Examination of Green Building Drivers in the South African Construction Industry: Economics versus Ecology
Abimbola Olukemi Windapo
Additional contact information
Abimbola Olukemi Windapo: Department of Construction Economics and Management, University of Cape Town, University Avenue South, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 9, 1-19
Abstract:
There is a large body of literature on green buildings, but few studies have focused on the motivation behind the construction of green buildings globally, and in South Africa in particular. This paper investigates the key drivers of green building in the Western Cape Construction Industry of South Africa and examines whether these drivers have changed over time. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to provide an overview of green building issues globally and in South Africa, followed by an empirical investigation into the drivers of green building in South Africa using a multi-case study approach. The findings reveal that the key drivers of green building include rising energy costs, the industry’s Green Star rating system, competitive advantages and legislation. The study also indicates that these key drivers have not changed significantly over time. Taken together, these results suggest that the increase in green building has little to do with ecological factors and more to do with economic factors—operational costs and stakeholder demands. The paper concludes that as long as the cost of energy continues to increase and there are recognised industry rating systems in place, the need for green buildings is likely to remain.
Keywords: building codes; competition; construction; ecology; energy costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/9/6088/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/9/6088/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:9:p:6088-6106:d:40032
Access Statistics for this article
Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu
More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().