Assessment of the role of Lean Construction Practices in Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The Construction Industry of which the building industry is a subsidiary has been identified as an industry that can help in the achievement of environmental sustainability. Literature has established practices such as Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), Prefabrication and Modularization and Just-in-Time (JIT) and others as environmental sustainable LCPs. Therefore, this paper investigated the adoption of these practices and areas LCPs adoption can help contribute to environmental sustainability in the Nigerian Building Industry. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Enugu and Kaduna covering five out of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. The sample frame for the study consisted of architectural, building consulting and contracting and quantity survey firms in the selected cities. Totally, 446 valid responses were collected and analyzed descriptively using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results from the study revealed that firms in the Nigerian building industry have adopted all the 32 investigated LCPs. Specifically, it was found that VDC was the most adopted of all the 32 LCPs investigated in the Nigerian building industry. In addition, the result reveals that respondents are of the opinion that adoption of LCPs in building can help in the achievement of a sustainable environment through massive reduction of construction wastes that are injurious to the ecosystem.