Factors Affecting the Implementation of Sustainable Construction in Ghana: the Architect’s Perspective

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Date
NOVEMBER 2016
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Abstract
Urbanization and industrialization are having a great impact on the earth’s ecosystem: environmental degradation, pollution, climate change and poverty. This menace has brought to the forefront the need for sustainable development in the built environment. Though construction practitioners in Ghana are aware of sustainable construction practices, there is lack of evidence on its implementation in the country. This study investigates, from the Ghanaian architects’ perspective, the level of implementation, the barriers and drivers influencing the implementation of sustainable construction in Ghana. Structured questionnaires were formulated from identified barriers and drivers from literature. The questionnaires were undertaken via online survey through google forms and sent through emails to respondents. All the 93 architectural firms registered with the Architects Registration Council (ARC) were included in the survey to accommodate the problem of low rate of responses from architects in surveys. In all, 71 responses were received, 68 (73.11%) were considered responsive for the analysis due to inconsistencies or incompletion. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to analyse and rank the data collected. The result suggested that sustainable construction implementation is at its infancy stage. The majority of respondents believe that client demand is the key driver whereas the key barrier is lack of financial incentives. Change in legislation, tax incentives and awareness creation were the most influential factors that can promote the drivers and at the same time mitigate or eliminate the barriers. It was also suggested that the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by professionals in the industry will help in the promotion and implementation.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Building Technology College of Art and Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science,
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