INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF LEAN TOOLS IN MINIMIZING CONSTRUCTION WASTE ACROSS THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

Abstract

The prevalence of waste in the construction industry and its contribution to project failure challenges sustainability targets. Therefore, waste reduction is key to sustainable construction. Lean construction recognizes the criticality of waste elimination and proposes tools and practices to minimize waste and maximize value. Nevertheless, the categorization of waste in the literature focuses on economic waste and gives less attention to environmental and social waste. Moreover, research on the role of lean tools in waste management primarily addresses economic advantages and overlooks the other sustainability pillars, thereby providing an unbalanced targeting of sustainability goals. Accordingly, there is a need to adopt a holistic perception of waste and address the contribution of lean in eliminating waste across the triple bottom line, representing environmental, social, and economic dimensions. For that, this paper conducts a literature review of existing studies to identify, categorize, and analyze the different waste categories and the role of lean tools in minimizing them. It fills the gap in the literature and presents two main contributions: (1) a well-rounded table of wastes across environmental, social, and economic dimensions and (2) a figure identifying and matching the waste management role of each lean tool to its corresponding sustainability pillar.