Investigating collaborative procurement processes in green buildings

Abstract

It has been acknowledged and appreciated on a global scale how climate change has direct negative effects on the environment, economy and society as a whole. The construction industry’s response to this is the introduction of green buildings. However, green innovations are far from becoming customary due to insufficient knowledge in the implementation of procurement processes. The use of a dominating default method known as traditional procurement practice is being implemented which hinders successful project delivery as it neglects the collaborative intensive nature of green buildings. The aim of the study is to determine the changes that occur in the procurement processes of green building at Wits University, to establish the most suitable process that is aligned with achieving high performance through project delivery. The study adopted a qualitative research approach suited for exploratory research where the nature of a problem is being investigated. A total of three project participants including the project manager, contractor and quantity surveyor involved in the erection of New John Moffat Building, Maths Building and Wits Science Stadium participated in the study. Open-ended interviews were used to explore the nature of collaborative procurement processes adopted during the lifecycle of each building. The use of framework agreements fostered collaborative practices as they were deemed suitable for green buildings. As much as we are unable to conclude that traditional procurement is inadequate for green buildings, we were able to establish that when incorporating green elements into a structure, traditional procurement does not sufficiently conform to sustainability parameters.