How Exposure to ”Role Model” Projects Can Lead to Decisions for More Sustainable Infrastructure

Harris, Nora; Shealy, Tripp; Klotz, Leidy

doi:10.3390/su8020130

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Framing risks as loss or gain can raise uncertainty awareness of decision-makers and can nudge construction professionals away from riskier, more uncertain options and towards less risky and certain options [69]. Including a feasibility example or a role model project for construction professionals to use as a guide can encourage higher levels of sustainability achievement [70]. However, these behavioral interventions have not been tested across cultures or with those less aware of sustainable design and construction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Construction Risk Perceptions in the Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Ismael

Shealy

2018

Sustainability

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Sustainable construction is fundamentally different than traditional construction because it requires whole systems thinking, early collaboration across stakeholders, and core principles like reducing resource consumption, eliminating toxins, and applying life cycle costing. Construction professionals unfamiliar with this mindset and approach may perceive sustainable construction as risky. One of the global regions in need of more sustainable construction is the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region. The MENA region is one of the fastest developing in the world. However, it is the slowest one in implementing sustainable construction practices. Kuwait, in particular, contributes 53% more carbon emissions per capita than the United States. To understand how the Kuwaiti construction industry perceives risks associated with more sustainable construction, a survey was developed with 52 risk elements in which 131 industry professionals responded. The results indicate that industry professionals perceive a lack of public awareness as the risk element with the highest probability of occurrence. The risk element with the highest possible negative impact on future projects is designers' and contractors' inexperience with sustainable construction. Other risks were found to include a high initial cost for materials and overall project costs. Educational interventions, changes in risk allocation, and behavioral science to reframe upfront costs as long-term savings are offered as possible solutions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Construction Risk Perceptions in the Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Ismael

Shealy

2018

Sustainability

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“…Another way to influence social norms is through the use of a social reference, such as a role model. Professional engineers given a "role model" project that reached high levels of sustainability, increased engineers' consideration for sustainability in their own designs by more than 30% (Harris, Shealy, & Klotz, 2016). Related to MBCx, the choice architect could change perceived social norms through peer groups from different organization types that focus on successes and strategies for using MBCx.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive barriers during monitoring-based commissioning of buildings

Harris

Shealy

Parrish

et al. 2019

Sustainable Cities and Society

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Monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) is a continuous building energy management process used to optimize energy performance in buildings. Although monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) can reduce energy waste by up to 20%, many buildings still underperform due to issues such as unnoticed system faults and inefficient operational procedures. While there are technical barriers that impede the MBCx process, such as data quality, the focuses of this paper are the non-technical, behavioral and organizational, barriers that contribute to issues initiating and implementing MBCx. In particular, this paper discusses cognitive biases, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes in energy efficiency decisions, resulting in missed opportunities for energy savings. This paper provides evidence of cognitive biases in decisions during the MBCx process using qualitative data from over 40 public and private sector organizations. The results describe barriers resulting from cognitive biases, listed in descending order of occurrence, including: risk aversion, social norms, choice overload, status quo bias, information overload, professional bias, and temporal discounting. Building practitioners can use these results to better understand potential cognitive biases, in turn allowing them to establish best practices and make more informed decisions. Researchers can use these results to empirically test specific decision interventions and facilitate more energy efficient decisions.

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“…At the organizational level, a closer look at infrastructure project delivery could reveal opportunities for choice architecture to nudge designer and constructors towards a whole systems design approach. At the individual level, multiple empirical studies have resulted in an increased level of sustainability based on a choice architecture change [22,76,80,[83][84][85], which is further evidence that changes in choice architecture have the potential for a significant impact on the infrastructure design and construction industry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The role model project illustrated the feasibility of high levels of sustainable achievement. By manipulating Envision, a rating system for sustainable infrastructure [77], providing a positive role model, illustrating high levels of achievement, led engineering professionals to believe their projects could also meet a higher sustainability performance while a negative role model led to decreased performance when compared to a control group with no role model [22]. Using a role model as an intervention within a decision aid such as Envision is a form of choice architecture.…”

Section: Examples Of Choice Architecture Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although some may argue using designed choice architecture with aims to support a certain outcome could be considered paternalistic, choice architecture exists inherently within every display of information. Therefore, intentional or not, the choice architecture influences decisions about finance [19], medicine [20], law [21], and engineering [22].…”

Section: Choice Architecture and The Influence On Whole Systems Desigmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Choice Architecture as a Way to Encourage a Whole Systems Design Perspective for More Sustainable Infrastructure

2016

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Across fields, more sustainable and resilient outcomes are being realized through a whole systems design perspective, which guides decision-makers to consider the entire system affected including interdependent physical and social networks. Although infrastructure is extremely interdependent, consisting of diverse stakeholders and networks, the infrastructure design and construction process is often fragmented. This fragmentation can result in unnecessary tradeoffs, leading to poor outcomes for certain stakeholders and the surrounding environment. A whole systems design perspective would help connect this fragmented industry and lead to more sustainable outcomes. For example, a whole systems design approach to relieve traffic on a highway might see beyond the obvious, but often ineffective, response of adding a new vehicle lane to encourage a solution such as repurposing existing road lanes from automobiles to above-ground "subway" systems. This paper discusses influences to whole systems design and how intentional choice architecture, meaning the way decisions are posed, can nudge decision-makers to employ whole systems design and result in more sustainable infrastructure. By uncovering these influences and organizing them by the social, organizational, and individual levels of the infrastructure design process, this paper provides the needed foundation for interdisciplinary research to help harness these influences through choice architecture and whole systems design for the infrastructure industry.

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How Exposure to ”Role Model” Projects Can Lead to Decisions for More Sustainable Infrastructure

Cited by 24 publications

References 15 publications

Sustainable Construction Risk Perceptions in the Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Sustainable Construction Risk Perceptions in the Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Cognitive barriers during monitoring-based commissioning of buildings

Choice Architecture as a Way to Encourage a Whole Systems Design Perspective for More Sustainable Infrastructure

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