Green Commercial Buildings for Benefits Realization in Nigerian Construction Industry

Abstract

Despite all the global stakeholders call for a paradigm shift from the traditional design and construction practices, green buildings awareness for greater client`s benefits realization is still lagging in the Nigerian construction industry. It is premise that, lack of adequate client awareness on the potential benefits realization and high costs associated with design and construction are seen to be key barriers in delivering green and sustainable buildings in the construction industry. Viewed from the concept of community of practice (CoP), it is the corporate social responsibility of the construction industry stakeholders to improve the current level of client`s awareness on green buildings and benefits realization. It is argued that a major set-back to green building programs adoption is the lack of public awareness. This paper seeks to assess the level of client`s awareness on green building designs and the potential long term benefits to be achieved by delivering green and sustainable buildings. The study adopts an inductive approach and qualitative method. The data for analysis was collated through interview with both informed and ill-informed in the Nigerian construction industry and analyzed using thematic analysis. In this paper, design and developing green buildings is seen to have a great potential to optimize client's/owners benefits realization, through energy efficiency; organizational level of productivity and minimize building lifecycle operation costs in Nigerian commercial buildings. This can only be achieved if the client is well informed of the benefits to be realized in short term and in the long term.

Sustainable Green Building Awareness: A Case Study of Kano Integrated with a Representative Comparison of Saudi Arabian Green Construction

“…This study finds that although there is awareness regarding green buildings in Kano, more efforts are required to enlighten the public about the sustainable benefits of it. These results are similar to the findings of [37], who also stated that there is green building awareness in the city, but the efforts on how to implement it are not enough on the part of both the clients and stakeholders. This results in the majority of property users, owners and investors injecting fewer funds into the green building market, and consequently this results in the rapid climate change caused by buildings and construction industries or activities around Kano.…”

“…The availability of green building features and green building development and design are viewed as providing a good opportunity to maximize client/owner achievement by using energy-efficient, organizational levels of performance, and by minimizing building lifespan expenses in both Nigerian residential and commercial structures. To accomplish this, the customer has to be adequately educated on the advantages that will be gained in both the long and short term [37]. Similarly, the availability of green building features per dwelling in this research also shows that houses have more than one feature of green building.…”