Barriers of incorporating environmental sustainability in industrial buildings : A case study of structural engineers

The construction industry is large and accounts for a major part of the total CO2 emissions each year. The structural engineer has a significant role to decrease the environmental impact of a construction project. This thesis aims to find ways to reach increased environmental sustainability among structural engineers in the construction industry. Barriers to working more environmentally sustainable are investigated to understand what influences the sustainability. To gain data a case study with a qualitative approach was performed at a technical construction consultancy firm in Sweden. Interviews were done mainly with structural engineers but employees working together with the engineers was also interviewed. Through the interviews, insights, thoughts and opinions was gathered which were used to find barriers that could influence the structural engineers. The results show that it is foremost through conscious material selection and optimal structural design that the environmental footprint can be decreased by the structural engineer. Barriers were found to be lack of knowledge, unclear responsibilities, unclear requirements of sustainability in the projects and conflicts between social, financial and environmental sustainability. To improve sustainability endeavours within the company the barriers detected during the study must be dealt with. The results of the study may help direct efforts for implementing sustainability in construction consultancy firms.