Assuring sustainable construction at project feasibility stage in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Construction activity is commonly considered to have adverse impacts on the environment, which is the basis of sustainable development for human being. Further, sustainability should be addressed mostly in developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, where a considerable amount of construction works is currently in progress and remain to emerge in the future. It is considered that the proper development and operation of a construction project can make significant contribution to the mission of sustainable development. However, the existing difficulty is the lack of the guidance for implementing sustainable development principles in construction industry. Therefore, this research intends to bring the necessity of mandated project feasibility studies as a guideline for sustainable development in the Sri Lankan Context. The research aim was approached through a qualitative survey strategy. To solicit the perceptions of experts on the identified sustainability performance criteria, a semi-structured interview survey was conducted. Ten experts were selected through purposive sampling strategy, who had experience in sustainable construction and project feasibility evaluation criteria. The manual content analysis method was used to analyse the collected data. Findings of the research revealed that though numerous sustainability assessment tools are being practised, there is a failure in sustainable construction in the current context. Thus, the minimum sustainability requirements were identified under the three pillars of sustainability, aiming to develop the project feasibility study as a guideline and to ensure sustainability performance from the project inception stage. These findings are helpful for industry practitioners especially the project owners to initiate a sustainable construction with concerted actions of all project stakeholders to safeguarding the future.