Development of value creation drivers for sustainable design of green buildings in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The sustainability of green buildings has been widely recognized around the world in the recent past. Evaluating the investment on such buildings, with higher complexity than the conventional buildings, involves multiple and diverse stakeholders, such as consultants, contractors, general public, governmental institutions, etc. The selection of useful value creation drivers is a difficult task while accommodating the opinion of a group of stakeholders with varying perceptions and experiences regarding the value creation in green building design and the associated costs. In this research, a framework is proposed to develop a set of the most important value creation drivers (VCDs) for green buildings. Five primary VCDs were developed to cover the financial, functional, operational, environmental, and management aspects of a green building. Ninety-eight (98) performance value drivers (PVDs) were identified through the literature for assessing the performance of these value creation drivers. The identified PVDs were evaluated through a hand-delivered questionnaire survey, followed by detailed statistical analysis of the collected data while using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel software. Factor analyses were performed to eliminate the PVDs with least importance based on the responses obtained from 89 experienced managers (45%), engineers (38%), and architects (17%) working in the field of value management of construction industry in Saudi Arabia. Finally, 51 most important PVDs were grouped into two clusters for each value creation driver; for instance, control and planning clusters to assess the performance of management's VCD. The final outcome of the research in the form of five top level VCDs, 10 clusters, and 51 PVDs will facilitate the designers for enhancing the performance efficiency and value from investment for green buildings in Saudi Arabia, Gulf, and elsewhere.