CHALLENGES TO SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The urge of sustainable development has received increasing interests among construction industry stakeholders. The construction industry is considered having a major role to participate in implementing the principles of sustainable development, which leads to the development of the discipline of sustainable construction. The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme has commissioned the important report on Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries (A21 SCDC) to facilitate the development of a strategy for introducing sustainable construction into developing countries. In line with this development, many research works have been conducted in investigating challenges and solutions for promoting sustainable construction in developing countries. It is well appreciated in the existing studies that implementation of sustainable construction in developing countries needs special attention concerning economics and social issue. This article presents comprehensive understanding on the comparison of practising sustainable construction between developed and developing countries. Focus is given to the investigation on the challenges to sustainable construction in developing countries. An empirical study using questionnaire survey was conducted in Malaysia and Hong Kong. The results revealed that the government is the main driver to implement sustainable construction. Suggestion of adopting efficient construction procurement systems to meet sustainable construction challenges is presented.