Incorporating sustainable procurement practices in the Sri Lankan construction industry :

Abstract

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), new thinking is essential. This applies to every country in the world who is a signatory to the United Nations 2030 Agenda and cuts across all key sectors. In line with the 2030 Agenda, the Government of Sri Lanka adopted the Sustainable Development Goals agenda in September 2015, which includes 17 goals. (Government of Sri Lanka, 2017) The Construction industry dominate the major share in all of the goals. However, the disregard of the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability is a major drawback within the current construction procurement practice (Ruparathna & Hewage, 2015). Though sustainable procurement practices are a developing concept within the construction industry, it has the potential to enhance the performance of sustainability requirements within the industry. There is little to no methodology to incorporate sustainable procurement elements in construction procurement within Sri Lanka. Sustainable procurement is not a popular topic in available literature. An empirical study that focuses directly on this topic in Sri Lanka is still to be carried out. Hence, a study on the sustainable procurement practices in the construction industry within Sri Lanka is timely and necessary. This study attempts to evaluate current practices, challenges and benefits to implement sustainable requirements during construction procurement. For this purpose, an online questionnaire survey covering public, private, semi-government and international organizations was conducted as a means of collecting data. The responses that were received constituted of diverse groups and ages within the construction sector. A statistical analysis software was used to rank the responses and to conduct the cross analysis. Results of the analysis revealed that “Legislation (Government and regulations)” is the main driver of implementing sustainable factors in procurement while “Lack of funding” and “Unwillingness to incur higher capital cost” ranked as the main barrier for the implementation of sustainable procurement. “Reduction in harmful emissions and waste generation” ranked on top as main benefits of sustainable procurement.