Florez, L; Castro, D and Irizarry, J (2013) Measuring sustainability perceptions of construction materials. Construction Innovation, 13(2), pp. 217-234. ISSN 1471-4175
Abstract
Purpose - As more owners seek to develop sustainable buildings, the construction industry is adapting to new requirements in order to meet owners' concerns. Recently, a significant change in the construction industry has been the increased interest in sustainable materials. Sustainable materials are the potential resource to mitigate the impact on the environment and bring significant economic, social, and environmental benefits. For an efficient materials selection process, the content of information should match decision makers' needs and requirements. Although the availability of various information sources on sustainable materials is increasing, researchers have not agreed upon a clear designation, often leading to imprecise definition of the term and its usage. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach - This study attempts to understand sustainability by concentrating on how this term is reflected in construction materials' images and perceived by design and construction students and practitioners. A measurement instrument is developed based on a literature review and further tested with web-based evaluation of brick to measure user-based assessment of product sustainability. Findings - Results of exploratory factor analysis are used to refine the instrument and indicate the main sustainability factors which may be used as guidelines for information developers to present suitable information in materials' databases. Originality/value - This paper fulfils an identified need to study how perceptions may affect decision making to increase the understanding of issues affecting knowledge in product sustainability and awareness of sustainable materials.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building design practices; construction industry; construction materials; factor analysis; materials' databases; perceptions; sustainable design; sustainable development; sustainable materials; web-based evaluations |
| Index terms: | practitioner, decision-making, methodology, sustainable building, sustainable material, sustainable design, exploratory factor analysis, sustainable development, literature review, design and construction, factor analysis, construction material, construction industry, building design, database, owner |
| Subjects: | sustainable materials, practitioner, data analysis and analytics, contractual arrangements, architectural design, building materials, health safety and environment, sustainable construction, design process, research methods, industry analysis, statistical analysis, data management, sociology, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Construction Materials, Health and Safety, Procurement, Sustainability, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Design Practice, Digital Applications |
| 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