Measuring the Sustainability of Construction Projects throughout Their Lifecycle: A Taiwan Lesson

Wen- der Yu, Shao-tsai Cheng, Wei-cheng Ho and Yu-hao Chang
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Wen- der Yu: Department of Construction Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung 41349, Taiwan
Shao-tsai Cheng: Department of Construction Management, Chung Hua University, Hsinchu 30012, Taiwan
Wei-cheng Ho: Department of Civil Engineering, Chung Hua University, Hsinchu 30012, Taiwan
Yu-hao Chang: Department of Construction Management, Chung Hua University, Hsinchu 30012, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Researchers have proposed many industrial or national sustainability evaluation indicator systems during the past decade, although there has not yet been a project-level sustainability evaluation system for the evaluation and execution monitoring of the sustainability status for a construction project. Without such an evaluation system, it will be difficult for the planners to plan the sustainable project objectives, for the contractors to select the sustainable execution alternatives, and for the facility managers to operate sustainable constructed facilities. To meet the abovementioned requirements, this paper presents an effort conducted in Taiwan to propose a Construction Project Sustainability Assessing System (CPSAS) considering three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic, based on the theoretical backgrounds from the literature and former successful sustainable projects. The proposed CPSAS comprises four levels: Level 1, 3 main pillars; Level 2, 8 categories; Level 3, 19 sub-categories; and Level 4, 31 indicators. Different selections of indicators for application in different project phases are suggested according to the prioritization via questionnaire surveys. A procedure for sustainable project management with the proposed CPSAS is suggested to the project management team. Finally, three green building projects and two civil infrastructure construction projects of Taiwan were tested to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed CPSAS. It is concluded that the proposed CPSAS is useful for construction stakeholders to achieve sustainability more effectively during the execution of a construction project.

Keywords: sustainable development; project management; performance indicators; construction; Taiwan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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