Green building project management: Obstacles and solutions for sustainable development

Abstract

Green building construction is earning a place in Singapore's construction industry, and, with augmenting cognizance of environmental issues and growing concern over climate change, sustainable construction is gradually being put forth globally. However, construction of green buildings in Singapore still encounters impediments, as there is a lack of proper project management framework for such projects. Based on survey and interview results from 31 industry experts, this study aims to identify common obstacles encountered during management of green construction projects, ultimately proposing some solutions to overcome the barriers. The findings from this study reveal that, although project cost is the paramount barrier among others in green building construction management, there is no paucity in sustainable knowledge in Singapore's construction industry. To deal with the cost related problem, the coverage of government incentives should be widened to include the usage of green products and technologies. Furthermore, a project management framework for green building construction should be developed to overcome the barriers, possibly promoting adoption of sustainable construction in future projects. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.