Barriers to successful implementation of sustainable construction in the Ghanaian construction industry

Sustainable construction efforts in some countries have been unsuccessful due to numerous barriers to its successful implementation. This study identifies and priorities likely barriers to successful implementation of sustainable construction in the Ghanaian construction industry and measures to overcome potential barriers. A multiple research approach involving semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey was adopted for the study. Interviews were carried out amongst purposively selected 18 contractors and 16 consultants whereas questionnaire survey was conducted among 100 randomly selected practitioners (58 Architects, 37 Quantity Surveyors and 5 Structural Engineers) to examine the relevance of the identified factors in the Ghanaian context. The factors identified as barriers to successful implementation of sustainable construction and measures to overcome potential barriers to sustainable construction were evaluated and ranked according to their mean scores. The five strongest barriers to the implementation of sustainable construction in Ghana are ranked as cultural change resistance, lack of government commitment, fear of higher investment costs, lack of professional knowledge, and lack of legislation respectively. Factor analysis using the SPSS Version 16 package enabled the barriers identified to be grouped under six components as 1) Financial barriers, 2) Political barriers, 3) Management/ Leadership barriers, 4) Technical barriers, 5) Socio-cultural barriers, 6) Knowledge/ Awareness barriers. The results of this study would enable the Ghanaian construction industry to be successful in its quest to implement sustainable construction. This will be possible through the implementation of the measures suggested to remove potential barriers to the implementation of sustainable construction. Identification of barriers and measures to overcome potential barriers are steps towards successful implementation of the sustainability concept in the Ghanaian construction industry