Facilitating net-zero target in the building sector through online transaction platforms: Feedback from industrial practitioners

In recent years, the increasing demand for reducing building energy consumption in support of sustainable development and achieving net-zero goals has created opportunities for trading low-carbon technologies and solutions in the building sector. Tradition transaction is still being commonly used now in building industry, and digital transaction platforms have not yet been popularly adopted, although they have been used in many areas of people's life, such as retail and publishing. It is still not clear how the building sector perceives and can utilise digital transaction platforms to facilitate the net-zero process. To address this issue, fifteen industrial practitioners, including nine suppliers and six buyers, were interviewed in this study and four types of changes that platforms could bring were identified along with nineteen influencing factors. The results indicated that integrating transaction platforms in the conservative building sector is challenging due to the uncertainty of performance and the high knowledge barrier of low-carbon products and services. The study helps to better understand how to promote the transition of the building sector from the traditional transaction method to digital online method.