Xia, B; Skitmore, M; Wu, P and Chen, Q (2014) How public owners communicate the sustainability requirements of green design-build projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 140(8): 04014036, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The design/build (DB) system is regarded as an effective means of delivering sustainable buildings. Specifying clear sustainability requirements to potential contractors is of great importance to project success. This research investigates the current state-of-the-practice for the definition of sustainability requirements within the public sectors of the U.S. construction market using a robust content analysis of 49 DB requests for proposals (RFPs). The results reveal that owners predominantly communicate their desired level of sustainability through the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) certification system. The sustainability requirement has become an important dimension for the best-value evaluation of DB contractors with specific importance weightings of up to 25%. Additionally, owners of larger projects and who provide less design information in their RFPs generally allocate significantly higher importance weightings to sustainability requirements. The primary knowledge contribution of this study to the construction industry is the reveal of current trends in DB procurement for green projects. The findings also provide owners, architects, engineers, and constructors with an effective means of communicating sustainability objectives in solicitation documents.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contractor selection; design/build; project planning and design; request for proposals; sustainability requirements; sustainable buildings |
| Index terms: | content analysis, public owner, proposal, certification, project planning, sustainable building, documents, environmental design, owner, engineer, public sector, contractor selection, project success, dimension, construction industry, construction market, architect |
| Subjects: | sustainability and energy, project planning, data analysis and analytics, health monitoring assessment and metrics, profession, control systems, market analysis, sociology, administrative law, industry analysis, administrative processes, tendering, professional development, project management theory and practice, sustainable construction |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Procurement, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Health and Safety, Contract Administration, Legal Issues, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here