Collaboration among project participants towards sustainable construction : a Hong Kong study

This paper shows that management has dominant influences on sustainable construction practices in Hong Kong. Improving construction business performance along with sustainable development is widely appreciated. Major factors affecting sustainable performance are social, economic and environmental considerations. This has led to the development of various management approaches to advise construction participants on how to improve their performance with a view of bringing satisfactory project sustainable performance across the full construction project life cycle. In particular, methods to improve environmental performance in construction have been extensively investigated. Recent studies have presented methods to mitigate barriers in implementing environmental management in construction. However, these studies are driven by examining the nature of construction activities rather than the management strategies that drive sustainable practice. This paper examines management-related reasons which hinder the implementation of sustainable construction in practice. A construction project participant collaboration framework is developed to improve communication among project participants towards sustainable construction implementation. Future opportunities and challenges are identified for various parties engaging in construction activities to provide effective contributions to sustainable development. This research work also provides useful references in examining sustainable construction practice.