A scoping study of barriers and drivers of sustainable design and construction in Nigeria

Abstract

Construction stakeholders have been under pressure to reduce the industry's environmental footprint by adopting new technologies. In a two-round Delphi survey, a panel of 12 experts were required to rate and rank the importance of 75 drivers and 21 barriers to sustainable design and construction. After the second round of the survey, 61 drivers and 15 barriers were rated with a high degree of group agreement (Kendall's W =.511; p.001). A high Spearman's rank correlation value (rho = 0.923, p <.001) indicated a strong degree of convergence between rounds. Also, the result (Kendall’s W = 0.76; p < 0.000) indicated a high panel consensus on ranked barriers items with lack of government policy, misconception of construction cost overrun, no reflection of recovery of long-term savings in service fee structure, conflicting public policy and/ or regulations, lack of awareness from clients (Owner/ Developer), a limited knowledge and understanding of sustainable issues by customers, deployment of resources to back technological changes, and lack of knowledge and understanding from design professionals were ranked low as barriers to sustainable design and construction. The findings from the study would provide information on regulatory and socio-economic factors that impact sustainable design and construction in Nigeria, and strengthen the implementation of sustainability in the construction industry.