An exploratory study into promoting sustainable construction in Ghana through public works procurement

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Date
November, 2015
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Abstract
Sustainable construction is very important so far as the world’s population continues to grow. Population growth comes along with increase in construction works and its impact on energy consumption, waste production and water consumption. Sustainable construction will create an avenue that will encourage public works procurement officials to use construction methods to increase economic growth as well as reduce the impact of construction on the environment. This will bring attendant benefits such as employment creation and a much healthy environment. This research applied the use of self- administered questionnaires to assess the level of knowledge of sustainable construction among works procurement practitioners, to identify some challenges in sustainable construction and recommend measures for improving on sustainable construction in Ghana. A survey was conducted among procurement officials from 3 local governments’ authorities in Accra with a sample size of 39, through convenience sampling. The research revealed among others that there is some level of awareness on sustainable construction among the public officials but was not widespread. It was also discovered that there was a lack of legal and regulatory framework to compel procurement officials to implement sustainable construction practices. Challenges such as the lack of research into sustainable construction, little incentives for procurement officials, lack of public awareness, lack of interest in sustainability issues, poverty and perceived high cost of initial investment were identified. The research also recommended the intensification of education on sustainable construction practices, increase research on sustainable construction and a clear policy with some amendment in the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) as some measures to improve sustainable construction in public works procurement.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Building Technology, College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Science in Procurement Management,
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