Sustainable Practices in Construction: Toward Environmentally Responsible and Resource-Efficient Building

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_45How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sustainable construction; governance; Ghana; Africa; green materials; policy integration; resource efficiency; BIM; circular economy; environmental management

Abstract

The construction industry faces growing pressure to reduce its environmental footprint while meeting the needs of urban growth and infrastructure development. This paper critically examines sustainable practices in construction, focusing on how policy, technology, materials, processes, and governance interact to drive environmental and operational transformation. Using a narrative literature review of studies published between 2018 and 2025, the paper synthesises global and regional evidence, particularly from Africa and Ghana. The study identifies persistent gaps in policy coherence, technological uptake, and institutional enforcement that limit the industry’s sustainability potential. Key themes include green materials and energy-efficient design, waste minimisation, life-cycle management, digital transformation (BIM, IoT), and governance frameworks such as environmental impact assessment (EIA) and green procurement. The unique contribution of this review lies in its integration of sustainability themes through a governance-centric conceptual framework (Figure 1), which links policy, material innovation, process efficiency, and digitalisation to resilience and accountability outcomes. The analysis extends beyond description by interpreting how institutional behaviour, market mechanisms, and cultural norms shape sustainability transitions in the Global South. It concludes that advancing sustainable construction in Ghana and Africa requires systemic coordination—linking technical capacity, regulatory reform, and digital transparency to resource efficiency and climate resilience.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - D. K. S. Amedegbe-Doe
AU  - B. K. Sasraku-Neequaye
AU  - S. E. A. Allotey
AU  - M. A. A. Adow Okae
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Sustainable Practices in Construction: Toward Environmentally Responsible and Resource-Efficient Building
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering, Science, and Urban Sustainability (ICESUS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 738
EP  - 745
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_45
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_45
ID  - Amedegbe-Doe2025
ER  -