Project Management Affecting the Productivity and Sustainability of a Green Building: A Literature Review

Abstract

The green building industry has experienced a rapid growth over the past decade. A large body of studies have evaluated the technical factors, that affecting the productivity and the sustainability of green buildings. However, few of them focuses on nontechnical factors. Even though, the practices of design and construction form up the skeleton of a green building, the project management process plays the role of soft tissue which links the parts of skeleton and ensures the smoothness and durability of its activities. With comparisons against traditional constructions, this study aims to sum up the factors affecting the sustainability and productivity of green building constructions from the aspects of project management based on previous studies, and to understand the role of project management in achieving the sustainable objectives. In summary, the major factors affecting the productivity of green construction project are summarized as (1) supervision of labor; (2) sequencing of work; (3) capability of project manager; (4) communication; (5) efficiency of instruction; (6) planning of site layout and (7) inspection delay. Moreover, this study also identifies the roles of project management in each stage of a green construction project to achieve the sustainable objectives, including (1) effective coordination and communication; (2) benchmarking and supervision; (3) commissioning and (4) documentation.