Sustainability in project management: Investigating the significance of sustainability indicators for the construction industry

Stanitsas, Marios

dc.contributor.author	Stanitsas, Marios
dc.date.accessioned	2022-11-25T09:58:14Z
dc.date.available	2022-11-25T09:58:14Z
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/56253
dc.identifier.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.26240/heal.ntua.23951
dc.rights	Αναφορά Δημιουργού-Όχι Παράγωγα Έργα 3.0 Ελλάδα	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/gr/	*
dc.subject	Sustainability	el
dc.subject	Project management	en
dc.subject	Construction projects	en
dc.subject	Indicators	en
dc.title	Sustainability in project management: Investigating the significance of sustainability indicators for the construction industry	en
dc.contributor.department	Τομέας Βιομηχανικής Διοίκησης & Επιχειρησιακής Έρευνας	el
heal.type	doctoralThesis
heal.classification	Sustainability	en
heal.classification	Project Management	el
heal.classification	Construction projects	el
heal.language	en
heal.access	free
heal.recordProvider	ntua	el
heal.publicationDate	2022-04-29
heal.abstract	Sustainability constantly gains importance over the last few decades. Concerns about sustainability implementation into societies have steadily grown. The focus seems to be on long-term issues concerning environmental, social, and economic implications. As sustainability challenges can no longer be overlooked, there is compliance with the need to modernize the sustainability tools used by promoting new methods of sustainable development knowledge. The discipline of project management is also integrating sustainability issues into its approaches. Developing a new sustainable-oriented way of thinking into project management practices to favor society becomes necessary. This Thesis explores the indicators that affect the integration of sustainability into project management practices of construction projects. Though many indicators that contribute to the implementation of sustainable construction projects have been identified in the literature, project managers face several issues in their proper use due to the lack of a comprehensive classification. This Thesis combines the views of all construction project stakeholders and delivers the most contributing sustainable project management indicators that lead to sustainable construction projects. This research aim will be achieved by addressing the following research objectives: 1. Explore state of the art for sustainability in project management by identifying sustainability indicators into project management for the construction industry. 2. Explore and rank the relative importance of the retrieved sustainable project management indicators contributing to sustainable construction projects, considering the views of all construction project stakeholders. 3. Identify the underlying factors that give rise to the set of sustainability indicators used to implement sustainable construction projects and eventually the production of sustainable built assets and propose a conceptual model of sustainability indicators based on underlying factors. 4. Propose a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis-based method to assess the integration of the sustainability philosophy in large-scale organizations via the utilization of sustainable project management-related indicators. The research strategy follows a mixed-methods approach. Initially, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to explore the literature (identify the indicators as distinguished in previous studies from the construction projects standpoint in general) is followed. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to seek expert opinions on the validation of each indicator for sustainable PM practices for construction projects identified in the literature review. As a next step, the research design involves a questionnaire survey to investigate stakeholders' perceptions of the construction sector regarding the usage of the identified sustainable project management indicators when seeking sustainability attributes in their projects. The data gathered has been analyzed through the relative importance index (RII) approach. The results of the same questionnaire survey were used as input for the employment of the statistical method of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), out of which five distinct dimensions (factors) of stakeholders' attitudes were revealed. As a last step in the methodological design, a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis-based method (MCDA), namely the PROMETHEE method, was proposed to assess the integration of the sustainability philosophy in large-scale organizations via the utilization of the already retrieved sustainable project management indicators. The case study that was conducted in a market-leading design, engineering, and project management consultancy organization was based on the MCDA method, in which the 82 indicators used in the proposed model (all related to critical aspects of organizations) measured how the departments’ staff utilize sustainable project management processes in their construction projects By utilizing the proposed approach to compare internal organizational structures, insights into the sustainability integration level within different business units are revealed, to allow organizations to make decisions toward sustainable practices. Findings of the Thesis include the retrieved eighty-two (82) sustainability indicators related to project management practices in construction projects and their categorization according to the triple-bottom-line (TBL) scenario of sustainability (economic, environmental and social/management), as these were finalized by semi-structured interviews with construction experts and via previous literature analysis. Through the RII, environmental indicators were identified as the most important for practitioners seeking sustainable construction achievements. The findings derived through the EFA merged the initial set of the 82 indicators into five factors, indicating that the sustainability indicators are based on five underlying factors, namely (1) sustainable competitiveness; (2) stakeholder engagement; (3) sustainable economic growth; (4) social sustainability; and (5) resource conservation and environmental policy. on As a theoretical contribution to knowledge, this study enhances the body of knowledge by revealing the usefulness of sustainable PM indicators, which are used to enable sustainable construction projects. Additionally, it examines the stakeholders’ beliefs and attitudes who adopt sustainability approaches in the construction sector. In practice, the findings offer the possibility for practitioners to choose the right mix of indicators, depending on the sustainability focus they want to provide in their projects, and adopt strategies that enhance the delivery of sustainable construction projects.	en
heal.advisorName	Kirytopoulos, Konstantinos
heal.committeeMemberName	Tatsiopoulos, Ilias
heal.committeeMemberName	PONIS, STAVROS
heal.committeeMemberName	Vareilles, Elise
heal.committeeMemberName	Aretoulis, Georgios
heal.committeeMemberName	Panayiotou, Nikolaos
heal.academicPublisher	Σχολή Μηχανολόγων Μηχανικών	el
heal.academicPublisherID	ntua
heal.numberOfPages	142
heal.fullTextAvailability	false