The adoption of green building in South Africa

In South Africa there is pressure to deliver green building due to environmental issues such as climate changes, the energy crisis, as well as persistent water shortages. Although awareness and promotional effort have increased drastically concerning the adoption of green buildings, the South African design and construction industry is still lagging due to the conservativeness and slow rate of change in the construction industry. While enablers / facilitators have been recognised as opportunities to advance green building development, the South African built environment has not extensively explored the various possibilities to initiate enablers / facilitating conditions to enhance the adoption of green building. This study therefore investigates the critical factors impeding the adoption of green building and to explore the economic and non-economic facilitators / enablers regarded as the most important to stimulate stakeholders’ behavioural intentions to adopt green building. After an extensive review of literature with respect to barriers and factors that engender green building adoption, coupled with theoretical arguments relating change agents to construction innovation and sustainability theory, an exhaustive mixed-mode research approach was adopted. The sampling frame for the study was limited to four provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Kwazulu–Natal, and Western Cape, given that 99% of the green building accredited professionals registered with the GBCSA are from these four provinces. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, namely paired sample test, ANOVA test, Factor Analysis (FA), and logistic regression analysis (LRA). The qualitative data obtained across individual cases by means of a semi-structured interview was analysed using content analysis. In total, 106 professionals participated in the survey, and three respondents indicated their willingness and availability to be interviewed, hence three case studies were conducted. The results emanating from the study, inter-alia, indicate that the factors constraining the adoption of green building are categorised as: lack of information and incentives; inadequate skilled professionals; behavioural barriers; regulatory and steering factors, and the cost of green building. The results also indicate that green building consultants and environmental groups are classified as ‘innovators’, whilst architects are ‘early adopters’. However, government; municipalities, and general contractors are characterised as ‘late majority’. It was also evident from the empirical findings that the key attributes of adopters that encourage the adoption of green building were classified as: qualities of consultant team and contractor, and developers / clients’ experience. The perceived benefits of green buildings emanating from the findings were categorised as socio-economic, financial, and health and community benefits. The enablers that engender the adoption of green building were also categorised as: extended knowledge base and technical capacity; research and training of professionals; green lending incentives; progressive green building policy; economic incentives, and reward scheme and technical assistance. Two models have been developed using logistic regression model (LRM), model one (1) examined the predictable effect of economic and non-economic factors on the intention to adopt green building, whereas model two (2) examined the likelihood of the extent of green building adoption. The LRM results revealed five predictors and two control variables made a unique statistically significant contribution to model 1. The strongest predictor to enhance the intention to adopt green building was financial benefit (FB), recording an odds ratio of 9.1, which indicates that the likelihood to adopt is approximately 9.1 times more if financial benefits is evident. With respect to Model two (2), the LRM results showed that only two of the independent variables and three control variables contributed significantly to the mo el. The strongest predictor that determines the extent of adoption of green building was research and training of professionals (RTP), with odd ratio equal to 2.9. In effect, to engender the adoption of green building within the South African built environment, there is the need for an integrated and holistic approach forecasting on the importance of economic and non-economic enablers / facilitators in enhancing decision to adopt green building.