Building Sustainably: A Pilot Study on the Project Manager’s Contribution in Delivering Sustainable Construction Projects—A Maltese and International Perspective

Ruth Borg, Rebecca Dalli Gonzi and Simon Paul Borg
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Ruth Borg: Department of Construction and Property Management, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, MSD 2080 Msida, Malta
Rebecca Dalli Gonzi: Department of Construction and Property Management, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, MSD 2080 Msida, Malta
Simon Paul Borg: Department of Environmental Design, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, MSD 2080 Msida, Malta

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Despite ample technological advancements, the building industry is still seen as an unsustainable activity. To counteract this, building development is now being requested to be more sustainable. Due to the increasing complexity of sustainable projects’ criteria, the project manager’s role, tasked with the overall management of a building’s different development phases, is changing, becoming increasingly crucial for the attainment of pre-established sustainability goals. Based on this premise, the research presented in this paper is a pilot study set to preliminarily establish and identify a set of project management processes and supporting practices from existing literature, and gauge their significance and possible added value provided. This was done via a purposely designed questionnaire distributed locally, in Malta, and globally amongst established project managers. Notwithstanding the preliminary nature of the study some interesting results were obtained. Among the main outcomes of the study, it is observed how all respondents are very aware about sustainability issues and that their decision-making role places them in an optimum position to bring forward a sustainability agenda for a particular project. In terms of intervention, pre-construction (43%) and construction (28%) were considered to be the main stages were a project manager usually gives the highest input. However, various challenges were also highlighted by the respondents, including clients’ refusal to commit increased capital (34%), the requirement for further training (33%), and the lack of incentives aimed towards increasing the sustainability of projects (22%).

Keywords: building industry sustainability; project management; project life-cycle phases; sustainable development; qualitative analysis; barriers towards sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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