The benefits of green buildings is fuelling greater interest in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry to accommodate more green building projects. However, green building projects are more complex and innovative than non-green building projects due to the involvement of new technologies, materials, and regulations related to environmental issues. With the increasing demand for green buildings, coupled with heightened perceptions of the risks associated with going green, the best ways to deliver these buildings should be explored. However, (i) the extensive number of project management factors in the AEC industry, and (ii) the complexity of green building projects have made it difficult to determine the controllable project management factors for deliveri...[ Read more ]

The benefits of green buildings is fuelling greater interest in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry to accommodate more green building projects. However, green building projects are more complex and innovative than non-green building projects due to the involvement of new technologies, materials, and regulations related to environmental issues. With the increasing demand for green buildings, coupled with heightened perceptions of the risks associated with going green, the best ways to deliver these buildings should be explored. However, (i) the extensive number of project management factors in the AEC industry, and (ii) the complexity of green building projects have made it difficult to determine the controllable project management factors for delivering green building projects. Therefore the objectives of this study is to identify the project management factors that affect the delivery of green building projects and analyse the impact of key project management factors on green building project delivery.

First, a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from green building practitioners to identify key project management factors in green building projects. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were performed on the collected data to identify the most important factors affecting green building project delivery. Cost and project team related factors were identified as the key success factors for green building project delivery.

Second, project team compositions in green building projects were studied using a modified version of the page rank algorithm. The results show a positive relationship between the final green building certification and the collaboration between experienced green building organizations.

Third, a social network analysis (SNA) model was developed to study and understand the impacts of inter-organizational relationships in green building projects. The findings show that, specifically for green building projects, (i) early involvement of green building consultant in the design and construction aspects and (ii) active involvement of contractor in the sustainability aspect helped achieve a higher level of green building certification.

Lastly, a system dynamics model was developed to analyse the inter-relationships among project management factors in green building projects. The primary findings of the study show that the factors such as contract type, early involvement of contractor and early involvement of the green building (GB) consultant are more important than factors such as collaboration level and stakeholder quality.

This research contributes new body of knowledge to the green building project delivery domain. The results of this study will be useful for owners, project managers and green building consultants to help successfully strategize and manage their green building projects. With the help of the research findings, project organizations could manage their green building projects to achieve higher rating levels in a more efficient and effective way.