Environmental sustainability in real estate development in Ghana

Abstract

Environmental sustainability inConventional real estate development (CRED) is a physical development approach for real estate that causes excessive depletion of environmental resources while contributing to carbon emissions in Ghana. Examining Ghanaian real estate developers’ adoption of environmental sustainability strategies (ESS) to reduce depletion of environmental resources and carbon emissions, a content analysis of empirical studies on environmental sustainability in real estate development (ESRED) was conducted. Attributes of ESS namely sustainable site planning and management (SSPM), construction materials and resources efficiency (CMRE), energy efficiency (EE), and water efficiency (WE) were identified from the empirical studies. Some developers were purposively sampled, and primary data was collected through survey questionnaires to determine the major attributes of ESS adopted in Ghana and the main stakeholders influencing their adoption to improve environmental sustainability levels of real estate projects. The survey results were analysed using SPSS v23 statistical techniques such descriptive statistics (frequencies, mean, crosstab with correlation and chi-square) and dimension reduction (exploratory factor analysis). It was discovered that out of 42 attributes of ESS for RED identified from empirical studies, less than 30% of the ESS attributes were adopted as major attributes in Ghana, only 11.91% were adopted through all the stages of the development process (pre-construction, construction and post construction) while the professional team made up of architects, site engineers, contractors, project /facility managers etc were the major stakeholder group influencing their adoption. Nonetheless, the influence of the professional team over the developers to adopt the major attributes of ESS was not very strong except procurement of in-demand construction materials only as attribute of CMRE. Though, the professional team’s influence over developers’ adoption of the other major attributes of ESS were either statistically significant or insignificant with weak or moderate relationships, none of the relationships was negative. As a result of the lack of strong influence from the stakeholders over the developers to adopt ESS for RED in Ghana, environmental sustainability level of the country’s real estate projects was low. Hence, the situation could be improved when many stakeholders begin to influence developers to adopt sustainable read estate development (SRED) approaches after conscientizing the public about the negative consequences of CRED on the environment which is the only habitat for the whole of humanity and its destruction implies extinction of all living things. In addition to supplementing academic literature on environmental sustainability practices in Ghana, the findings from this study would help developers identify general environmental sustainability approaches within the industry and areas for improvement, guide local government authorities who are responsible for planning and approving permits for physical developments within their jurisdictions to influence developers to adopt ESS that are least implemented while become a useful reference materials for real estate professionals who need to know about general environmental sustainability levels of real estate projects to render professional advices on environmental issues appropriately. real estate development in Ghana