Sustainable Model for Improving Construction Industry Health and Safety Practices

Over the years, the construction industry in Malaysia has had more fatalities than any other sector, and the bulk of these incidents have been related to subpar health and safety procedures. Therefore, this research created a model for sustainable health and safety practices that will enhance health and safety standards in the Malaysian construction industry. To achieve this, a comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the critical success factors for sustainable health and safety practice, which then were categorized under the three sustainable pillars after expert review: 29 factors were grouped under economic sustainability, 27 factors were grouped under social sustainability, and 11 factors were grouped under environmental sustainability. These then were used to develop a closed-ended questionnaire that was administered to construction stakeholders. A total of 158 completed surveys were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The study found that environmental, social, and economic sustainability all have a significant impact on sustainable health and safety practices. Hence, in order to improve health and safety in the construction industry, there is need to incorporate all these factors in health and safety models. This research is the first to integrate sustainability into health and safety practices in Malaysia. The practical implication of this study is that it provides insight into how construction industry accidents can be minimized by helping construction stakeholders to understand how to enhance health and safety practices.