Environmental considerations in the Swedish building and construction industry: the role of costs, institutional setting, and information

Anders Isaksson,Henrik Linderoth

doi:10.1007/s10901-017-9588-8

Abstract

Despite increasing evidence that being an environment-friendly company not only benefits the environment but also makes long-term economic sense, the transition to a more sustainable society is extremely slow. This is true of the building and construction industry as well. At a strategic level, environmental issues have received more attention with the establishment of roles such as environmental managers and implementation of advanced environmental management systems. However, adoption has been slow in the absence of a holistic approach to environmental challenges, partly reinforced by a perception that giving more than the legally required level of environmental consideration will only add to costs without corresponding financial benefits. This raises the following question that the study aims to answer: What is the most important factor influencing decision makers’ in adopting environmental considerations? To this end, it analysed questionnaire data collected from decision makers in the Swedish construction industry along with an in-depth case study of a specific building and construction company. The results show that decision makers perceive informational and institutional constraints on the adoption of environmental considerations. Lack of information is perceived as the biggest obstacle to environmental considerations. If information and knowledge about clients’ and end users’ financial benefits from adopting environmental considerations need to be exploited, they have to be supported by contractual forms that discard a short-term focus on the investment costs of a building in favour of a focus on long-term operational and maintenance costs and benefits.

Highlights

The building and construction industry has major impacts on the environment and biodiversity through resource use and emissions
According to statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the building and construction industry accounts for 4% of global energy use, 30% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, about 12% of water use, and nearly 40% of waste produced (UNEP 2016); similar figures are found in many other reports (Erlandsson and Borg 2003; Assefa et al 2007; PerezLombard et al 2008)
The results show that even if decision makers are aware of environmental issues, cost is the major factor that influences decision makers in the construction industry

Summary

Introduction

The building and construction industry has major impacts on the environment and biodiversity through resource use and emissions. The Brundtland Report (Brundtland Commission 1987) has highlighted the impact of the construction industry and its importance for sustainable development. Gluch et al 2014; Zuo and Zhao 2014; Hagbert and Femenıas 2016; Olubunmi et al 2016) Despite these efforts, mainstream building practices seem not to have undergone any noticeable changes (Van Bueren and De Jong 2007; Ryghaug and Sørensen 2009; Yang and Yang 2014; Hopkins et al 2016). In practice, only a few measures are targeted, like waste management and environmental activities of an administrative kind, and from a holistic perspective, companies seem to have problems when approaching environmental challenges in order to facilitate development (Gluch et al 2009). The holistic thinking might be constrained by a bounded rationality perspective where companies are considered as profit maximizers refusing to abandon prevailing business objectives and ways of creating economic value (Walsh 2005; Stieb 2009)

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