An exploratory study of the adaptation of green supply chain management in construction industry: The case of Indian Construction Companies
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The construction industry plays a vital role for the social and economic development of the country (Sabarish et al., 2016). Because the construction sector is the integral part of an economy (Oladinrin et al., 2012), hence, its significance in the development of a nation cannot be overlooked (Moavenzadeh, 1994). In contrast, the construction industry has a massive amount of adverse environmental effect and therefore needs rigorous regulations (Gocontractor, 2020). The characteristics of construction industry indicate the poor coordination and fragmentation between project stakeholders which lead to the waste and quality issues (Nawi et al., 2014). In the construction sector, traditionally, not much heed has been paid on the environmental issues (Vrijhoef and Koskela, 1999), however, during the last two decades, the trend to align with sustainable and green aspect has been observed (Said and Berger, 2014). The trend in India for adopting green and sustainability has not thrived and is not adequate till date (Manna and Banerjee, 2019). In status quo, the Indian construction industries are deteriorating the environment which will have an irredeemable effect on the environment (Kumar and Chandedkar, 2012). It is also reported that the conventional construction industry is accountable for 23% of air pollution, 50% of the climatic change, 40% of drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill wastes (Gocontractor, 2020). Further, the study concludes that 40% of energy usage worldwide is due to the construction industry and estimated that the pollution created by commercial buildings would increase by 1.8% by 2030 (US Green Building Council, 2020). Combined, the construction sites generate an exorbitant amount of pollution, which in long term has an adverse effect on both the environment and the economy. As per the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, dust generated from construction sites is responsible for 30 percent of the total air pollution (Dailypioneer, 2020). The Indian construction industry is responsible for generation of about 10–12 million tons of waste in a year (Raju and Kameswari, 2015).
Construction activities deteriorates the environment by generating waste, creating pollution and injudiciously using resources (Ojo et al., 2012). The nature and quantity of waste generated depend on construction type, stages, and practices applied at the site (Chakkrit et al., 2019). In the underdeveloped and developing countries, regulation and appraisal of the environmental performance poses a challenge because of existence of contractors from different categories and competencies and from small/medium size industry. Further, lack of coordinated efforts for creating a risk shared balanced platform for the members of this industry as well as in the society has also been a constraint (World Economic Forum, 2016). The construction supply chain has a significant contribution to construction operation, which has adverse impact on environmental and the ecology (Enshassi et al., 2014). Traditionally, the initiatives for construction supply chain management (CSCM) have not created a practical effect on this industry and have not provided significance to their broader applications (Wibowo et al., 2018). Construction supply chains have always been managed and controlled in a myopic way, which result in the creation of excessive wastes (Vrijhoef and Koskela, 1999). Hence, there is a fundamental requirement to holistically understand the uniqueness of the construction supply chain to reach for root cause analysis of how and why the traditional supply chain models have failed to achieve the sustainability goal, when it is applied to the construction industry context. Also, it will help in developing a comprehensive and green supply chain model, while also aiding the industry players as well as humanity for a better sustainable environment to live in (Adetunji et al., 2008). Even though, India is a major contributor of global pollution, and the construction industry has a major role in that emission but simultaneously it is imperative to acknowledge that this industry has a pivotal role in the economy (Giang and Pheng, 2011). Indian construction companies which are operating in different sizes and sectors are not embracing the green supply chain practices in many of their construction operations (Negi et al., 2017). Various drivers, enablers, and barriers have an impact on the firm’s willingness to adapt the green practices (Arif et al., 2009).
In Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries, it has been observed that sustainability has impending correlation with expenditures towards public health, performance indices of logistics, non-conventional energy, and ecological sustainability. As per the study the use of non-conventional energy in logistics operations will reduce emissions enhancing economic and environmental performance. As there is negative correlation between environmental performance and public health expenditure, hence, enhancing the sustainability can improve both the economic growth and the human health (Khan et al., 2020). Internal environmental management and green information systems influence the green supply chain practices (GSCPs) to have significant impacts on competitive advantages, economic, environmental and organizational performance. There exists a positive strong support with Internal Environmental Management (IEM) and Green Information Systems (GISs) for execution of green supply chain practices (Khan and Yu, 2019). Through a meta-analysis and systematic review-based study, Khan et al. (2021) reported MCDM (Multiple-criteria decision making) based research methods and firm-level studies as the emerging trends in SSCM (sustainable supply chain management) related research. Also, employment of efficient algorithms, advance economic modeling and macro-level like country, and region-levels studies will discover new avenues in this field (Khan et al., 2020). Further, research has been carried out for emerging Asian economies investigating the relationship between indices of green logistics, environmental, and social factors. The results show that logistics operations related factors like customs clearance process efficiency, logistics service quality, and transport infrastructure have a strong positive correlation with per capita income, manufacturing value-addition and trade openness. Also, greater logistics operations are negatively correlated with environmental and social problems including, climate change, global warming, carbon emissions, and poisoning atmosphere (Khan et al., 2019). A systematic review and analysis of 216 empirical studies published between 2001 and 2019 reveal that empirical research on green supply chain management has increased at an increasing rate, and sectors except manufacturing and automotive are relatively unexplored. Hence, the adaptation of green construction supply chain practices by the construction industry is an area yet to be explored (Bhatia and Gangwani, 2020). A research study using Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) approach has shown that green supply chain practices and environmental and economic performance have higher driving powers linking the organization’s environmentalism and learning which enhances organization’s learning capability, reflective responsiveness and sustainable performance (VenkatesaNarayanan et al., 2021). A moderation analysis of 169 Italian manufacturing firms from different sectors indicates that some drivers have a strong influence on the relationship between drivers-practices and practices-performance which further helps the managers, supply chain professionals and policymakers to manage the particular drivers on implementation of GSCM practices (Micheli et al., 2020).
The reported research has witnessed an interest in various aspects of green supply chain and green construction supply chain. Primarily, the research has been conducted on the benefits of the green supply chain, how it is beneficial for sustainable construction projects and long-term benefits to the environment, and various factors essential to implement the green practices. It is important to highlight that the study is not taking place in the context of Indian Construction companies urging them to adapt the sustainable supply chain practices even when India is one of the major contributors of global pollution. Though drivers, enablers and the barriers are the main facilitators and decision variables of adaptability of green supply chain management in the construction industry; no study of organizing, analyzing and systematic prioritization for the same has been taken up which can enable management of Indian construction companies to take appropriate decision and adapt green supply chain practices in their construction operations. Therefore, the current study has addressed the research issue and is explicitly focused on these real issues of Indian construction companies for adapting sustainable supply chain practices. The purpose of the study is 1) to assess the adaptability of green supply chain practices by Indian construction companies of different size and sector of operations, 2) to identify the correlations between various drivers, enablers, and barriers with the willingness of the firm’s adaptation of the green supply chain practices and 3) developing an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) multi-criteria decision-making model to analyze, rank and prioritize the drivers, enablers, and barriers to enable the organizations to take appropriate action on the same. To realize the above-mentioned points the present research work follows a mixed approach (qualitative and quantitative) for collecting and analyzing the research data. A questionnaire survey is disseminated to collect data from Senior Managers of various construction companies in India. After gathering the data, the preliminary analysis is performed using descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. The hypotheses have been tested using ANOVA and Correlation coefficients. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model has also been developed for analyzing and prioritizing the drivers, enablers, and barriers.
The current study significantly contributes to the existing literature and to the existing theoretical body of knowledge in Green Supply Chain. The assessment of adaptation of green supply chain practices and development of the hierarchy of drivers, enablers, and barriers discussed in the study are the novel methodical contributions to the theory of Green Supply Chain Management which contribute a holistic construct for designing the green supply chain and managing it for sustainability. From a practical perspective, this study also helps the project managers of the Indian construction firms to think more systematically and strategically on each driver, enabler, and barrier to maximize the adaptation of green supply chain practices in the industry. This study will help project managers to take decisions, analysing and benchmarking the environmental initiatives dynamically across construction supply chain. The flow of the paper is as follows: Section 2 provides the literature review and theoretical background. Section 3 presents the Research Methodology used for the study. Results and Discussions are in Section 4, followed by conclusions in Section 5.
Section snippets
Literature review and theoretical background
The green supply chain is an eco-friendly concept in supply chain management to enhance environmental sustainability by using various sustainable practices like green purchasing, green transportation and distribution, green manufacturing and green construction activities and products’ end of life management. To explore the empirical studies that define and analyze the evolution of green supply chain management practices and various drivers, enablers and barriers of the green supply chain, a
Research Methodology
The study has been conducted using a survey approach that has focused on the supply chain operations of various categories of construction companies in India. In the present study, 14 construction companies have been surveyed which range from small to large in size and are involved in various construction domains like Real Estate, Industrial, Energy, Infrastructure, Institutional and commercial, Telecommunication, etc.
Summary of data for background information of the companies
There are 14 responses received from the Senior Managers of their respective Construction companies. Background information of these companies has been given in Table 3 and Table 4.
In Table 3, it can be observed that based on their size, the firms have been categorized into three types, i.e. large size firm (Category HH) having project value undertaken more than ₹ 2000 crores annually, medium-size firm (Category MM) having project value undertaken between ₹ 100 crores and ₹ 2000 crores annually
Conclusion
In India, though the Construction industry has a major contribution to the country’s growth and socio-economic development, the industry has been a constant source of adverse impact on the environment and sustainability. Along with the adverse impact on the environment, it also affects stakeholder’s long-term value creation.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Abhishek Mojumder: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Formal analysis. Amol Singh: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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