The contributions of environmental management systems towards project outcome: Case studies in Hong Kong

Sustainable development has been promoted and pursued for many years within the environmental, economic and social domains, i.e., the triple bottom line. From such perspectives, sustainable construction integrates low-energy design with materials which have minimum environmental impact while maintaining ecological diversity. The sustainability concept is supported but not fully implemented in Hong Kong compared with countries such as the UK. This study proposes a sustainable construction model with three key factors, namely, government policy, contract procurement system and environment management system (EMS). In this study, the effects of EMS are tested through case studies of a sample of school development projects in Hong Kong. Performance comparisons between contractors with and without ISO 14001 certification are analysed. The results show that, in general, the implementation of EMS enhances the achievement of sustainable construction outcomes.