Social sustainability in construction : an explorative study

The construction industry has massive impacts on the society, environmentally, economically and socially. Sustainability has been an important issue being considered by both industry and academia. However, existing sustainability studies in construction are largely related to the environmental and economic aspects. Social sustainability seems missing from the research radar. A qualitative approach is adopted in this study to explore the social sustainability issues in the construction sector. Particular focuses are placed on the attitudes of industry professionals on social impacts of construction activities and the measurement of social performance of construction projects. The results show that there is a reasonable level of willingness from industry practitioners to take these issues into consideration in their projects. This study also highlighted 26 criteria to measure social sustainability in construction context. These criteria form a basis for the evaluation of social sustainability performance for construction related enterprises. Limitations of this study are also discussed.