Barriers to the use of sustainable materials in Australian building projects Gounder, S, Hasan, Abid, Shrestha, Asheem and Elmualim, A 2021, Barriers to the use of sustainable materials in Australian building projects, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print, no. ahead-of-print, pp. 1-21, doi: 10.1108/ECAM-10-2020-0854. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Barriers to the use of sustainable materials in Australian building projects Author(s) Gounder, S Hasan, Abid orcid.org/0000-0003-2031-4288 Shrestha, Asheem orcid.org/0000-0001-6080-4068 Elmualim, A Journal name Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management Volume number ahead-of-print Issue number ahead-of-print Start page 1 End page 21 Total pages 21 Publisher Emerald Place of publication Bingley, Eng. Publication date 2021-01 ISSN 0969-9988 1365-232X Keyword(s) Australian construction industry Building projects Business & Economics CARBON-DIOXIDE EMISSIONS CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS DESIGN DRIVERS Engineering Engineering, Civil Engineering, Industrial ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT GREEN BUILDINGS INDICATORS Management MATERIALS SELECTION MODEL OPTIMIZATION Science & Technology Social Sciences Sustainability Sustainable materials Technology Summary PurposeAlthough the adverse effects of construction activities on the environment and the need for sustainable construction practices are recognised in both research and practice, any significant shift in the selection and use of construction materials from the sustainability perspective has not taken place in many building projects. Still, conventional construction materials are widely used in building projects in both developed and developing countries. This study attempts to identify the main barriers to the use of sustainable materials in building projects in an advanced economy such as Australia.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a questionnaire survey approach to examine the main reasons behind the low usage of sustainable materials in building projects. Based on the relative importance index, exploratory factor analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis, the study examined the main barrier measures and barrier factors to the use of sustainable materials in building projects.FindingsThe findings reveal that critical barriers to the use of sustainable materials are related to cost and profit considerations, the unwillingness of the key stakeholders to incorporate these materials into building projects, lack of incentives and government policies. The factor analysis reduced the critical barrier measures into three factors: techno-economic considerations, cost and delay concerns and resistance to use. Furthermore, multinomial regression analysis based on the extracted factors identified techno-economic considerations as the main barrier factor to the use of sustainable materials in building projects.Practical implicationsThe empirical results of this research can inform construction practitioners, organisations and policymakers on how to increase the use of sustainable building materials in the construction industry.Originality/valueIdentification of barriers to the use of sustainable building materials is a prerequisite to improve their uptake and use in the construction industry. The study fills a gap in the existing research on the use of sustainable materials in building projects in Australia. Language eng DOI 10.1108/ECAM-10-2020-0854 Indigenous content off Field of Research 0905 Civil Engineering 1202 Building 1503 Business and Management HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30157094 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment School of Architecture and Built Environment Related Links Link Description Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges   Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 15 Oct 2021, 22:02:15 EST Sun, 17 Oct 2021, 19:46:27 EST Mon, 18 Oct 2021, 19:35:58 EST Mon, 18 Oct 2021, 19:37:25 EST Mon, 18 Oct 2021, 19:42:33 EST Tue, 19 Oct 2021, 08:32:57 EST Sat, 23 Oct 2021, 01:44:32 EST Sat, 06 Nov 2021, 01:31:58 EST Wed, 19 Jan 2022, 15:21:01 EST Thu, 03 Mar 2022, 06:43:47 EST Thu, 03 Mar 2022, 08:35:22 EST Fri, 04 Mar 2022, 06:24:48 EST Fri, 04 Mar 2022, 06:30:15 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 36 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Sun, 17 Oct 2021, 19:46:27 EST