Barriers to sustainable development: Critical social factors influencing the sustainable building development based on Swedish experts' perspectives

Abstract

Sustainable construction plays a major role in sustainable development. However, the investment rate in sustainable buildings has decreased in recent years. Considering that social factors are one of the important factors influencing the sustainable building development, this paper highlighted the most impactful social factors affecting the sustainable building development based on the opinions of the industry experts from Sweden. Therefore, social challenges and barriers to sustainable building development were investigated using research methods of literature review, questionnaire survey, and statistical analysis using SPSS software. Eventually, after ranking and analyzing the social barriers from the perspectives of the construction industry practitioners from Sweden, possible measures were suggested accordingly.Findings showed that the most important social factors affecting the sustainable building development in Sweden were, "poor communication and lack of common understanding and interests among designers, contractors and project stakeholders," "resistance to change from conventional to sustainable buildings' and "lack of demand for sustainable buildings," respectively. As a result, effective communication management and information sharing and use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for enhancing communication and collaboration between stakeholders; government support; more incentives and environmental policy; in addition to more education and awareness regarding the benefits of sustainable buildings and stakeholder engagement at early stages of the project for alignment of goals and creating common understanding and interests were suggested as effective measures in reducing these barriers and for further adoption of sustainable buildings.

Dynamics between environmental taxes and ecological sustainability: Evidence from top‐seven green economies by novel quantile approaches

“…Currently, the world's economic activity and population are expanding swiftly, leading to a spike in environmental deterioration and a growing focus on the issue. The increased prominence of ecological concerns required the studies on the consequences of different ecological policy measures in order to meet SDGs (Dalirazar & Sabzi, 2022). Analyzing the ecological strategy adoption, it is evident that legal legislation, including compulsory rules backed by multiple restrictions, has been primarily applied to avoid the escalation of environmental deterioration (Cheng et al, 2021; Muhammad et al, 2021).…”

Development of a Green Competency Matrix Based on Civil Servants’ Perception of Sustainable Development Expertise

“…Other research studies have shown that the implementation of sustainability principles in the private sector is a serious concern [33], so managers tend to assign sustainability tasks, responsibilities or competences to all occupations, according to their specific tasks [6,34] or market conditions [35][36][37].…”

Defining and measuring the effects of digital technologies on social sustainability: A systematic literature review

“…job opportunities, improving participation in creating community capacities, reducing impact on cultural and historical heritage." (Dalirazar & Sabzi, 2022) 4. "Social sustainability is perceived as a sustainable development principle aimed at achieving equality and reducing poverty through job creation and education, empowerment and freedom, preservation of diversity, protection and promotion of human rights, equity and health and safety."…”