Does the UK built environment sector have the institutional capacity to deliver sustainable development?

Globally, the construction sector has to reduce its environmental impact. Institutional innovation is necessary to achieve reductions at the required levels. Robust and rigorous evaluations of the industry's capacity to bring about such innovation are absent, although there is a plethora of policy incentives, and more frequently obligations, for the industry to take action. This paper evaluates the UK construction industry's institutional capacity to innovate to become more sustainable. The industry's current impact on the environment is first illustrated. The second section argues the case for institutional innovation to meet the UK Government's targets, and reviews the policy implementation and institutional innovation literature. A framework that is later used to evaluate the UK construction industry's institutional capacity to deliver sustainability concludes this section. The main body of the paper focuses on this evaluation by using secondary data published by key government departments and industry bodies. The conclusions identify the policy framework as the strongest aspect of the industry, whilst demonstrating that in other areas, i.e. content, capacity, commitment, and clients and collaborations, there is much room to develop institutional capacity. The fragmented industry structure and the current state of the economy are identified to be the main barriers to development.