Design-Build Contractor Selection for Public Sustainable Buildings

Abstract

AbstractDesign-build (DB) is regarded as an effective means of delivering high performance green buildings, and the selection of DB contractors is of critical importance. The objective of this study is to evaluate the selection of design-builders for public buildings seeking leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) certification and compare the selection practices involved with those of non-LEED-seeking DB projects through a robust content analysis of 74 DB requests for proposals (RFPs) for public DB projects. The results of the content analysis reveal that the level of LEED certification is the dominant means of conveying the sustainability requirements in RFPs for contractor selection, with the majority of RFPs (60%) including sustainability requirements as part of the contractor evaluation package. With the exception of contractors’ past performance, there is no statistically significant difference in the importance weights of selection criteria between LEED-seeking and non-LEED-seeking bui...