Barriers to Green Building Project Implementation and Sustainability in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Abstract

This study on the Barriers to Green Building Project Implementation and sustainability in the Nigerian Construction Industry was conducted in River’s state to examine the inhibiting factors to the implementation of green building projects. Descriptive statistics, Factor analysis and Regression analysis were adopted to analyze the data that were established. Empirical findings of the study established significant relationship between the variables and the following barriers were revealed: ineffective government policies and programs focused on green construction, absence of locally established green building assessment or rating framework, little or no interest in sustainable development mantra, inconsistent interests and views of green building success rating criteria among various project stakeholders, cultural barriers, low stakeholders’ demand, inadequate awareness, inadequate research on green building, absence of green building cost and performance data, contractual procedure and professional unconsciousness, inability to easily evaluate energy and environmental impact, unavailability of local green building materials, unavailability of indigenous green building technologies, high cost of construction, limited financial and human resources, difficulty in justifying green facility benefits and savings compare to conventional ones and low perceived benefits. The study recommends that government should increase the campaign on green building practice by setting up regulations and policies that will gear up the construction industry stakeholders to fully implement green buildings, stakeholders in the construction industry should promote indigenous knowledge and know-how that encourages the integration of available natural resources to actualize the implementation of the various principles of green building and government intervention in terms of monetary grants and non-monetary inducements will help produce positive results against the barriers of green building practice.