers to conserving and managing resources as well as contributing to the environmental protection of the project location, whereas the social factors mean respecting human rights and equal opportunities and improving the community development (Bjärstig, 2017). The three groups of categorizing sustainability factors have also been employed in other related research studies (Shen, Wu, & Wang, 2002;Ugwu, Kumaraswamy, Wong, & Ng, 2006); for example, Martens and Carvalho (2017) developed a cross-model analysis by adopting the three-P concept. Similarly, Yu et al (2018) reviewed 26 related papers and identified 38 sustainability factors for PPP projects, which were categorized according to the three-P concept.…”

Comprehensive Evaluation on the Sustainability of Construction Projects

“…In fact, only through making great efforts to enhance microscopic areas of research and practice can the macro and meso level sustainable development be implemented. Among various kinds of projects, construction projects are commonly considered to have adverse impacts on the natural environment which is the basis of sustainable development for human beings (Tse 2001;Shen et al 2002). Hence the concept of sustainability should be at the center of all construction projects, whatever their scale.…”

“…There is little existing work providing methods to assess the degree of the contribution of developing a construction project to the attainment of sustainable development (Shen et al 2002). It would be understandable if it was just a matter of technology, but the lack of attention paid to the urgency and importance of such research is not excusable, it makes the lack of the guidance for implementing sustainable development in construction industry.…”