INVESTIGATION THE APPLICATION OF SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION AND THE BARRIERS IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE CASE OF ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Sustainable Construction is a practice of an improvement which has led to significant changes in building delivery systems that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.This study was carried out to assess the application of sustainable construction practice and the barriers in building construction projects considering the case of Addis Ababa city. Nineteen factors defining the status of sustainable construction practice, seven factors stating the barriers; and ten factors describing improving and mitigation mechanisms to the practice were identified from literature. The 19 factors were further categorized into two which are design perspective with nine factors and construction perspective with ten factors. The main approaches used in collecting data for the study were through questionnaire survey, and personal observations of some major construction sites in Addis Ababa city. Questionnaires were distributed to a total of 141 randomly selected respondents consisting of 47 contractors, 47 consultants and 47 regulatory bodies on 47 active building construction projects in the city. The respondents were asked to identify the most important item from the listed. The relative importance of the items identified were calculated and ranked by the relative importance index. According to the results of the study, the respondents agreed that getting environmental clearance or certificate; design to reduce the running cost of building or a structure; strive to design a building or a structure that delights by design perspective and use renewable or recyclable resources; maximize resource re-use and construction and demolition waste management planning from construction perspective are the most important factors to determine the application status of sustainable construction practice. Also, technical barriers; financial barriers and political barriers respectively ranked the highest among the barriers in the application of sustainable construction practices in the city. Government in improving mechanisms and launching sustainable construction department in higher institutions are the most important factor in improving and mitigation mechanisms for those challenges in sustainable construction practice. The results of this study will be useful to support the application of sustainable construction practice in construction stakeholders by providing guidance for construction parties. The paper recommends that firms in the construction projects should start working with new methods and technologies following sustainable construction techniques to minimize the barriers in the practice.