Incentivizing Construction Contracts to Enhance Sustainability in Construction Projects

摘要

In recent years, there has been an increased awareness about the impact of construction projects on the environment. In order to mitigate the impact of these projects, integrating sustainability has been a goal for many public and private owners. Current green rating systems, such as LEED, place emphasis in the design phase of a project with little consideration of practices that enhance sustainability during the construction phase beyond what is specified in the design documents. In order to increase sustainability during the construction phase beyond the requirements in the design documents, owners need to provide simple and easy to implement mechanisms to incentivize contractors to use sustainable construction means and methods. An example would be providing incentives to encourage the use of fuel efficient construction equipment. This paper discusses several mechanisms to incentivize contractors to incorporate green construction practices and increase overall project sustainability. It uses a real illustrative example to highlight mechanisms to include sustainability after design completion as part of the evaluation criteria in best-value procurement.