How To Promote And Manage Sustainability In Construction: Strategies For Project Managers

Gain adequate sustainability knowledge

Construction industry has huge impacts on the environment and society, which makes sustainability to be of great importance to project managers in charge of construction projects. In order to attain all benefits of sustainability, the entire project team has to coordinate at each stage of the construction project so that the facility being built is planned, designed, constructed, operated and maintained by considering sustainability aspects. One of the key stakeholders that have an important role to play in ensuring that sustainability issues are promoted and properly integrated in the project during design stage is the project manager. Any decisions made by project managers during design stage have great impacts on the final design that will be adopted (Alias, Isa and Samad, 2014).  For this reason, project managers can use a variety of strategies to coordinate other stakeholders involved in the project during the design stage and promote and manage sustainability in construction projects. Therefore the following are some of these strategies:

This is rather obvious because sustainability in construction can only be promoted and managed by project managers who have adequate knowledge about sustainability. In most cases, integrating sustainability in construction involves use of new and complex processes that can only be managed by knowledgeable project managers (Zhang, Shen and Wu, 2011). Therefore project managers should gain adequate sustainability knowledge in order to be in a better position of coordinating the entire project team and promoting and managing sustainability issues especially during design stage.      

It is important for project managers to assist clients in developing clear goals and stating priorities at very early stages of the project. When these goals are developed early enough, it eliminates or reduces chances of making changes at later stages of the project and their associated delays, conflicts and costs (Robinchaud and Anantamula, 2011). So project managers need to assist clients in developing goals and priorities that promote sustainability.   

Incorporating sustainability aspects in construction projects requires use of new approaches and tools that are different from those used in traditional construction projects. Therefore project managers should evaluate different design approaches and tools and choose those that will improve integration of sustainability.   

Since clients are the ones who determine what should be built and provide the required finances, it is very important for project managers to make them understand the value they will get from integrating sustainability in the project. If clients are made to understand the value of sustainability, they are likely to provide full support needed to incorporate sustainability in the design and other stages of the project.    

End users play a very important role in designing sustainable construction projects. What project managers should do is to create sustainability awareness among end users and demonstrate the value they will get if they support incorporation of sustainability at all stages of the project. If this is done, end users will start demanding sustainability factors to be considered during design and other stages of the project so that they can enjoy the benefits of sustainability once they start using the facilities constructed.

Develop clear project goals and priorities that promote sustainability

To incorporate sustainability successfully in construction, project managers should ensure that different roles are assigned to qualified personnel who take responsibility of the decisions they make and actions they take. They also have to prepare feasible schedules and ensure that all tasks are done and completed within the assigned time (Lingard et al., 2008). This can be attained by providing the required resources on time, creating an enabling working environment, supervising all activities, and bringing on board all stakeholders from the very start of the project.    

Project managers play a crucial role of ensuring that all stakeholders communicate effectively and freely so as to share necessary information that promotes integration of sustainability in the project. With effective communication, it becomes easier for the project manager to share information with stakeholders on how to integrate sustainability, the benefits of it, and possible challenges and how to overcome them (Pitt et al., 2009).

Project managers should encourage stakeholders to coordinate and collaborate for successful completion of the project. Proper coordination and collaboration makes it easier for the stakeholders to work as a team, and discuss and identify the best approaches of incorporating sustainability factors in the project. Thus project managers need to strive at improving coordination and collaboration among all stakeholders.

It is also important for project managers to identify factors that can encourage other stakeholders to support integration of sustainability in construction and apply them. Common factors include incentives, rewards, compulsory sustainability regulations and policies, rating systems, tax cuts, etc. (Warnock, 2007). Once these factors are identified, project managers should ensure that all other stakeholders are aware of them and apply them when executing their tasks.

Integration of sustainability in construction usually costs more than traditional construction projects. This is one of the major factors hindering integration of sustainability in construction (Pinkse and Dommisse, 2008). Therefore project managers should identify techniques that can lower project costs. These include: avoiding design errors, use of natural and locally available construction materials, implementation of lean construction principles, prefabrication, avoiding delays, etc.

There are three main pillars of sustainability namely environmental, economic and social pillars. All these pillars are very important in construction industry (Martinuzzi et al., 2011; Ortiz, Castells and Sonnemann, 2009). Project managers play a very crucial role in ensuring that these pillars are properly addressed in construction projects through design. As a construction project manager, the following are some of the techniques that can be used so as to address the three pillars of sustainability in construction through design:

Assessing the site

Before the start of design process, project managers need to evaluate the site so as to identify its potentials and challenges. Assessing elements such as solar exposure, topography, vegetation, watershed and predominant wind (Green Thumb Design Studio, 2009), helps in creating design solutions that capitalize on the potentials and the site and minimize the site’s weaknesses. Selecting the right site also facilitates smooth construction process, and efficient and cost-effective use of the facility built. This has effects on environmental, economic and social aspect of sustainability.   

Identify appropriate sustainability design approaches and tools

Creating awareness

This is one of the most effective strategies that project managers can use to facilitate integration of sustainability in construction. The project manager has to educate all stakeholders that are taking part in the project, such as the owner/client, consultants, design team, engineers, suppliers, contractors and end users, about sustainability and the role they can play in incorporating all sustainability pillars in the project.  

Selecting appropriate construction materials

The project manager should ensure that the design created uses natural, locally available, renewable, long lasting, recycled, recyclable and non-toxic materials. These materials should also be those that are acceptable by the local community. This impacts the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability.

Improving water efficiency

One way that project managers can improve water efficiency during design stage is to ensure that low flow water fixtures are chosen for the facility. This lowers the total quantity of water that the facility uses. One example of this is use of vacuum toilets that consumes very little quantity of water. The project manager also has to ensure that all plants used for landscaping are native and can grow with very minimal irrigation requirements. If an irrigation system is used then it has to be water efficient so as to minimize the quantity if water used. The design should also make use of greywater produced from the building for irrigating gardens, landscaping, cleaning or flushing toilets. Last but not least, the design should have a rainwater harvesting system that can collect rainwater and store it for other uses when demand is high while supply is low. This has direct impacts on environmental and economic pillars of sustainability.

Using renewable energy and improving energy efficiency

During design stage, the project manager has to ensure that decisions made enhance use of renewable energy during construction and operational stages, and improve energy efficiency of the facility once it has been completed (Warnock, 2007). The project manager should also find ways of incorporating renewable energy into the project such as use of solar water heaters, photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind turbines, etc. Additionally, the project manager has to make it compulsory for all electrical systems and appliances installed in the building to be of particular rating such as Green Star or Energy Star rating. All lighting systems have to be LED so as to reduce energy consumptions. All these increase use of renewable energy, reduce carbon footprint associated with the project throughout the entire lifecycle of the project, and reduces cost of constructing and operating the facility. This has effects on environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainability.

Minimizing and managing waste

This is also a very crucial way of ensuring sustainability in construction. Project managers should ensure that the designs created minimize waste generation and facilitates waste recycling (Constructing Excellence, 2015). Appropriate allocation and use of materials is one of the strategies of minimizing waste. Another strategy is use of recycled and recyclable materials. This ensures that no materials are disposed instead they are recycled and reused continuously. Also, the project manager should ensure that the design of the facility incorporates a waste collection system to make it easier for end users to collect wastes for recycling. This has effects on all the pillars of sustainability in construction – environmental, economic and social pillars.

Improving safety and comfort of end users and reducing lifecycle costs 

The project manager should ensure that the design of the facility contains appropriate and adequate safety, security and comfort (acoustic and visual) features. These are usually beneficial to end users of the facility built. Also, the project manager should perform the facility’s lifecycle costs so as to identify suitable processes of minimizing these costs. This mainly has effects on economic and social aspects of sustainability.

Incorporating integrated management system

The project manager can also improve performance of the facility created by ensuring that the design incorporates an integrated management system that analyzes the operation of the facility, in terms of how resources are utilized, and optimizes use of these resources automatically (Griffith and Bhutto, 2008). This has environmental, economic and social impacts of sustainability.   

References

Alias, A., Isa, N.M. and Samad, Z.A. (2014) Sustainable Building through Project Planning Process. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 3(4), pp. 207-218.

Constructing Excellence (2015) Key issues in sustainability construction [Online]. Available: https://constructingexcellence.org.uk/resources/key-issues-in-sustainable-construction/ [Accessed April 25, 2017].

Green Thumb Design Studio (2009) Going Green [Online]. Available: https://www.greenthumbdesignstudio.com/sustainable-design.htm [Accessed April 25, 2017].

Griffith, A. and Bhutto, K. (2008) Improving environmental performance through integrated management systems (IMS) in the UK. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 19(5), pp. 565-578.

Lingard, H., Townsend, K., Bradley, L. and Brown, K. (2008) Alternative work schedule interventions in the Australian construction industry: a comparative case study analysis. Construction Management and Economics, October 2008, Vol. 26, pp. 1101-1112.  

Martinuzzi, A., Kudlak, R., Faber, C. and Wiman, A. (2011) CSR Activities and Impacts of the Construction Sector. Vienna, Austria: Research Institute for Managing Sustainability (RIMAS), Working Papers, No. 1/2011.

Ortiz, O., Castells, F. and Sonnemann, G. (2009) Sustainability in the construction industry: A review of recent developments based on LCA. Construction and Building Materials, 23(1), pp. 28-39.

Pinkse, J. and Dommisse, M. (2008) Overcoming barriers to sustainability: an explanation of residential builders’ reluctance to adopt dean technologies. Business Strategy and the Environment, 18(8), pp. 515-527.

Pitt, M., Tucker, M., Riley, M. and Longden, J. (2009) Towards sustainable construction: promotion and best practices. Construction Innovation, 9(2), pp. 201.

Robinchaud, L.B. and Anantamula, V. (2011) Greening project management practices for sustainable construction. Journal of Management in Engineering, pp. 8-57.

Warnock, A.C. (2007) An overview of integrating instruments to achieve sustainable construction and buildings. Management of Environmental Quality, 18(4), pp. 427-441.

Zhang, X.L., Shen, L.Y. and Wu, Y.Z. (2011) Green strategy for gaining competitive advantage in housing development: a China study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19(1), pp. 157-167.