Green supply chain assessment model for construction projects in the UAE

Organisations are under pressure to involve environmental concern in their supply chains, right from the material sourcing to the design and construction, followed by marketing and end of life of the building including dismantling and getting rid of the remaining building. Over the last two decades, green supply chain has emerged as an important concept for construction industry to mitigate the environmental impact of buildings and the construction processes. UAE has seen increased construction activity in the last two decades and many national and multinational organizations have started construction activities. Increase construction activities have resulted in an increased emphasis on greening of the supply chains. A list of variables that act as drivers for green supply chains were documented. This list was used in administering a questionnaire, which further utilised factor analysis. Factor analysis and interviews of experts resulted in the development of a maturity model. The maturity model was further tested using three case studies. Further, the developed model is used for comparative evaluation of firms green supply chain through fuzzy multi criteria decision making model based on TOPSIS. This research highlights the growing importance of environmental issue in UAE construction sector and the initiatives taken to green the supply chain. This study will help the industry practitioners to understand the importance of various drivers and barriers in greening the supply chain. The results will motivate them to adopt these practices. Developed model will help the industry in evaluating their green supply chain practices and proposed multi criteria decision making model will help the sector in benchmarking their green supply chain.