Exploring the Landscape: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in the Construction Industry

Corporate sustainability practices fueled by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting have been gaining popularity in corporate settings. Driven by environmentally conscious investors, communities, and other various stakeholders, critical investments are being made to set and achieve ambitious sustainability goals. The construction industry is not an exception to this trend. While ESG frameworks and standards suggest general road maps about ESG metrics and various disclosures, the implementation and reported topics vary widely among construction companies. Similarly, the research on the landscape and status of ESG in the construction industry has been limited and infrequent. This exploratory research paper seeks to take a step toward laying out the status of sustainability within the industry. Through semi-structured interviews with corporate leaders in large construction companies, common sustainability practices, challenges, and opportunities were identified. These interviews were also used to elucidate key disclosure topics and best practices in the construction industry. This study will be beneficial to industry professionals to navigate the ESG landscape and benchmark against the exploratory baseline presented. Academics could develop this exploratory research further to suggest standardizations to ESG practices for industry-wide consistency, benchmarking, and improvement.