Integrating Green Specifications in Construction and Overcoming Barriers in Their Use
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 135, Issue 4
Abstract
The use of green specifications as a contractual tool to promote sustainable development should be adopted in the construction industry. The definition and characteristics of green specifications are presented in conjunction with the results of a cross-sectional survey on the possible barriers to their implementation. Generally, construction stakeholders agree that environmental considerations should be included in construction specifications but their underlying motive may be simply for satisfying mandatory requirements. Among the potential barriers identified, the additional cost associated with green requirements is perceived to be the most dominant barrier, followed by possible delay and a limited pool of competent suppliers. Although the crucial barriers based on overall responses were identified, different groups of stakeholders have shown their concerns on particular barriers. Hence, their concerns should be addressed with due regard to these differences during implementation of green specifications. Based on the results of this study, a database and a new market mechanism for green specifications are recommended for adoption by the construction industry.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Intra-Faculty Competitive Allocation of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. UNSPECIFIEDG-YF07).
References
Arditi, D., and Gunaydin, H. M. (1997). “Total quality management in the construction process.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 15(4), 235–243.
Arditi, D., and Pattanakitchamroon, T. (2006). “Selecting delay analysis method in resolving construction claims.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 24, 145–155.
Augenbroe, G., Pearce, A. R., Guy, B., and Kibert, C. J. (1998). Sustainable Construction in the United States of America: A perspective to the year 2010, Construction Research Centre, Ga.
Ball, J. (2002). “Can ISO 14000 and ecolabeling turn the construction industry green?” Build. Environ., 37, 421–428.
Barbour Index (2005). “The Barbour report 2004.” United Business Media, Berkshire, Windsor.
Berge, B., and Henley, F. (2000). The ecology of building materials, Architectural Press, Boston.
California Energy Commission. (2007). “Draft scope of work for contract opportunity notice 500–06–505 green building specification.” Homepage of State of California—The Resource Agency, ⟨http://www.energy.ca.gov/contracts/CON_500-06-505/CON_500-06-505_DRAFT-SOW.PDF⟩ (Apr. 19, 2007).
Chan, D. W. M., and Kumaraswamy, M. M. (2002). “Compressing construction durations: Lessons learned from Hong Kong building projects.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 20, 23–35.
Chan, E. H. W. (1996). “Conflict between architect and contractor on contract information.” The HKIA Journal, 3, 1st quarter, 27–31.
Chen, J. J., and Chambers, D. (1999). “Sustainability and the impact of Chinese policy initiatives upon construction.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 17, 679–687.
Chick, A., and Micklethwaite, P. (2002). Incorporating recycled materials into design specification, Kingston University, London.
Cole, R. J., and Larsson, N. (2000). “Green building challenge: Lessons learned from GBC 1998 and GBC 2000.” Proc., Int. Conf. Sustainable Building 2000, Maastrict, The Netherlands.
Collins, R. J. (1994). “Specifications and the efficient use of mineral resources in construction.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. of CIB TG 16, Tampa, Florida, 775–782.
Crawley, D., and Aho, I. (1999). “Building environmental assessment methods: Applications and development trends.” Build. Res. Inf., 27(4/5), 300–308.
CRISP. (2007). “Construction and city related sustainability indicators.” ⟨http:cii.vtt.fi⟩ (July 10, 2007).
Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD). (2007). “Energy efficiency labeling scheme.” Homepage of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, ⟨http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/eng/pee/eels.shtml⟩ (June 6, 2007).
Garnett, N., and Pickrell, S. (2000). “Benchmarking for construction: Theory and practice.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 18, 55–63.
Harmon, K. (2003). “Resolution of construction disputes: A review of current methodologies.” Leadership Manage. Eng., 3(4), 187–201.
Hill, R. C., and Bowen, P. A. (1997). “Sustainable construction: Principles and a framework for attainment.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 15(3), 223–239.
HK-BEAM Society. (2008). “Hong Kong Environmental Assessment Method.” ⟨www.hk-beam.org.hk⟩ (Sept. 18, 2008).
Kanji, G. K. (1993). 100 statistical tests, Sage Publications, London, Newbury Park, New Delhi.
Kululanga, G. K., and Price, D. F. (2005). “Measuring quality of writing of construction specifications.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(8), 859–865.
Kumaraswamy, M. M. (1997). “Common categories and causes of construction claims.” Constr. Law J., 13(1), 21–34.
Kunzlik, P. (2003). “The environmental performance of public procurement: Issues of policy coherence.” N. Johnstone, ed., 1st Ed., Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 157–235.
Lam, P. T. I., Chan, E. H. W., Chau, C. K., Poon, C. S., and Chun, K. P. (2008). “An overview of the development of green specifications in the construction industry.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Urban Sustainability (CD-ROM), Hong Kong College of Technology, Hong Kong.
Love, P. E. D., Holt, G. D., Shen, L. Y., Li, H., and Irani, Z. (2002). “Using systems dynamics to better understand change and rework in construction project management systems.” Int. J. Proj. Manag., 20, 425–436.
Meryman, H., and Silman, R. (2004). “Sustainable engineering—Using specifications to make it happen.” Struct. Eng. Int. (IABSE, Zurich, Switzerland), 14(3), 216–219.
Ofori, G., and Kien, H. L. (2004). “Translating Singapore architects' environmental awareness into decision making.” Build. Res. Inf., 32(1), 27–37.
Pearce, A. R., and Vanegas, J. A. (2002). “A parametric review of the built environment sustainability literature.” Int. J. Environ. Technol. Manage., 2(1–3), 54–93.
Pierce, P. (2000). “Technology and aesthetic issues related to covered bridge preservation.” Structures Congress 2000 (CD-ROM), Advanced Technology in Structural Engineering.
Pollington, C. (1999). “Legal and procurement practices for sustainable development.” Build. Res. Inf., 27(6), 409–411.
Sanotos, J. R. A. (1999). “Cronbach’s alpha: A tool for assessing the reliability of scales.” Journal of Extension, 37(2), 1–5.
Siegel, S., and Castellan, N. J. (1988). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioural sciences, 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York.
Tan, A. T. T., Ofori, G., and Briffett, C. (1999). “ISO 14000: Its relevance to the construction industry of Singapore and its potential as the next industry milestone.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 17, 449–461.
Thormark, C. (2002). “A low energy building in a life cycle—Its embodied energy, energy need for operation, and recycling potential.” Build. Environ., 37, 429–435.
Underwood, J., Alshaw, M. A., Aouad, G., Child, T., and Faraj, I. Z. (2000). “Enhancing building product libraries to enable the dynamic definition of design element specifications.” Eng. Constr. Archit. Manage., 7(4), 373–388.
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). (2008) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), USGBC, ⟨www.usgbc.org⟩ (May 16, 2008).
Vanegas, J. A., and Pearce, A. R. (1997). “Sustainable design and construction strategies for the built environment.” Proc., the 1997 NESEA Conference, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Boston.
Vrijhoef, R., and Koskela, L. (2000). “The four roles of supply chain management in construction.” European J. Purchasing & Supply Management, 6, 169–178.
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). “Our common future.” Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, UN, Oslo.
Yik, F. W. H., Burnett, J., Jones, P., and Lee, W. L. (1998). “Energy performance criteria in the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method.” Energy Build., 27(2), 207–219.
Yogewaran, K. (1998). “Sources, causes, and minimization of contractual claims in civil engineering projects in Hong Kong.” Ph.D. thesis, The Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 135 • Issue 4 • October 2009
Pages: 142 - 152
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 20, 2008
Accepted: Apr 20, 2009
Published online: Sep 15, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.