Environmental Collaboration for Sustainability in the Construction Industry: An Exploratory Study in Italy

Margherita Pero, Antonella Moretto, Eleonora Bottani and Barbara Bigliardi
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Margherita Pero: Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Antonella Moretto: Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Eleonora Bottani: Università degli Studi di Parma, Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura, viale delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
Barbara Bigliardi: Università degli Studi di Parma, Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura, viale delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: The notion of sustainability, in its three-fold meaning (economic, environmental, and social), is being adopted more and more by companies. Today it is widely accepted that sustainability cannot be achieved by firms in isolation, but requires the collaboration of all supply chain players. This issue is particularly relevant in industrial contexts where the supply chains are complex in terms of structure and number of players, such as the construction industry. Thus, the aim of the paper is to explore the sustainability practices adopted in the construction industry, with a particular attention to the role of environmental collaboration of supply chain partners in achieving sustainability. By means of multiple case study-based research, we investigate sustainability practices on a sample of construction companies of Italy, thus identifying three main sustainability approaches, which differ in both the strategic orientation towards sustainability and the level of implementation in design, purchasing, and governance processes, as well as the main variables driving the adoption of these approaches.

Keywords: sustainability; practices; environmental collaboration; construction industry; case studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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