Measures to improve the adoption of life cycle assessment in the South African construction industry

Abstract

Purpose

In spite of the urge among stakeholders to increase sustainability in the built environment, the South African Construction Industry (SACI) continues to suffer from low level of adoption of strategies such as life cycle assessment (LCA) to increase sustainable building practices in building and infrastructure delivery, hence the need to increase the adoption of sustainable concepts and sustainability practices is an emergent necessity. This study aims to identify the measures that can increase the adoption of LCA toward overcoming the practical difficulties, theoretical concerns and structural differences encountered in making gains in achieving sustainable practices in the SA construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a deductive research design using a questionnaire survey with mean scores, Kruskal–Wallis and least square regression analysis done.

Findings

The study determined ten measures that can significantly influence about 88 per cent improvement in the success of LCA adopting in the SA industry. Also, there was a higher level of consensus in the findings which offers credence and good representation of the practical reality in the LCA adoption in South Africa.

Originality/value

These measures could be seen to embrace behavioural, social, technical and policy dimensions of LCA adoption. The findings are thus crucial in overcoming challenges to LCA methodologies in achieving sustainable building practices in the construction process in building and infrastructural delivery in SACI.

Citation

Kwofie, T.E., Aigbavboa, C.O. and Thwala, W.D. (2020), "Measures to improve the adoption of life cycle assessment in the South African construction industry", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 480-494. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-05-2019-0141