The role of project management in the success of green building projects: Egypt as a case study

Abstract

Sustainability and project management are two trends that have taken global interest in the last decades due to their significant role in various fields of life. However, these two topics have rarely been addressed in one study or framework. As sustainability and environmental issues are not specifically or systematically considered in most major project management frameworks such as the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Individual Competence Baseline (ICB), International Organization for Standardization (ISO 21500:2012), and so on. Furthermore, sustainability applications in the construction field under the term “green buildings” are facing various types of obstacles that obstruct the pervasion of this type of construction in an adequate and required way. Some of these obstacles have been addressed in recent studies with suggested solutions, but the role of project management in overcoming or even mitigating the risk of these obstacles was almost absent in most of these studies. Therefore, this paper attempts to observe the most important obstacles facing the application of sustainability in the construction field and taking the green construction situation in Egypt as a case study. In addition, this paper aims to investigate the role of project management in green building projects’ success, through project management best practices’ applications to overcome the main reasons that obstruct the green building projects movement. The results showed that there is a lack of management methods that address sustainable construction projects. In addition, there is no clear methodology governing the green building management process. Also, the unspecified responsibilities between stakeholders in green building projects lead to difficulties in managing and implementing green buildings. However, some defined obstructions could be overcome by project management’s best practices and methods.