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The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare cost and carbon critical elements of two office buildings, and to help achieve an optimum balance between the capital cost (CC) and embodied carbon (EC) of buildings.

Case study approach was employed to study cost and carbon critical elements of two office buildings as it allows an in-depth and holistic investigation. Elemental estimates of CC and EC were prepared from BoQs of the two buildings by obtaining rates from the UK Building Blackbook. Pareto principle (80:20 rule) was used to identify carbon and cost critical elements of the two buildings, and the significance hierarchies of building elements were compared.

Substructure, frame and services were identified as both carbon and cost critical elements responsible for more than 70 per cent of the total CC and EC of both buildings. Stairs and ramps, internal doors and fittings, furnishings and equipment were identified to be the least carbon- and cost-significant elements contributing less than 2 per cent of total CC and EC in both buildings. The hierarchy of cost and carbon significance varies between buildings due to the difference in the specification and design.

The increasing significance of dual currency (cost and carbon) demands cost and carbon management during the early stages of projects. Hence, this paper suggests that focusing on carbon and cost-intensive building elements is a way forward to keep both cost and carbon under control during the early stages of projects.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the prevailing conflict management styles in Sri Lankan commercial building industry from the main stakeholders’ perspective. The dual concern theory is applied to this study as a theory foundation.

The Sri Lankan commercial building industry is currently experiencing a construction boom after 30 years of civil war. Creating a dispute free environment through well conflict management is one of the main ways to keep the continuous demand and development of construction. However, the Sri Lankan construction sector is arranged in such a way that they directly approach the dispute resolution rather than avoiding the dispute initially through proper conflict management. Four cases are selected for this study with the intention of conducting meetings with three main stakeholders of each case who represented client, consultants and contractors, respectively.

The research findings reveal that compromising is the most common conflict management style used by the industry. Forcing style obtained the second place in the ranking whereas obliging and avoiding received third and fourth places.

This study is conducted to provide a full picture of conflicts faced by the Sri Lankan commercial building industry and their proper management so that the future projects will use this information to diminish the destructive effects of conflict situations and provide a real value for money.

This study aims to assess residential energy consumption knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Abuja Municipality, providing insights for effective conservation strategies, reducing costs and mitigating environmental impact.

Data for this study was collected through a cross-sectional survey conducted among a representative sample of the Nigerian population between February and April 2021. A total of 462 questionnaire responses were collected and subsequently analysed using SPSS. Descriptive statistics, including frequency count, percentages, mean, and standard deviation, were calculated. Additionally, inferential statistics were performed using Chi-Square analysis, with significant level set at p = 0.05 to draw meaningful conclusions from the data.

The study results indicate that out of the total respondents, 244 individuals (67.4%) demonstrated a profound knowledge of and good practice in energy utilisation. In comparison, 118 individuals (32.6%) exhibited poor knowledge and practice in energy saving. Moreover, the findings reveal a significant association between the sociodemographic factors of the respondents, building type, and their overall practice in energy utilisation. Statistical analysis shows significant? 2 values for each case: 8.563 (p = 0.003), 66.736 (p = 0.000), 60.866 (p = 0.000), 23.487 (p = 0.000), 37.877 (p = 0.000), and 92.334 (p = 0.000), respectively, where p < 0.05. These results highlight the importance of considering sociodemographic profiles and building characteristics when assessing general energy utilisation practices.

The research offers valuable insights into Nigerian energy usage behaviours and attitudes towards energy saving in residential buildings, contributing significantly to the knowledge base.

The Government’s investment in infrastructure projects is considerably high, especially in bridge construction projects. Government authorities must establish an initial forecasted budget to have transparency in transactions. Early cost estimating is challenging for Quantity Surveyors due to incomplete project details at the initial stage and the unavailability of standard cost estimating techniques for bridge projects. To mitigate the difficulties in the traditional preliminary cost estimating methods, there is a requirement to develop a new initial cost estimating model which is accurate, user friendly and straightforward. The research was carried out in Sri Lanka, and this paper aims to develop the artificial neural network (ANN) model for an early cost estimate of concrete bridge systems.

The construction cost data of 30 concrete bridge projects which are in Sri Lanka constructed within the past ten years were trained and tested to develop an ANN cost model. Backpropagation technique was used to identify the number of hidden layers, iteration and momentum for optimum neural network architectures.

An ANN cost model was developed, furnishing the best result since it succeeded with around 90% validation accuracy. It created a cost estimation model for the public sector as an accurate, heuristic, flexible and efficient technique.

The research contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing the most accurate early-stage cost estimate for the concrete bridge systems in Sri Lanka. In addition, the research findings would be helpful for stakeholders and policymakers to propose policy recommendations that positively influence the prediction of the most accurate cost estimate for concrete bridge construction projects in Sri Lanka and other developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to establish labour productivity norms (LPNs) on an elemental basis to investigate a measurement for the labour productivity (LP) of aluminium system formwork (ASF) in low-cost housing projects (LHPs) in Sri Lanka.

Case study approach was selected as the most appropriate for the study and semi-structured interviews, document review and direct observations were used for the data collection. Four case studies were conducted. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted among four cases. Further, document review was used in three cases, and direct observation was used in one case. The validation of the results was not possible in a real life project due to time limitations.

The findings identified six labour productivity factors (LPFs) affecting the LP of ASF. The need for LPNs for ASF on an elemental basis is identified. Further, LPNs were developed using LPFs.

This research was limited to LHPs for underserved settlements in Colombo, Sri Lanka which use ASF. The LPNs were prepared based on time studies and were restricted to structural elements such as slabs, beams and columns.

The LPNs were developed for ASF in LHPs based on the effect of weather, crew, site, management and project factors. Further, the study addresses a gap in the literature regarding the development of LPNs of ASF for LPHs in Sri Lanka. LPNs for ASF have enhanced LP while promoting economic and social stability in the industry.

Knowledge-based economies are popular in the present world. Simultaneously, universities are becoming more responsible for leading economic development through research. As a key contributor to the national economy, it is vital for the construction industry to move beyond outdated practices, and hence, reviewing the role of academic research in empowering the construction industry with knowledge is essential. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how relevant theories conceptualise the expected role of academic research in the innovative development of an industry and the specific location in the Sri Lankan construction industry.

Following a comprehensive literature review, empirical data were collected from the Sri Lankan context with a mixed approach informed by a pragmatist philosophical stance. The perspective of academia and industry practitioners were deductively obtained through surveys and inductively explored through qualitative interviews.

This study provides evidence that academic research in Sri Lanka does not contribute effectively to innovative construction management. Due to the absence of industry-focussed knowledge dissemination strategies, the academic–industry relationships are mostly non-research based. The industry lacks in research-informed-decision making, leading to lesser innovations.

The research conclusions are more applicable to the developing country construction industry contexts.

The research urges the need for improved academic–industry research collaborations and strategic knowledge dissemination movements.

The research confirms that academic research is a major integral part of the developing construction industry in a knowledge-based economy. In establishing the expected role of academic research, the research revealed the current practice to be under-located. Hence, the research prescribes the necessary actions; research collaborations in major and subsequent requirements.

This paper aims to explore and investigate the career success of professional women in the UK construction industry.

The aim of the research was set following the literature review and synthesis, after which a multiple case study approach is adopted to conduct exploratory case studies among professional women in the UK construction industry. A mixed method design was used for data collection, whereby qualitative data were collected in the first study and quantitative data were collected in the second study. The researcher adopted this sequence in order to gather qualitative data and analysis of a relatively unexplored area of career success factors of professional women in the UK construction industry. The results from the qualitative method were used, along with a relevant literature review, to develop the focus and questions in the quantitative phase of the study. The individuals in the first stage of data collection were not the same participants as those in the second stage, because the purpose of the quantitative study was to generalise the results to a population.

The results indicated that soft skills are very important for career success, while hard skills are essential thereafter for professional women in the UK construction industry. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop soft skills in order to advance the women's professional careers. Further, the results indicated that age and gender are the least important career success factors for women in construction. The ability to work with people, taking opportunities, confidence, adaptability, communication skills, dedication, competence, focus, supportive line management, integrity, leadership skills, ability to bring teams together, good mix of skills, honesty, networking, intelligence and logically approaching business problems identified as the critical career success factors.

The construction industry is limited to organisations that construct buildings and infrastructure, and those involved in property development. These organisations comprise client, contractor and consultancy organisations.

The findings of the paper are useful to human resource development managers to understand and improve organisational training and development plans, which help to advance the career of professional women. By doing so, organisations could recruit and retain more professional women in the construction industry. Therefore, recruiting and retaining more professional women in the organisation helps to enhance productivity in the industry and to enhance their health and well being in society at large.

The value of this paper is twofold. First, this study contributes to fill the knowledge gap in career success factors of professional women in the UK construction industry. Second, this empirical research will have implications in the identification of different training and development activities to advance the careers of women in the UK construction industry.

In this present globalised era, outsourcing has become a very popular and much sought after procurement strategy for facilities management (FM). Generally, a sustainable procurement system should be capable enough to deliver the services free of disruptions. However, outsourcing can bring about changes in working patterns, organisational culture and management styles which can possibly disrupt the activities of an organisation. In order to avoid such disruptions, organisations need to adopt a measured approach towards this change. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of change management to enable sustainable outsourcing of FM services.

Within commercial building context, the questions of “why change is not managed during outsourcing of FM services” and “how can it be managed” are investigated through case studies.

Organisations encountered various disagreements due to inadequate management of change during outsourcing. If the changes emanating from outsourcing are not managed satisfactorily, it would result in possible disruptions. However, to make changes happen successfully is one of the most challenging tasks faced by the leadership and corporate management of the organisations.

In order to facilitate the practitioners in the industry, this paper finally offers a framework for change management during outsourcing based on the findings.