Introducing sustainability principles into the procurement of construction works – case of Indonesian developers

Abstract

The construction sector plays an important role in sustainable development, for example, through sustainable procurement of construction works. However, procuring for construction works in such a way has been particularly challenging. The objective of this research was to identify the owners’ potential of applying sustainability principles into their construction works procurement. Data were collected using questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and additional review on the relevant documents, involving 6 public and 14 private developers of green buildings, located in major provinces. The scope of study focused on: (i) technical specifications, (ii) evaluation criteria and (iii) procurement processes conducted by the organization. The assessment of potential implementation was mainly based on the frequency of responses of ‘Awareness’, ‘Willingness’ and ‘Implementation’. Further analysis identified the so-called Degree of Unwillingness and the Degree of Difficulty. Results show that the developers were more ready to implement sustainability into the technical specifications. Meanwhile, among the two other aspects of procurements, the most challenging issue was to introduce sustainable principles into the processes conducted within the procurement organization.

Keywords:

• Construction work
• developer
• procurement
• sustainability
• principles

Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by the Institute for Research and Community Services – Institut Teknologi Bandung. We also thank our colleagues from the National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP) who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.