Investigating Barriers to Implement and Develop Sustainable Construction

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The construction industry plays a crucial role in a sustainable development. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has traced almost 40% of Carbon Dioxide emissions in the United States to the construction industry. As the world’s population grows, the demand for housing, infrastructures, and other facilities grows as well. If trends continue as they are now, CO2 emissions initiated by the construction industry will continue to grow exponentially significantly endangering our planet. Therefore, implementing and developing sustainable practices in construction is critical to curbing the rising CO2 emissions, global warming, and environmental crisis to build sustainable and smart cities. Sustainable design and construction aim for efficiency and low operating costs at the life cycle of projects. Sustainable buildings and sustainability in construction have received much attention in recent years. Although statistics show a steady increase in the popularity of sustainable projects, the construction industry is lacking a large movement in sustainability. There are many obstacles and barriers in the way of future development for green living in smart cities. In order to widely implement sustainable practices and construct sustainable buildings, these barriers need to be identified, investigated, and tackled. The current study aims to investigate the barriers to the implementation and development of sustainable construction. Thirty construction professionals in the US were interviewed to find the most critical barriers of the sustainable construction. Fifteen obstacles were identified among which financial constraints, design constraints, inadequate technology are among the top factors. The results of this article can be used by construction professionals and policymakers to accelerate broad implementation of sustainability in construction projects. By implementing sustainability, the construction industry will take a huge step to protect our environment for the next generation and also to the development of smart green cities.