IDENTIFYING AND ASSESSING CRITICAL RISK FACTORS IN GREEN COMMERCIAL (MIXED OFFICE-RETAIL) PROJECTS

Abstract

Green buildings have been gaining popularity globally due to the increasing awareness of environmental issues and climate change. Singapore has also mentioned it as part of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development’s (IMCSD) vision and every new construction from 2005 has to be certified green by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). Since then, the number of green buildings increased from just 17 to more than 2155 in 2014. Developers have to adopt green and sustainable methods under the pressures of government regulations and corporate reputation which urgently requires an efficient and effective project management system. Together with the issue of a lack of space in Singapore, mixed office-retail (commercial) buildings are also trending, as buildings grow higher and developments are more integrated. Green mixed office-retail projects are generally perceived to be more challenging than traditional or green office projects due to the integration of two different facilities. However, there is minimal information available to guide the project managers in managing the risk in green office-retail projects. Hence, this dissertation aims to identify the critical risks in green commercial projects, assess the criticality of the identified risks and lastly, to propose some recommendations that can mitigate the effects of critical risks. To achieve the objectives, a survey was conducted with 27 professionals involved in the construction process. The results indicated inflation, currency and interest rate volatility worsened by import of green materials, durability of green materials and new technology, damages caused by human error and material suitability, accessibility and shortage of green materials as the top 5 critical risks in green commercial (mixed office-retail) projects. Although the findings imply that risks are generally more critical in traditional projects, a comparison of risk criticality ranking between traditional and green commercial projects was done to showcase the 5 most unique problems that green commercial projects face. With the help of this study, companies taking part in green mixed office-retail projects can identify the most critical risks and thus develop appropriate mitigation measures.