Sustainable project management for green construction: challenges, impact and solutions

Abstract

With augmenting cognizance of environmental issues and growing concern over climate change, sustainable construction is gradually put forth globally. However, construction of green buildings in Singapore still encounters impediments as there is a lack of proper project management framework for such projects. Based on the survey and interview results from 31 industry experts, this study aims to identify common challenges encountered during management of green construction projects and their impact on project performances, ultimately proposing some solutions to overcome the barriers. Findings from this study are: (1) main dissimilarities between conventional and green construction projects exist, especially in the level of details and communication required; (2) there is no paucity in sustainable knowledge in the Singapore construction industry; however, challenges against implementation of the knowledge exist, influencing project performances, and the lack of investment on management of green building construction is the most paramount barrier; and finally (3) to overcome the barriers, a project management framework for green building construction should be developed, possibly promoting adoption of sustainable management approaches for future green building projects.