Communicating Environmental Information in Construction Projects - a case study

Other conference contribution, 2004

The way members of a construction project generate environmental knowledge depends on the accessibility of environmental information channels. This paper is based on an on-going study of environmental information in project organisations. Study object is a construction project, the Tunnel Project. Methods used were in-depth interviews, on-site observations and a survey of more than 500 documents. The aim is to explore how environmental information is communicated and by whom in a project organisation. Findings show that meetings were considered as the most important and receptive channels to communicate environmental information within the project organisation. Environmental information is seldom actively searched for, and even more seldom searched for outside the sphere of the company. Most often the environmental coordinator on site is asked or they call a colleague. The environmental coordinator had also an important role as communicator of environmental information in the project organisation. As selector and interpreter of incoming environmental information he worked as a filter for environmental information. The study reveals that informational exchange between the project organisation and other parts of the company did not frequently occur, which made the project organisation members feeling isolated. Finally, in spite of good availability of a computer-based EMS and a common web-based project-platform, these recourses were not used to their full potential.