ABSTRACT

This study investigated the assessment of the impact of sustainable building materials for construction list-of-project-and-materials/">project. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study used simple random sampling to select 240 respondents for the study from the field of Architecture, Building, Civil Engineering, and Quantity surveying in Lagos state. The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The questionnaire was the main research instrument used for the study to gather necessary data from the sample respondents. The data collected were coded and analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software package version 21. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used. Also, the study used mean deviation. The results of the study revealed that with a grand mean of 2.93, the respondents had a firm knowledge and perception of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry. Furthermore, the highlighted challenges in the implementation of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry were: Inadequate research and educational courses on the use of sustainable building materials, lack of skilled and knowledgeable manpower, lack of scientific information, high payment of skilled labor, wastage of materials, resistance to change from traditional method to other methods, insufficient manufacturers, high capital cost, and project delivery and quality concern. The study outlined six major strategies that can be used to promote the use of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian building industry, namely: Educational courses on sustainable building materials in institutions, application of sustainable building materials in big projects, training courses on sustainable building materials, government support with startup capital and also intervene, specialist and experts on sustainable building materials should present sustainable building materials as an alternative construction method, companies should upgrade their construction method to sustainable building materials by sponsoring staffs on sustainable building materials courses. The study recommended that there is need for adequate education on the use and benefits of sustainable building materials for construction project.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

1.2 Statement of the problem

1.3 Research questions

1.4 Aim and objectives of the study

1.5 Research hypothesis

1.6 Justification of the study

1.7 The scope of the study

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Concept of sustainable building

2.2 Implementation of sustainable building materials

2.3 Consumer Awareness and Purchase Behaviour for sustainable building materials

2.4 Construction Industry in Nigeria and Need for sustainable building materials

2.5 Benefits of sustainable building materials Component

2.6 Barriers in Implementing Sustainable building materials

2.7 Summary of literature review

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

3.2 Research Population and Sampling Design

3.3 Data Requirements and Sources

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis

3.5 Ethical Issues

Chapter Four: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data presentation and Analysis

4.2 Test of hypothesis

4.3 Discussion of Results

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

5.1 Summary

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Recommendations

5.4 Suggestions for further studies.

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the study

The construction industry plays a vital role in the wheel propelling the Nigerian economy. The continuously problems faced by Nigerian construction industry, includes poor performance of time and cost, poor productivity, failed structures, unequitable and unjustified contractors and consultants, too much reliance on foreign skills and workers and much more (Dave et al., 2017).

Nigeria, just like any other developing country, considers the construction industry as one of the main contributors to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It influences the country’s economic activity, adds up to government revenue, creates investment benefits and provides employment opportunity to specially trained workers (Steinhardt and Manley, 2016). The construction industry plays an essential role in the economic development of any developing nation, and especially in an expanding economy like Nigeria (Bari et al., 2012).

Through globalisation, so many information, knowledge, and technology can be shared and transferred easily across countries. Sustainable building materials is one of the technologies which can be categorised as an old technology in developed country but yet considered as a new technology when reached developing countries such as Nigeria (Zhu et al., 2018).

Sustainable building materials is the term coined by the industry and government in Nigeria to represent the adoption of construction industrialisation and the use of prefabrication of components in building construction. sustainable building materials is defined as a construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site work (Hamid et al., 2018). It consists of precast component systems, fabricated steel structures, innovative mould systems, modular block systems and prefabricated timber structures as construction components (CIDB, 2013). Parts of the building that are repetitive but difficult – and too time consuming and labour intensive to be casted onsite – are designed and detailed as standardised components at the factory and are then brought to the site to be assembled (CIDB, 2013). The onsite casting activities in sustainable building materials utilise innovative and clean mould technologies (CIDB, 2017). In the Nigerian context, the classification by the CIDB is widely used and well understood by scholars and practitioners.

In addition, the huge demand for construction projects, especially building construction, has fostered a new interest in Sustainable building materialss (sustainable building materials) to replace the traditional approaches. These approaches could save on labour, cost and time of construction, and confer quality and durability (Zhu et al., 2018). However, the main aim of sustainable building materials in Nigeria is to reduce the dependency on foreign labour and save the country’s loss in foreign exchange (Ogunde et al., 2016).

In another dimension, the utilization of prefabricated components shows a decline in the use of materials such as cement, sand, timber, steel and formwork due to lower amount of framing and foundation works (Chiang et al., 2016). Additionally, smart and innovative construction techniques have been linked to sustainable building materials model of construction delivery. The ability to implement this method of construction strategies aimed at promoting built environment sustainability will create a balance in construction.

The adoption of sustainable building materials has shown some drawbacks. Chiang et al. (2016) attributed the limitations of sustainable building materials to cost arising from setting up of fabrication yards and transportation, vertical transportation on site, labour training, and jointing problems. The cost factor is further reinforced by Ogunde et al. (2016) by identifying initial construction cost as the main impediments in achieving sustainable building materials in Nigeria. Low incorporation of innovation such as automation, standardization and modularization in construction industry is observed by Xue et al. (2018). Other challenging factors such as lack of awareness, negative perception among designers and customers and jointing issues were.

Policies and initiatives have emanated in promoting sustainable building materials in many countries. Rashidi and Ibrahim (2017) assert that from 1962-2015 various advanced and developing countries have initiated polices and departments that drives the implementation of sustainable building materials in their respective regions. In Asia, Malaysia has the highest strategy in form of sustainable building materials Strategic Plan 1998, sustainable building materials Roadmap 2013–2010, Construction Industry Master Plan 2016–2015, sustainable building materials Roadmap 2011–2015 and Construction Industry Transformation Program 2016–2021, 2015. This action is followed by Singapore promoting Construction 21 and Reinventing Construction, 1998 while Japan is with Future Directions of the Construction Industry, 1998. UK is leading in Europe with programmes like Greater Integration of the Design and Construction Process, 1962; Constructing the team (Latham report) 1994, Construction task force (rethinking construction), 1998, Construction client group CCG, 2004 and Build offsite, 2016 initiatives. Finland is pursuing Reengineering the construction process using ICT, 2002 and Ireland has Building our future together, 2017. Australia has embarked on Building for growth initiative, 2019 while USA hinged on National Construction Goals,1994. In Africa, South Africa formulated Creating an enabling environment for Reconstruction growth and development in the construction industry, 2017 to attain sustainable building materials. Irrespective of these initiatives and projects developed with sustainable building materials technique across climes, researchers are of the view that the adoption has not been commensurate with traditional method of construction. This situates the need to investigate the critical success factors that promise effective implementation of sustainable building materials in Nigeria.

However, there have been little studies undertaken to offer insight into problems of CSFs for application in sustainable building materials projects in developing countries such as in Nigeria. Omotayo and Keraminiyage (2014) compared the knowledge gap in lean and offsite construction techniques in Nigeria and UK. Ogunde et al. (2016) evaluated challenges and factors influencing the use of prefabrication in Nigeria while Ojoko et al. (2018) qualitatively identified and evaluated the factors hindering the sustainable building materials performance in the Nigerian mass housing projects. Also, a mixed study of Zakari, et al. (2017) explored the perceptions of construction personnel in Nigeria on the use of sustainable building materials. This study therefore draws on Ojoko et al. (2018) by examining the CSFs influencing the implementation of sustainable building materialss (sustainable building materials) in Nigeria.

The population of Nigeria is about 186.9 million (2016) and with a claim of about 17 million housing deficit, the country will continue to embark on developing an affordable and sustainably low and medium house. Furthermore, infrastructures are needed due to the growing population, the increasing demand for construction witnessed shall continue as long as the population increases and there is improvement in the quality of life of the populace. Meeting the infrastructural needs of Nigeria within the framework of sustainable development will require that new technology and sustainable strategies to be adopted.

Despite lots of problems faced by Nigeria, the need for infrastructures for the growing populace is one of the problems, implementing sustainable building materials to help in overcoming such problems. The outlook for sustainable building materials implementation in Nigeria is bright, but great work is still needed from both the government and individuals to be able to adopt sustainable building materials construction method. Therefore, this project.com.ng/list-of-project-and-materials/">research is focused on determining the assessment of the impact of sustainable building materials for construction project and how it can be improved to solve the infrastructure and housing needs in Nigeria.

 

1.2       Statement of the problem

Although the long-introduced Sustainable building materials has promised to solve and improved the current construction method and scenario in our country, but the sustainable building materials method has been low in gaining popularity, partly due to lack of awareness and coordination among the relevant parties. Currently, the level of usage of sustainable building materials method is very low as compared to the conventional methods in building construction (CIDB, 2015). In spite of its many benefits, the different perceptions among the construction players and practitioners towards its application in construction industry has led to the low usage of sustainable building materials components in the construction industry.

The importance of sustainability issues has increased among the global community and it is necessary for all parties involved – local authorities, contractors, governments, consultants and architects – to respond quickly to these changes and constraints (Yang et al., 2015). Several studies have been carried out regarding the sustainability of construction and building, and from these studies the importance of sustainability has been highlighted (Cohen, 2016; Ding, 2018; San-José et al., 2017; Vanegas, 2013).

Moreover Blismas, et al. (2016) reported that the construction industry is still far from achieving the ideal objective as articulated in sustainable building materials Roadmap even though almost all activities identified in the roadmap has been implemented. Based on the Roadmap mid-term review, it is clearly stated that one of the most barriers is negative perception by the consumer and the practitioner. Even contractors whom experiences in sustainable building materials construction project before, reluctant to use sustainable building materials in their next project. Why is this so?

A building requires assembling different materials through the process of construction.  Some of these materials include concrete, timber (wood), steel and glass and so on. Energy is involved in the extraction of these raw materials, their processing and transportation from the factory to the construction site and their eventual placement.  In most of the developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, there is a general dependence on fossil fuel for energy generation for these processes. This results in the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane etc in the atmosphere resulting in the depletion of ozone layer thus causing global warming and by extension, climate change.

Some building materials such as steel, glass, concrete are manufactured from raw materials that their replacement require geological years while tree is continually being fell for construction work without due consideration for afforestation, consequently the nature is over exploited resulting in environmental degradation, desertification, desert encroachment and imbalance in the ecosystem.  Fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere during photosynthesis.

Furthermore, the abundance of cheap unskilled workers and large initial capital outlay are among the barriers to the implementation of sustainable building materials (Blismas, et al., 2016; Blismas & Wakefield, 2019; Chiang et al., 2016; Haron et al., 2019; Kamar, et al., 2019). All these reasons influence builders to select a conventional method instead of changing to sustainable building materials.

 

1.3       Research questions

1. What is the level of knowledge of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry?
2. What are the challenges of sustainable building materials implementation in the Nigerian construction industry?
3. What are the strategies to promote the use of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry?

 

1.4       Aim and objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to examine the assessment of the impact of sustainable building materials for construction project. The following are the specific objectives of the study:

1. To determine the level of knowledge of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry.
2. To evaluate the challenges of sustainable building materials implementation in the Nigerian construction industry.
3. To develop strategies to promote the use of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry.

 

1.5       Research hypothesis

Ho: There are no challenges in the implementation and use of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry.

Ha: There are challenges in the implementation and use of sustainable building materials in the Nigerian construction industry.

 

1.6       Justification of the study

The study is attempted to propose a better alternative method for housing construction. As the construction industry now is facing the challenges of four aspects of time, cost, quality and safety, besides the demands of hundred thousand houses development in Nigeria, it is vital to have a systematic method to be used in this industry. Therefore, sustainable building materials used in double storey houses has been introduced.

Other than that, this study will be used as a guideline model for the developer or the contractor of sustainable building materials projects in the future to construct houses using sustainable building materials components with detail information especially on time and resources usage. Besides, this study will show them on how to manage sustainable building materials construction method at site by considering the best sequence process whereby it will offer the optimum resources utilization with minimum construction time. Finally, the idea gathered and simulation model produced from this study may help all parties involved in sustainable building materials construction to prevent unnecessary problems.

Yet, it is hoped that the widespread understanding on the Sustainable building materials can further help to develop and promote sustainable building materials as an innovative construction method in Nigeria.

 

1.7       The scope of the study

The scope of this project.com.ng/list-of-project-and-materials/">research will be limited to the construction industry sector, which involves the sustainable building materials as the main components in their projects. This research will identify the most crucial assessment of the impact of sustainable building materials for construction project.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1       Concept of sustainable building