Sourani, A and Sohail, M (2013) Enabling sustainable construction in UK public procurement. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 166(6), pp. 297-312. ISSN 17514312
Abstract
Sustainable construction is about achieving a balance between the social, economic and environmental aspects of construction so that the costs and the benefits, evaluated along these three dimensions, are optimised. Whereas official reports published in the UK have reflected the increasing emphasis on addressing sustainability principles in procurement, the literature suggests that there has been relatively little research on sustainable procurement in the public sector. The aim of this paper is to provide an agreed, comprehensive and evidence-based research into the factors that enable UK public clients to better address sustainable construction in developing procurement strategies. Seeking triangulation, the investigation was conducted using a Delphi exercise and semi-structured interviews/ discussions which involved sustainability professionals and experts. As a result, 41 factors considered to be important for UK public clients to better address sustainable construction in developing procurement strategies were identified. These were categorised into knowledge and perception factors, organisational and management factors, political and regulative factors, logistical factors, contractual factors, instrumental factors, strategic factors and financial factors.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | procurement; public policy; sustainability |
| Index terms: | public client, dimension, financial factor, investigation, procurement strategy, public sector, exercise, triangulation, public policy, evidence, sustainable construction, interview |
| Subjects: | sociology, administrative law, data collection methods, research design and methodology, health monitoring assessment and metrics, sustainable construction, evaluation and assessment methods, health behaviours and lifestyles, public policy, contractual arrangements, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Sustainability, Procurement, Health and Safety, Governance, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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