Understanding the Green Building Industry in Thailand

Promoting green building has become a global trend to improve resource efficiency and well-being of societies. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the key aspects of the green building industry in Thailand (i.e., critical successful factors, key green technologies, and barriers) and to provide a sound basis for deeply understanding the drivers of the industry. Based on a survey of consultants, architects, and engineers, the results show that critical success factors of green building are mainly related to competence of project participants, integration of project team, technical and management innovation, external environment, and project characteristics. The analysis of green technical capabilities demonstrates that project participants should emphasize improving technical skills in green building, use of green materials, and familiarity with green building rating systems. Barriers to green building mainly arise from financial pressure, technical limitation, and inadequate promotion. The findings can help project participants to adopt appropriate strategies in boosting green building in emerging markets of developing countries. Future studies should focus on levering the demand of the market, integrated green technology innovation, and management measures at project, organizational, and industrial levels