Investigating associations among performance criteria in Green Building projects

This study aims to identify the associations among performance criteria in the delivery of Green Building (GB) projects and their underlying conditions. The performance criteria included are social sustainability, economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, quality, schedule, and cost. A mixed methods approach is used, combining both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The findings from an online questionnaire survey (n = 104) are quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Delphi method is used while conducting the survey. Semi-structured interviews (n = 30) are conducted to support, complement and help triangulate questionnaire survey findings and are also subjected to qualitative analysis. For GB projects, cost and schedule performance have a positive association among each other while cost performance has a positive effect on economic sustainability. Social, economic, and environmental sustainability have a mutually positive effect on each other. Beside the mutually positive associations among most criteria, in some cases negative and even no associations are also identified. Different conditions that affect the associations among performance criteria are identified including project planning, quality of project development process, life-cycle perspective, project management, Project Delivery Method (PDM), client's vision and motivation, regional constraints, regional climate, compliance requirements, and innovation. These underlying conditions affect performance across multiple criteria. The existing literature is used to verify the significance of these conditions for successful GB project development. This study has both theoretical and practical implications. In practice, project teams and decision-makers will be able to understand which conditions might result in a good performance in some criteria but underperformance in some other criteria. By controlling these conditions, across the project life-cycle, the desired performance on different criteria may be achieved. In theoretical terms, the identified associations and underlying conditions can lead to more holistic decision-making and multi-objective optimization models specifically designed for GB projects. The study is unique in its aim as well as the methodology used and the depth and breadth of the collected data. The study limitations include potential cognitive bias from the survey participants as well as a sole qualitative discussion of the effects of the key identified conditions on performance criteria associations.