• Energy Research

Abstract As a response to mitigate various negative environmental effects of the construction industry, recent years have witnessed a growing interest in green building technologies (GBTs) adoption and development. Consequently, many studies have been conducted on the forces driving the GBTs adoption in different countries. However, there have been few studies identifying the driving forces (DFs) for GBTs adoption in developing countries such as Ghana. This study aims to identify the major DFs for GBTs adoption within the developing country of Ghana. To achieve the objective, 21 DFs were identified from a comprehensive literature review. Through a questionnaire survey with 43 professionals with green building experience, the results first indicated that “setting a standard for future design and construction”, “greater energy efficiency”, “improved occupants' health and well-being”, “non-renewable resources conservation”, and “reduced whole lifecycle costs” were the top five forces driving the GBTs adoption. Further comparative analysis showed that the topmost rank of “setting a standard for future design and construction” is unique for GBTs adoption in only the developing country of Ghana, not in the developed country of the US. Additionally, factor analysis revealed that the underlying forces for the 16 significant DFs were environment-related, company-related, economy and health-related, cost and energy-related, and industry-related forces. This study improves understanding of the major DFs for GBTs adoption, providing a valuable reference for practitioners and policy makers to promote the wider adoption of GBTs. Future study will investigate the interrelationships between the significant DFs and their impacts on the GBTs adoption process. Future work is also required to employ a larger sample and investigate in greater detail the differences between the GBTs adoption DFs in Ghana and many other specific countries.

The transportation sector generates enormous amount of environmental emission. This study aims to assess the environmental impact of the environmental emissions in a transportation infrastructure project life cycle. Using the fast track transportation project in China as a case study, the materials used and the energy consumed over the life cycle were converted into environmental emissions. The life cycle of fast track transportation project was divided into three phases including construction, maintenance and repair, and demolition phases. Both qualitative and quantitative method were applied to explore the environmental impact of transportation project. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used for the development environmental impact assessment (EIA) model to analyze the contribution of each process in the transportation project life cycle. The empirical results show that the construction phase has the highest environmental impact (62.7%) in the fast track transportation project life cycle, followed by the demolition (35.8%) and maintenance phases (1.7%). Among the materials used in the fast track transportation project, steel has the highest proportion of environmental impact in the construction phase (55.5%). This indicates the enormous environmental impact of the construction phase in fast track transportation project life cycle results from the use of steel material. This study contributes to reducing environmental emissions by revealing the greatest phase of environmental impact and material-source of environmental impact over the life cycle in a transportation infrastructure project.

Green building incentives are important to promoting green building. However, it lacks a systematic review of existing knowledge. This paper aims to elicit the common themes in studies of green building incentives through a systematic review. It is found that the common research areas into green building incentives are incentive categorisation, its effectiveness on promoting green building development, criticism of current green incentive implementation and strategies for improving green building incentives. Green building incentives are categorised into external and internal incentives. The external incentive is a forced choice whereby beneficiaries are required to fulfil specified conditions or requirements before benefitting, while the internal incentive allows beneficiaries to be incentivised out of volition because of the appeal of the benefits of green buildings. The external incentives, which are largely provided by the government, are divided into financial and non-financial incentives. It is found that owners are more incentivised by non-financial incentives. In terms of effectiveness, both external and internal incentives are important instruments for promoting green building, although it is not clear which are the more effective. Furthermore, the review uncovered criticisms of external green building incentives, which mainly focus on shortcomings in administering the incentives by the government. The strategies for improving green building incentives were also found, the most important of these being the need for the government to redirect its approach of providing incentives so that owners can be encouraged to pursue green building. The review findings signify the importance of the government in relation to green building incentives. Further research areas that could expand the knowledge of green building incentives are also recommended.

Green building (GB) has been viewed as an effective means to implement environmental, economic, and social sustainability in the construction industry. For the adoption of GB technologies (GBTs) to continue to succeed and gain popularity, a better understanding of the key issues influencing its progress is crucial. While numerous studies have examined the issues influencing green innovations adoption in general, few have specifically done so in the context of GBTs. This study aims to investigate the underpinnings of GBTs adoption in the following areas: (1) the critical barriers inhibiting the adoption of GBTs, (2) major drivers for adopting GBTs, and (3) important strategies to promote GBTs adoption. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire survey was carried out with 33 GB experts from the United States. Ranking analysis was used to identify the significant issues associated with GBTs adoption. Resistance to change, a lack of knowledge and awareness, and higher cost have been the most critical barriers. The major drivers for adopting GBTs are greater energy- and water-efficiency, and company image and reputation. The analysis results also indicate that the most important strategies to promote the adoption of GBTs are financial and further market-based incentives, availability of better information on cost and benefits of GBTs, and green labeling and information dissemination. The findings provide a valuable reference for industry practitioners and researchers to deepen their understanding of the major issues that influence GB decision-making, and for policy makers aiming at promoting the adoption of GBTs in the construction industry to develop suitable policies and incentives. This study contributes to expanding the body of knowledge about the influences that hinder and those that foster GBTs implementation.

The aim of this study is to simulate the self-organized evolution mechanism of inner innovation of large-scale construction enterprises (LSCE) under different contexts. Based on NK stochastic combinatorial optimization model with two parameters (N, K), this study proposes three modules—ambidexterity, punctuated equilibrium, and automation—to simulate the change behaviors of the inner innovation system. Furthermore, this study analyses the influence of factor correlation on inner innovation performance under discusses nine different combination situations. The research results show that (a) regardless of how the relationship strength changes, fitness increases with an increasing K value; and (b) the comparison of optimization modes show that the punctuated equilibrium mode can guarantee the long- and short-term inner innovation performance LSCE. This study therefore reveals the mutual effects of the factors in the inner innovation system in LSCE and provides an effective model for internal systems analyses in the construction industry and in other sectors.

Abstract The project owners are at the centre of sustainability decisions to drive the implementation of sustainable building features in the construction industry. Despite this, the existing studies on the successful delivery of green buildings have only focused on the views of other construction project participants such as Architects and Contractors, while project owners are left out. To fill this gap, this study developed a conceptual framework of the synergy between owners’ motivation and commitment towards successful delivery of green buildings. The framework was empirically tested by exploring the views of 10 purposively selected project owners in the Australian construction industry. The findings revealed that while project owners’ motivation increases their commitment towards successful delivery of green building projects, the intrinsic type of project owners’ motivation is more effective than the extrinsic type. The extrinsic type of motivation is less effective due to the lack of harmonization in the existing incentive policies and programs for driving green building development in the Australian construction industry. The study concluded that, similar to other construction project participants, project owners have specific roles in the area of sustainability performance towards the successful delivery of green building projects. By implication, this study tinkers the Australian government to revisit the policy landscape for enhancing green building practices. Additionally, this study has demonstrated the need for active participation of project owners in the delivery of green building projects, and shown how the active participation of project owners can be enhanced through motivation in the construction industry.