EFFECTIVENESS OF ADOPTION OF IT FOR ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS

Abstract

Singapore is a small and compact country. It faced environmental problems such as global warming, rise in energy cost, land and resources scarcity. With that in mind, the government set out the Singapore blueprint for environmental sustainability by 2030. To aid in the development of sustainable buildings, the advent of information technology (IT) is capable for efficient development and management of sustainable building. Hence, it is vital to analyse the effectiveness of adoption of IT for sustainable building. The research objectives is to establish the importance of environmental awareness among the building and construction industry (BCI), to explore the effectiveness of adoption of IT, the impact of IT to support sustainable built environment of buildings and to propose a viable and economical IT framework for Singapore’s building and construction industry to adopt. The research begins with the literature review including books, journals, websites and interviews were conducted with BCA, environmental sustainable design (ESD) consultants, developers and facilities managers. Followed by survey questionnaire with the architects, mechanical and engineers (M&E), facilities managers (FM), ESD consultants, and contractors on the perception of IT adoption for sustainable buildings. The results collected were analyzed and evaluated via IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The analyzed results have indicated that indeed the IT has contributed significantly to the sustainable buildings especially in the planning and design phase and operation and maintenance phase of the building life – cycle and to obtain Green Mark certified. The sustainable building development involve the whole building life – cycle process commencing from planning and design to operation and maintenance phase would require an integrated approach but it is found out that IT adoption in the construction phase is weak. Therefore, a recommended policy framework is formulated ‘The roadmap to effective adoption of IT for the whole sustainable building life – cycle’ which aims to highlight and improve the issue affecting the effectiveness adoption of IT for sustainable built environment.