Introduction

The green movement is spreading rapidly across the globe as witnessed in the construction industry regarding the development of environmentally responsible structures. These type of buildings are generally referred to as green or sustainable buildings. Such buildings are utilizing useful resources like water, energy, and land as well as materials more effectively and efficiently compared to conventional practices. There has been increased awareness of the relationship between the success of projects in the industry and the competencies attributed to the project management process. Construction organizations are currently focused on ensuring that project managers have a proper understanding of the sustainability concept through the acquisition of the core competencies. The managers play a vital role in the success of a construction process hence more effort is necessary for the realization of the green agenda in this field. This paper explores sustainability in detail in the context of the construction industry with the aim of outlining the role of construction managers in the development of high-performance buildings.

Body:

• Sustainability concept

Sustainable development refers to a process that satisfies the current needs with no compromise on the capacity to meet the desires of future generations. It clocks the concern of achieving a balance between the natural systems and the associated social challenges facing humanity. The critical indicators of sustainability that contribute to the nature of considerations for project success in this sense include environmental, economic, and socio-political. Environmental reliability refers to a process which ensures the principle of human interaction with their surrounding is purely natural.

On the other hand, the economic perspective is a process that involves minimal pollution as well as enhanced equitability. Social sustainability refers to the ability to promote the cultural and societal progress for the community residents considering the sustainable development principle within the context of reinforced cohesion and international markets as well as the environmental protection contexts. In short, it is concerned with achieving an improved quality life for humanity through a collective responsibility of advancing and strengthening the mutually and interdependent reinforcement of sustainability pillars. The goals can not define this concept but the procedures involved in maintaining a dynamic balance between the people’s demands for prosperity, quality living conditions, and fairness as well as the factors that are ecologically possible. Development does not only imply the constricted meaning of growth and acquisition of specialized knowledge as well as progress by evolution, improvement, and innovation as well as creativity in the implementation of the process. Besides, it is essential to understand the contribution of project managers in achieving the prescriptions of sustainability in development as well as develop policies that advances social and economic integration while ensuring there is simultaneous progress in the other aspects of the current process.

• Sustainability in the construction industry

The issue of green buildings is taking precedence in the industry today owing to the importance of sustainability in the direct as well as indirect connections with the varied aspects of sustainability. The primary reason to support this suggestion is the fact that the industry consumes the most significant amount of resources hence its quality improvement is of substantial effect on the sustainability efforts of the entire society. For instance, green buildings utilize 35% less energy as compared to the traditional constructions that also resulted in a reduction in the emission of waste fumes. The other supporting reason is the aspect of built environment which is the results of the construction process; it is the context that covers for several human activities that can significantly affect the society’s sustainability through increased productivity and health standards for the inhabitants. Therefore, it is informed to term the practice as essential in this context since there has been increased depletion of the environment as well as its loadings hence the need to implement interventions for sustainable construction. The essence of sustainable building is to integrate the general concepts of sustainability with conventional practices of construction. The development of a residence that meets the needs for human dignity as well as the promotion of economic equitability; it should appreciate that human beings are joined in a dynamic relation with the surrounding nature depicting acute mutual dependence. Generally, in the cycle view, sustainability in construction is regarded to imply the significance of holistic thinking concerning the building and management process of the built surrounding and quality enhancement.

• Role of project management in green building

Project management is the use of skills, knowledge, tools, and techniques to construction activities to satisfy the requirements of the project in progress.  With the intentions of achieving a sustainable product, it is essential to ensure that there is need to provide the proper application as well as the integration of the desired concepts in every stage of the process from initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and supervision to the close of the project. The construction manager is expected to manage the delivery of the product through the use of processes, tools and the relevant knowledge to a wide range of events aimed at fulfillment of the project requirements. The focus of the manager is to establish and work on achieving the objectives and set outcomes for a particular construction project with a proposed trajectory as well as timelines. According to most scholars in this field, the concept of green building is attained through careful design, implementation, operation, and removal or reuse of built environment in a manner that is energy efficient, environment-friendly, and sustainable hence can be instrumental in high-performance building. The achievement of the set results is among the key issues that require to get addressed in constructions contracts alongside the conventional outcomes which entailed meeting deadlines, budgets, and the desires of different groups of people.The construction managers play a crucial role in the adoption of policies and implementation of the concepts geared towards achieving a green building. They are tasked with ensuring that the process is comprehensive and can restore as well as maintain the harmony existing between the built environment and the natural ecosystem. The managers have to ensure that there is an efficient integrated design as well as the delivery process with a clear focus on the technical issues that can help in accomplishing the green goals of the project. The technical aspects that have to be taken into account include energy efficiency and building using environment-friendly materials thus calling for the need for proper waste, site, and material management. Besides, the manager is entitled to the responsibility of assigning roles, monitoring, setting project priorities, and escalating issues accordingly in the entire construction process. Therefore, the construction managers have a significant role in achieving these objectives since these activities are dependent on their effectiveness in the management of the project especially in attaining sustainability.

• Challenges in the building process and project management.

The sustainable building faces several challenges during the adoption and working methodologies to utilize the current technology. Emerging technologies need changes in the procedures as well as consider the cost and risks uncertainty hence it is necessary to learn about new tasks, decision-making, roles, and the design requirements to counter the significant challenges. Therefore sustainability in buildings as a response to the shortcomings in the conventional outcomes of the construction process has to be responsive to the following barriers:

• Increasing the competencies and effectiveness of the process through the interaction of the critical phases requires profound knowledge and skills.
• The difficulty involved in the production of good quality commodities in a healthy safe work environment thus it is essential to reduce the improper effect on the project populations and surroundings.
• It is establishing long-term and comprehensive improvements to the surrounding that was built to satisfy the dynamic demands of the industry, customers, and the public.

These are the critical challenges faced by construction managers in the delivery of green goals prove that the difficulties of the process are not only as a result of the absence of available technologies, information, and evaluation methods.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the project managers have a vital role to play in achieving the green goals of a building process. They are tasked with the entire process to manage and ensure that the objectives are delivered as desired. The proficiency of the manager on sustainable construction is the primary contributor to success in such scenarios. Despite these achievements, many challenges hinder the implementation of the building process.

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