Exploring Contractors' Views On Green Construction

Abstract

Construction is known as one of sectors which contribute a significant amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the environment. Data from World Resources Institute 2010 shows the Indonesian construction/manufacturing industry contributes 18% of national CO2 production and rank 7th in the world with production of 135,9 megaton of CO2e. Contractors, one of main construction stakeholders, play an important role in managing CO2 production during construction processes. Their knowledge and policies on green construction will determine their actions towards green construction. This research aims to explore the current state of the contractors’ view on green construction and how they respond to the green issues in construction. Data collection was done through structured interviews with four main governmentowned contractors in Indonesia. The results show that they, in general, have recognized, have had some understanding of and have applied to some extent the concept of green construction, with one of them even made it as a company policy. Although detailed measures, standards, or guidance of their green actions are not yet available, some actions towards green construction were already done in the construction processes, such as in the material selection, site waste management, reduction of energy consumption on site, etc. These contractors’ green actions should very much be appreciated, particularly as they were done in the absence of government regulations. In the future, more incentives from government are needed to encourage other contractors to follow their pioneers and to push more significant reduction of CO2 in the Indonesian construction industry.