The State of Sustainability in the Construction Industry

Exponent construction consultants Keats Hua and Elif Erkal, Ph.D., have co-authored a research paper that surveys sustainability, governance, and reporting practices in the construction industry. Titled "Exploring the Landscape: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in the Construction Industry," their paper has been published at the American Society of Civil Engineers' Construction Institute & Construction Research Congress Joint Conference.

To gather information, the authors leveraged interviews with corporate leaders in large construction companies to outline best practices, challenges, disclosure topics, and opportunities in sustainability throughout the sector. The best practices discussed in these interviews included employing decentralized administrators in local office operations, early engagement with all stakeholders, and the use of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), among other innovative tools. The paper notes that academics "could develop this exploratory research further to suggest standardizations to ESG practices for industry-wide consistency, benchmarking, and improvement."

From the publication: "This study will be beneficial to industry professionals to navigate the ESG landscape and benchmark against the exploratory baseline presented."