Abstract
Despite the interest that environmental prudence has garnered worldwide, the construction industry remains behind in incorporating sustainable concepts in construction contracts and contract administration. Some research promotes the adoption of sustainability clauses into construction contracts, and some of the standard contract forms include sections on sustainability. However, there is no research to date that analyzes the current state of adopting sustainable practices and techniques in contractual terms. There are also no specific measures tailored to the different types of construction projects, and owner/developers have no tools to assess sustainability components of their construction contracts. Therefore, this research investigated the degree of incorporation of sustainability clauses in construction contracts in the United Arab Emirates. Sustainable practices were collected from the literature and validated via interviews with 5 construction organizations and surveys of 11 more to develop the Sustainability Inclusion in Construction Contracts Index (SICCI) in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The SICCI was designed and validated to measure the inclusion of sustainable practices in contractual terms typically used by the construction industry. The resulting index was applied as a case study to a residential construction project in the United Arab Emirates. The project team found the index very usable and the project scored a 70% inclusion rate in contractual terms. Inclusion assessment is the first step in true adoption of sustainable development concepts in construction projects. This paper recommends further adoption of this tool in construction organizations to promote sustainable practices.
Highlights
Development typically relies on natural resources, and its byproduct is pollution of the environment
As the world is continuously developing, its natural resources are being exploited at high rates and this opens a new area of research to understand the contractual context of sustainable development
To ensure that all countries worldwide are contributing to the protection and preservation of the three pillars of sustainability, the UN introduced sustainable development goals (UNSDGs) to organize development activities in 17 categories (Golubchikov and Badyina 2012)
Summary
Development typically relies on natural resources, and its byproduct is pollution of the environment. As the world is continuously developing, its natural resources are being exploited at high rates and this opens a new area of research to understand the contractual context of sustainable development. While the concept of sustainable development (SD)has been adopted in some regions of the world, other regions have ignored it. The definition of sustainability arose as current development that does not deprive the rights of future generations to develop—that is, it does not exploit the natural environment to the point of no rehabilitation. These goals span different industries and activities and were designed to be generic for easy integration
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