Abstract
The construction sector is garnering increasing concern as an industry that generates significant pollution while suffering from a lack of adequate environmental performance evaluations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the environmental performance of construction sector industries using the ISO 14031 standard in three dimensions: planning, using data and information, and reviewing and improving environmental performance evaluations. Using a descriptive and correlational approach, this study described and analyzed the level of implementation using a 7-point Likert scale questionnaire distributed to 1000 organizations in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were completed between May and December of 2018 and the results were measured against similar studies. The mean positive percentage responses were 31.36 and expressed the implementation levels of the three dimensions of environmental performance. The corresponding values for the three dimensions’ items were 33.36, 29.83, and 30.95 respectively. The minimum Kendall correlation coefficients for each item in a dimension were 0.79, 0.79, and 0.83, respectively. The maximum correlation values between an item and a dimension to which the item did not belong were 0.25. This study answers a fundamental question regarding the implementation level values of environmental performance in construction organizations based on the ISO 14031 standard model and analyzes the pairwise correlation among the descriptor variables of the model. Further studies are needed to investigate the model structure using the principle component, factor analysis, and cluster analysis.
Highlights
The construction industry generates a fairly large amount of pollutants compared to other industries [1], and occupies the first position in the number of ISO 14001 certificated organizations with 53,978 certificates (16.98%) [2]
While other studies have assessed environmental performance (EP) using a single performance index ranked by external parties or by the environmental impact of a single business activity, this study attempts to provide a first step to assess the performance of an organization, with or without environmental management system (EMS), in implementing the guidelines given in ISO 14031 to evaluate EP
The most frequently observed category of the items was 4 out of a 7-point Likert-scale, which indicated that the participants generally felt that their organization was implementing the environmental performance evaluation (EPE) principles provided in ISO 14031
Summary
The construction industry generates a fairly large amount of pollutants compared to other industries [1], and occupies the first position in the number of ISO 14001 certificated organizations with 53,978 certificates (16.98%) [2] These statistics reflect a significant effort by the construction industry to follow international standards that evaluate environmental and social performance. Prior studies examining the association between adaptations of an EMS and EP resulted in mixed findings that included a positive impact association in the work of [7,8], no association between EMSs and EP [9], and no agreement on what EP is or how to measure it as concluded by [10] This last contribution is important as many authors have called for further research into EP measurement [11,12]. There is a need to investigate whether or not the organizations use the environmental performance evaluation (EPE) guidelines given in in the international standard to evaluate their EP
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