Liu, A M M; Lau, W S W and Fellows, R (2012) The contributions of environmental management systems towards project outcome: Case studies in Hong Kong. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 8(3), pp. 160-169. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
Sustainable development has been promoted and pursued for many years within the environmental, economic and social domains, i.e., the triple bottom line. From such perspectives, sustainable construction integrates low-energy design with materials which have minimum environmental impact while maintaining ecological diversity. The sustainability concept is supported but not fully implemented in Hong Kong compared with countries such as the UK. This study proposes a sustainable construction model with three key factors, namely, government policy, contract procurement system and environment management system (EMS). In this study, the effects of EMS are tested through case studies of a sample of school development projects in Hong Kong. Performance comparisons between contractors with and without ISO 14001 certification are analysed. The results show that, in general, the implementation of EMS enhances the achievement of sustainable construction outcomes.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | environmental management systems; sustainable construction; sustainable development |
| Index terms: | implementation, government policy, environmental impact, procurement system, low-energy design, sustainable development, project outcome, Hong Kong, ISO, environmental management system, case study, sustainable construction, management system, certification |
| Subjects: | administrative processes, Geography, health safety and environment, sustainable construction, management, contractual arrangements, public policy, sustainability and energy, standards development, environmental impact, control systems, data collection methods, project completion |
| Topics: | Procurement, Governance, Sustainability, Geographical Context, Project Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Organizational Design, Contract Administration, Quality Management, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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