Gao, H; Zhang, L and Gu, S (2026) Carbon emission efficiency measurement of construction enterprises based on the three-stage DEA-sbm model. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 152(4): 04026028, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Construction enterprises are actively involved in engineering exploration, design, construction, and other activities that consume significant materials and resources. The development of a reliable method for measuring carbon emission efficiency (CEE) can help analyze their emission reduction potential, thus balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. Along these lines, in this work, an enhanced three-stage data envelopment analysis slack-based measure model with undesirable outputs was employed to evaluate the CEEs of 55 publicly listed Chinese construction enterprises from 2017 to 2022. With the proposed methodology, various environmental influences are systematically eliminated through stochastic frontier analysis. Our analysis demonstrated substantial differences in CEEs between the first and third stages. Three environmental variables—economic development, total completed project value, and per capita output—were taken as determinants. After adjusting for these factors, the average CEE of construction enterprises over six years was found to be approximately 0.73, peaking in 2021, with significant room for improvement. According to the enterprise types, municipal installation enterprises exhibit the highest average efficiency (0.81), followed by decoration and renovation enterprises (0.78). Meanwhile, ecological landscaping enterprises show the greatest potential for emission reduction. China Communications Construction Co., Ltd., and China State Construction Engineering Corporation have maintained a leading position in CEEs in the industry for many years, while the CEEs of Shanghai Prosolar Resources Development Co., Ltd., Beijing New Space Technology Co., Ltd., and Shandong Meichen Science & Technology Co., Ltd., can only reach around 60%. Our work provides policymakers and industry leaders with empirical evidence for developing targeted decarbonization road-maps in the construction sector, which is particularly valuable for emerging economies experiencing rapid urbanization.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | Beijing, renovation, construction engineering, determinant, data envelopment analysis, economic growth, carbon emission, efficiency, urbanization, emerging economy, evidence, methodology, exploration, environmental sustainability, China, construction sector, maps, economic development, science, Shanghai, slack |
| Subjects: | economic development, research methods, spatial and geospatial analysis, Geography, health safety and environment, urban planning, operations research, environmental resource management, evaluation and assessment methods, specialized education, climate science, industry analysis, renovation and retrofit, performance management, engineering methods, data analysis and analytics, risk assessment |
| Topics: | Governance, Research Practice, Time Control, International Construction, Sustainability, Risk Management, Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Education, Quality Management |
| 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