Harnessing stakeholder motivation: towards a Swiss sustainable building sector

Abstract

The contribution of stakeholders to the development and implementation of a sustainable built environment has emerged as crucial to the delivery of meaningful change. The inclusion of all affected parties can facilitate the development of patterns, structures and buildings that are sustainable in the social, ecological and economic dimensions. The slow development of a more sustainable building sector often results from the absence of knowledge about possible benefits because of financial constraints or the presence of conflicting interests. Furthermore, in most cases, measures to foster a sustainable building sector do not include all of the relevant stakeholders or are only one-sided. Based on a literature review of stakeholders in the building sector, this paper describes the stakeholders involved in the development of sustainable buildings and the challenges in stakeholder motivation. The practical case of the Network for Sustainable Construction Switzerland demonstrates how to foster sustainable construction by including a wide range of stakeholders and the need to address stakeholders with diverse initiatives. This case study supports the hypothesis that stakeholder motivation cannot be created by a single initiative; rather, a variety of actions are required to deliver change successfully.

La contribution des parties prenantes au développement et à la mise en oeuvre d'un cadre bâti durable est apparue comme cruciale pour que des changements significatifs puissent être apportés. L'inclusion de toutes les parties concernées peut faciliter le développement de schémas, de structures et d'immeubles présentant un caractère durable sur les plans sociaux, écologiques et économiques. La lenteur de développement d'un secteur du bâtiment plus durable résulte souvent du fait de ne pas avoir connaissance des avantages possibles en raison des contraintes financières ou de la présence d'intérêts contradictoires. En outre, dans la plupart des cas, les mesures destinées à encourager un secteur du bâtiment durable n'incluent pas l'ensemble des parties prenantes concernées ou ont un caractère partial. Sur la base d'une analyse documentaire des parties prenantes du secteur du bâtiment, cet article décrit les parties prenantes impliquées dans le développement de bâtiments durables et les problèmes qui se posent pour motiver les parties prenantes. Le cas pratique du Réseau pour la construction durable en Suisse montre comment favoriser les constructions durables en incluant un large éventail de parties prenantes et la nécessité de traiter la question des parties prenantes par des initiatives diverses. Cette étude de cas conforte l'hypothèse selon laquelle la motivation des parties prenantes ne peut pas être suscitée par une initiative unique; c'est plutôt une diversité de mesures qui est nécessaire pour réussir à apporter les changements recherchés.

Mots clés: secteur du bâtiment, gestion des parties prenantes, motivation des parties prenantes, durabilité, construction durable

Keywords:

• building sector
• stakeholder management
• stakeholder motivation
• sustainability
• sustainable construction

Acknowledgements

This study was supported financially by Ernst Basler & Partner and the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. The authors gratefully acknowledge this support. Warm thanks also go to Ray Cole for the initiation of, and invitation to, this special issue. Furthermore, they would like to thank Lara Silva, Chrisna du Plessis and Arab Hoballah for their collaboration at the 3rd International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction, which laid the foundation for this paper. Special thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers of this paper for their very helpful comments and much-appreciated suggestions. The assistance of Andrea Pain and Nathan Barnhart in the preparation of the manuscript is greatly appreciated.

Notes

Examples of sustainability and energy certificates: BREEAM: BRE Environmental Assessment Method (UK); DGNB: developed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Nachhaltiges Bauen, Germany; Energy Star: joint programme of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy to protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices; LEED: green building certification system developed by the US Green Building Council; Minergie: Swiss energy certificate.

Minergie is a registered sustainability brand and trademark for new and refurbished buildings. It focuses on the comfort of users living or working in the building. The regular Minergie-Standard requires that general energy consumption must not to be higher than 75% of the consumption of average buildings. Minergie-P requires buildings to have very low energy consumption. Minergie-ECO adds ecological requirements, such as indoor air quality, noise protection, etc., to the regular Minergie-Requirements.

The Triple Bottom Line approach is just one of many definitions of sustainability. It is the one that is commonly known, but it is not without criticism. Other definitions consider more than just three dimensions, e.g. the five-level approach of Rauch-Schwegler (2005) or the two-column model by Feldhaus (2006) (cf. Wallbaum and Meins, 2009).

The Swiss Federation is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons. The cantons have a permanent constitutional status and a high degree of independence. However, there are several decisions and norms that are made by the elected Federal Council and that are binding for all the cantons.

Not further explained in this paper.