DOI: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE17.121
Authors: Belle Chua Lee Yin and Richard Laing
Abstract:
Singapore faces specific and immediate risks due to environmental challenges and climate change. To overcome these challenges, the government has been making efforts to implement policies and guidelines on building designs and construction methods in order to achieve sustainable construction to develop an environmental friendly and resource-conserving city. This research provides a review of Singapore’s construction industry’s perception and awareness of sustainable construction and its effort in implementing new practice. An online questionnaire was conducted with the industry’s A1 contractors addressing common myths of sustainability, and whether regulatory compliance and initiatives will affect respondents’ perception, thereby changing their attitudes when practising sustainable construction. A Spearman rank correlation and Kendall’s coefficient tests relating to contractor’s awareness, attitudes and obstacles in practising sustainable construction were also conducted to identify if there is a monotonic relationship between the ordinal variables. The research shows that respondents positively embraced the idea of sustainability and some have adopted initiatives to further enhance their practices. Although a majority of such practices are due to regulatory compliances, however, through driving forces such as public sector taking the lead and government incentive programmes, the Singapore construction industry will be more responsive and thereby can pursue sustainable construction more effectively and efficiently.
Keywords: Singapore; sustainable construction; perception; myth; awareness; attitude; obstacles
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