Towards the implications of Boverket's climate declaration act for sustainability indices in the Swedish construction industry

Abstract

Regulatory uncertainty is typically the inevitable consequence of introducing new regulations or even changing the old ones by the state agencies that interacts with the normative structures in the society. This study seeks to shed light on this relational impact in the Swedish construction industry by examining the managers' impression of the recently introduced Climate Declaration act by Boverket. Based on the results of a survey of the industry executives' opinions, it was established that the desired impacts of the regulative measures will require application of binding levers, whether as incentives or deterrents, the lack of which is evident in Boverket's Climate Declaration act. The main notion of the respondents was that the ultimate outcome of such regulations should be to lead the industry towards the selection of products and processes that produce less carbon dioxide over the whole life cycle and actualize a circular economy. The findings also acknowledge that the effectiveness of the Climate Declaration act will appear in the long run and this convention needs to be reviewed and amended over several stages to result in the expected payoffs.