Militating Factors Against the Practice of Green Building as a New Paradigm in Construction Projects

Abstract

The green construction techniques is a relatively new building philosophy with an unprecedented opportunity to in the global carbon reduction targets as well as pushing the application of more environmentally friendly materials, strategies of saving resources, lower waste production, and the improvement of indoor environmental quality, among others. However, this technique is faced with many pullbacks especially in Nigeria. Hence, the paper sought to assess the militating factors against the practice of green building as a new paradigm in construction projects. The research implored the combination of a quantitative and qualitative approach. The focus was on the buildings within FUTO with more concentration of new buildings constructed between 2012 and 2017. The primary data was obtained through observations and by administering questionnaires to lecturers familiar with the design, construction and management of the buildings. For quantitative method, parameters that define green construction with a range of variables from minimal to complete incorporation of the elements, determined the degree of conformity. The result from the research revealed that, to a ‘Great extent’, lack of enforcement and limited research were the greatest militating factor facing practitioners in the adoption of green building concept with these two factors having relative importance index (RII) of 0.81 and 0.79 respectively. Lack of awareness (0.63) was a moderate challenge practitioners faced in the adoption of the concepts. The research recommends that suitable policy, structure and consequence be put in place to enforce green building concept as well as opportunity for continuous research in this field.