Integrating sustainability into construction project management: Barriers in developing countries

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore the barriers to integrating sustainability into construction project management in developing countries. To this end, a comprehensive review of the literature is conducted, as a result of which a list of 30 barriers is culled from existing studies. The list of barriers is subsequently assessed in terms of relative importance index (RII) through a survey questionnaire administered to Iranian construction industry experts, resulting in a dataset of 176 completed questionnaires. Findings bring to light the most influential barriers to incorporating sustainability in construction projects for a developing country. These were: (1) lack of understanding of the potential selfbenefits of proactivity and high economic risks that unsustainable practices may carry, (2) inadequate assessment of risks and a silo-based approach, namely, insufficient cooperation among practitioners, research institutions and environmental organisations and (3) the lack of a systematic approach to planning and acting for the fulfilment of sustainability goals. As one of the first studies in its kind, the paper offers invaluable insight for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers, in supporting the transition of construction project management practices towards fulfilling sustainable development goals.

Modelling the Construction Projects Implementation Barriers: A Structure Equation Modelling Approach

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Sustainability-Oriented Project Scheduling Based on Z-Fuzzy Numbers for Public Institutions

“…A sustainable project pre-planning phase was discussed in [18], including the observation that green project planning requires more effort than traditional project planning. The authors of [19] tried to list the barriers to integrating sustainability rules into construction projects. Lack of a systematic approach to sustainable project planning is on the list of barriers.…”

A Comparative Study of the Barriers to Implementing Environmentally Sustainable Practices in the UAE Construction Industry

“…Several worldwide studies have investigated barriers to implementing environmentally sustainable practices in the construction industry to address this issue. These have identified barriers like the implications of perceived costs, ignorance of its economic benefits, inappropriate building regulations, stakeholders who do not consider sustainability, insufficient knowledge of sustainable designs, client reluctance, lack of the correct data, unavailability of sustainable building materials, and the absence of the capacity to enforce and execute policies for sustainable construction projects (Whang and Kim, 2015;Plessis, 2005;Fathalizadeh et al, 2019;Trierweiller et al, 2012;Davies and Davies, 2017;Abolore, 2012;AlSanad, 2015;Masrom et al, 2017;Aghimien et al, 2018;Babatunde e al., 2020;Oke and Aigbavboa, 2017;Opoku et al, 2019;Hosseini et al, 2018).…”