IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v16y2012i6p3910-3916.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability policy of construction contractors: A review

Author

Listed:
  • Zuo, Jian
  • Zillante, George
  • Wilson, Lou
  • Davidson, Kathryn
  • Pullen, Stephen

Abstract

Sustainability is an issue of concern in many industrial sectors. The construction industry is no exception. The study described in this paper adopts a critical qualitative approach to investigate sustainability policy practices in the construction industry. This approach includes a statement of principles, sustainability reporting incorporated within a financial report, and a stand-alone sustainability reporting system. The top international contractors listed by Engineering News Record (ENR) were examined. The results show that sustainability policy development varies from case to case in these companies but trends are emerging on common issues addressed. The findings show a trend of increasingly level of disclosure of corporation's commitmnets an achievements on sustainability. Similarly, the energy efficiency and conservation, greenhouse gas emission reduction and integration of renewable energy resources into projects are among the common themes of these sustainability policies disclosed by construction contractors. The construcion industry can learn from the energy sector that is advanced in sustainability reporting.

Suggested Citation

  • Zuo, Jian & Zillante, George & Wilson, Lou & Davidson, Kathryn & Pullen, Stephen, 2012. "Sustainability policy of construction contractors: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 3910-3916.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:16:y:2012:i:6:p:3910-3916
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2012.03.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032112001931
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2012.03.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kumar, Sameer & Putnam, Valora, 2008. "Cradle to cradle: Reverse logistics strategies and opportunities across three industry sectors," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 305-315, October.
    2. Stewart Jones & Geoff Frost & Janice Loftus & Sandra Laan, 2007. "An Empirical Examination of the Market Returns and Financial Performance of Entities Engaged in Sustainability Reporting," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 17(41), pages 78-87, March.
    3. Buytaert, V. & Muys, B. & Devriendt, N. & Pelkmans, L. & Kretzschmar, J.G. & Samson, R., 2011. "Towards integrated sustainability assessment for energetic use of biomass: A state of the art evaluation of assessment tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3918-3933.
    4. Streimikiene, Dalia & Simanaviciene, Zaneta & Kovaliov, Ruslan, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility for implementation of sustainable energy development in Baltic States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 813-824, May.
    5. Carol A. Adams & Patty McNicholas, 2007. "Making a difference," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 382-402, June.
    6. repec:arz:wpaper:eres2009-220 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Lankoski, Leena, 2009. "Cost and revenue impacts of corporate responsibility: Comparisons across sustainability dimensions and product chain stages," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 57-67, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liwen Liu & Yaling Zhang & Lu Zhao & Cun Zhan & Chuan Liang, 2021. "An Attempt to Evaluate the Green Construction of Large-Scale Hydropower Projects: Taking Wudongde Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River, China as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Shi, Qian & Yu, Tao & Zuo, Jian, 2015. "What leads to low-carbon buildings? A China study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 726-734.
    3. Kazemi, Maha Zadeh & Elamer, Ahmed A. & Theodosopoulos, Grigorios & Khatib, Saleh F.A., 2023. "Reinvigorating research on sustainability reporting in the construction industry: A systematic review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Yuan, Xueliang & Wang, Xujiang & Zuo, Jian, 2013. "Renewable energy in buildings in China—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Geng, Shengnan & Wang, Yuan & Zuo, Jian & Zhou, Zhihua & Du, Huibin & Mao, Guozhu, 2017. "Building life cycle assessment research: A review by bibliometric analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 176-184.
    6. Zuo, Jian & Zhao, Zhen-Yu, 2014. "Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 271-281.
    7. Keehoon Kwon & Doyeong Kim & Sunkuk Kim, 2021. "Cutting Waste Minimization of Rebar for Sustainable Structural Work: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Shi, Qian & Lai, Xiaodong & Xie, Xin & Zuo, Jian, 2014. "Assessment of green building policies – A fuzzy impact matrix approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 203-211.
    9. Chang, Rui-Dong & Zuo, Jian & Zhao, Zhen-Yu & Zillante, George & Gan, Xiao-Long & Soebarto, Veronica, 2017. "Evolving theories of sustainability and firms: History, future directions and implications for renewable energy research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 48-56.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohajan, Haradhan, 2021. "Cradle to Cradle is a Sustainable Economic Policy for the Better Future," MPRA Paper 111334, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Oct 2021.
    2. Matias Laine, 2009. "Ensuring legitimacy through rhetorical changes?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(7), pages 1029-1054, September.
    3. Blackburn, Nivea & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse & Hooper, Val, 2014. "A dialogical framing of AIS–SEA design," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 83-101.
    4. Halkos, George & Nomikos, Stylianos, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility: Trends in global reporting initiative standards," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 106-117.
    5. Rahman, Shams & Subramanian, Nachiappan, 2012. "Factors for implementing end-of-life computer recycling operations in reverse supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 239-248.
    6. Tomasz L. Nawrocki & Danuta Szwajca, 2021. "A Multidimensional Comparative Analysis of Involvement in CSR Activities of Energy Companies in the Context of Sustainable Development Challenges: Evidence from Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, July.
    7. S. Maryam Masoumi & Nima Kazemi & Salwa Hanim Abdul-Rashid, 2019. "Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Automotive Industry: A Process-Oriented Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-30, July.
    8. Agrawal, Saurabh & Singh, Rajesh K. & Murtaza, Qasim, 2016. "Outsourcing decisions in reverse logistics: Sustainable balanced scorecard and graph theoretic approach," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 41-53.
    9. Kalogerakis, Katharina & Drabe, Viktoria & Paramasivam, Mugundan & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2015. "Closed-Loop Supply Chains for Cradle to Cradle Products," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Sustainability in Logistics and Supply Chain Management: New Designs and Strategies. Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics , volume 21, pages 3-34, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    10. Jintao Lu & Licheng Ren & Siqin Yao & Jiayuan Qiao & Wadim Strielkowski & Justas Streimikis, 2019. "Comparative Review of Corporate Social Responsibility of Energy Utilities and Sustainable Energy Development Trends in the Baltic States," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Grosser, Kate & Moon, Jeremy, 2008. "Developments in company reporting on workplace gender equality?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 179-198.
    12. Suzanne, Elodie & Absi, Nabil & Borodin, Valeria, 2020. "Towards circular economy in production planning: Challenges and opportunities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 168-190.
    13. Urquía-Grande, Elena & Lorain, Marie-Anne & Rautiainen, Antti Ilmari & Cano-Montero, Elisa Isabel, 2021. "Balance with logic-measuring the performance and sustainable development efforts of an NPO in rural Ethiopia," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Liao, Haolan & Zhang, Qingyu & Li, Lu, 2023. "Optimal procurement strategy for multi-echelon remanufacturing systems under quality uncertainty," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Ribeiro, Barbara E. & Quintanilla, Miguel A., 2015. "Transitions in biofuel technologies: An appraisal of the social impacts of cellulosic ethanol using the Delphi method," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 53-68.
    16. Alena Klapalová, 2012. "Reverse logistics and 3PL in the Czech Republic," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 60(7), pages 163-170.
    17. Chen, Lujie & Zhao, Xiande & Tang, Ou & Price, Lydia & Zhang, Shanshan & Zhu, Wenwen, 2017. "Supply chain collaboration for sustainability: A literature review and future research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 73-87.
    18. Alhamzah Alnoor & Bilal Eneizan & Hebah Zaki Makhamreh & Ibrahim Ali Rahoma, 2019. "The Effect of Reverse Logistics on Sustainable Manufacturing," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 9(1), pages 71-79, January.
    19. Duong, Quang Huy & Zhou, Li & Meng, Meng & Nguyen, Truong Van & Ieromonachou, Petros & Nguyen, Duy Tiep, 2022. "Understanding product returns: A systematic literature review using machine learning and bibliometric analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    20. Liane Pinho Santos & João F. Proença, 2022. "Developing Return Supply Chain: A Research on the Automotive Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-24, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:16:y:2012:i:6:p:3910-3916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.