Sustainability Driven Procurement of Building Projects Incentives and Driving Factors from the Clients’ Perspective

Report, 2023

The construction industry is reported as one of the biggest global industries which accounted 30% global greenhouse gas emissions. The challenge of the construction industry is not merely on the reduction of emissions, but also extended towards other aspects of sustainability, consisting of the environmental, social, and economic pillars of sustainability. Sweden took action to handle the environmental issues by targeting on being climate neutral by 2045. Hence, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning, commonly known as Boverket, took more detailed action by stipulating climate declaration for all new buildings. The property developers play a vital role to boost sustainability in Sweden, since they have an increased influence in the hierarchy of the construction industry.

In this case, the drivers of sustainable development in the construction industry are partially reliant on the clients’ requirements requested in every project, as well as their ethics and initiatives. Therefore, this study investigates the state-of-the-art sustainable practices among property developers in Sweden to identify the main challenges in applying sustainable criteria during the procurement phase. This study was carried out by qualitative research which consists of a literature review and an empirical study of semi-structured interviews.

This study resulted in the identification of several common sustainable criteria, covering the three pillars of sustainability and also emphasising the fact that currently the property developers have an increased interest in environmental and economic sustainability, rather than social sustainability. The results of the study also raised the notion of long-term perspective, how it affects the business strategy on sustainability and the different perceptions that exist.

The study concludes that the market demand drives the implementation of the agenda on sustainability, among property developers in Sweden, while providing substantial information that could prove useful in the future development of the national agenda and its regulations.