Assessing the Factors that Influence the Attitudes of Built Environment Professionals towards the Implementation of Sustainable Construction in Nigeria

Abstract

Researches has shown that professionals’ attitude to sustainable construction are very important if sustainable construction is to be achieved but practicing Nigerian Built Environment (BE) professionals have been seen to be sustainable construction inefficient. This study assesses the factors that affects the attitudes of BE professionals’ towards achieving the implementation of sustainable construction practices in the Nigerian construction industry. The study adopted a quantitative research approach with data collected using a structured questionnaire. The proportional allocation method of stratified random sampling and snowballing technique were used for the survey and data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics. The Kruskal Wallis test was also applied to check for the significance differences in the means score of the BE professionals’ responses. The study established that poor communication, team work, cooperation and collaboration, expensive nature of sustainable construction, lack of proper legislation and regulation are the top factors influencing BE professionals’ attitude in implementing sustainable construction. The study concludes that implementation level of sustainable construction practice is not directly proportional to the awareness of BE professionals within the Nigerian construction industry. Thereby BE professionals need to improve their attitudes towards the implementation of sustainable construction practices in the Nigerian construction industry.