An Assessment of Sustainable Construction Practices in Building Project Delivery in Eket

ABSTRACT As the world continues to grapple with the consequences of climate change, the construction industry has a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes that adoption of sustainable construction practices (SCP) would result in significant reduction in the greenhouse emissions from the construction industry. Despite its relevance, sustainability achievement in construction has not been given much attention in the Nigerian construction industry. The research aimed at assessing the level of use of sustainable construction practices, determining the barriers to the adoption of sustainable construction practices and suggesting ways of eliminating the barriers to the adoption of sustainable construction practices with a view to enhancing sustainability in building project delivery in Eket. A survey research design approach was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 construction professionals who have engaged in construction project delivery for the past decade in Eket. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analysed using percentages, mean scores and relative importance index. The findings of the study revealed that limited government support, resistance to change and lack of demand for sustainable construction from clients with relative importance index of 0.8800, 0.8733 and 0.8533 respectively were considered to be the most critical barriers to the SCP adoption in Eket. It is therefore suggested that government should give financial supports to building developers, construction professionals should adopt sustainable concepts at design stage of projects and government should also enhance public private partnership as project procurement route.