Greenhouse gas emission from activities in the built environment is increasing exponentially due to increase in building operations. This study aims at determining factors that affect adoption of Green Building Technologies that normally reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To elicit relevant information, online structured questionnaire forms were administered on practitioners who have been involved in green building development in Nigeria. Mean score ranking was adopted in ranking the barriers to green building technologies, while discriminant analysis was performed to examine how organizations groups (client, consulting, contracting, academia) were distinguished on the barrier factors identified. Findings revealed that, out of the 23 barrier factors considered in this research, lack of institutions to formulate policies and set guidelines (mean score - 4.5) ranked 1st as barrier to adoption of green building technologies in Nigeria. This is closely followed by lack of information about green products (4.0), low level of awareness about sustainability issues (4.0), human resource and client knowledge, lack of knowledge about green building technologies, high cost of green products, while unavailability of sustainable materials and products ranked the lowest (2.7). Only nine factors at 0.05 level of significance entered the discriminant analysis model and emerged as variables with the most significant power in differentiating the organization groupings on the basis of perceived barriers to adoption of green building technologies. The study recommends that there should be strong political will from government, to establish institutions that formulate policies on green building technologies.Keywords: Barriers, Green Building, Green Building Technologies.

Construction sites have been identified as one of the most hazardous places to work due to high level of health and safety risks. Information on health and safety is therefore required to educate the participants on how to achieve safe working environment. This study therefore examined and analysed level of knowledge and compliance with information on health and safety and the effects on the safety of construction workers in Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed that the workers have average knowledge of health and safety information but demonstrated low level of compliance. The result also established a very strong positive correlation between compliance of health and safety information and safety of workers. However, when the significance of the correlation was tested, the result implied that though there was a positive relationship between compliance and safety of workers, the relationship was not significant. Practically, this meant that compliance alone cannot substantially guarantee workers safety.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the need to develop building service standard method of measurement (BSSMM) that would provide a home ground advantage and a framework for managing the cost of building services by quantity surveyors. Design/methodology/approach – A review of previous research on the rules of measurement was carried out. This exercise provides the basis for questionnaire design which was administered to quantity surveyors in Malaysia construction industry. Findings – The results indicated the need to develop BSSMM. In total, 23 variables were identified as essential features of such standard method of measurement. These variables were grouped into three categories and a priority ranking of them was carried out. The analysis revealed a strong agreement among quantity surveyors on the priority ranking of the essential features of the BSSMM. Research limitations/implications – Although, the research would assist industry stakeholders in developing BSSMM that reflects local and international best practices, there is need to further investigate how the rules of the BSSMM could be aligned with construction industry classification systems. Practical implications – The availability of information and computer technology (ICT) tools has transformed the traditional practices in the industry and offered values to quantity surveyors, but if quantity surveyors’ tools cannot be consolidated and incorporated into emerging ICT applications, then QS collaboration will be difficult, and the requirements for electronic data exchange will be impractical. Therefore, this type of standard method of measurement will facilitate cross-referencing and coordination between BoQ and other documents such as drawings, specifications and tender produced by other project participants and thereby lay efficient foundation for effective collaboration of quantity surveyors in BIM model. In addition, the BSSMM will not only comply with local industry practices, it will also be internationally compatible. Originality/value – Adoption of a structured format based on BSSMM to present building services cost information is essential in view of the increase in the value and complexity of building services in modern buildings. However, there is need to enhance quantity surveyors’ knowledge in the technology and cost management of building services so as to ensure the reliability of cost advice provided to clients. This goal would be partly achieved through education and training of Quantity Surveyors/Cost Consultants in the interpretation and use of the rules of an SMM.

The procurement of building services (BS) constitutes a great challenge in the construction industries of both developed and developing countries. Adoption of value engineering (VE) methodology could aid BS components selection at design and installations stages. However, the methodology is not appropriately used by the project team during design and installation of BS. Leading to overdesign, poor quality specification, lack of team work and unreliable budget estimate. The main objective of this paper is to determine the factors preventing the adoption of VE in the procurement of BS projects. A questionnaire was design to collect information on 18 generic factors contributing to non-adoption of VE. The questionnaire was administered to randomly selected practitioners in clients’, contracting and consulting types of organisations in Malaysia. The result shows that lack of understanding of VE by clients organisations, lack of request for the services, and inadequate time to conduct the study are the most important factors deterring adoption of VE for building services. The factors analysis of result for the 18 variables produced a four (4) factors result as: Non-involvement of stakeholders; education and traditional practice; resistance to change, and lack of experience about VE. It is essentially important for industry clients to understand the importance of adopting VE so as to ensure that time required for the study are pre-planned and budgeted for at project inception

Infrastructure serves as an indicator to make real estate investment flourish, build the platform for the real estate investment market to thrive, and also to boost returns on property investment. Despite availability of some infrastructure,the property investment market still plagued with less expected returns as a result of non-functionality of neighborhood infrastructure. The study focused on the appraisal of the trends in residential property investment returns between year 2009 to 2018, relative to infrastructure condition in the study area. Data were obtained from practising real estate firms and residents of selected neighborhoods using a structured questionnaire. The study adopted simple random sampling technique. Out of 2,228 questionnaires administered in the selected neighborhoods, in Ilorin, 664 were returned and valid for the analysis. Descriptive mean method of data analysis was employed, coefficient of variation and spearman’s rank-order correlation model was adopted to comparethe property investment return in the selected areas of Ilorin and to determine the infrastructure indexwith benchmark for the minimum acceptable standard condition. Also, Kendall coefficient of concordance was also used to test the relationship among the ranked factors. The result shows that Sabo-Oke and Fate property market of Ilorin performed better than Adewole Housing Estate and GRA (Government Reservation Area) based onrisk-return ratio analysis, of which Sabo-Oke and Fate revealed the most consistent property market returns while GRA and Adewole Housing Estate residential market showed high level market volatility due to risky nature of the market. Sabo-Oke and Fate markets showed a stable market at minimum risk ranges between 8%-36%. The infrastructure condition indices in GRA and Adewole Housing Estate is higher than ideal condition index (Benchmark), ranges between 82%-92% and 81%-94% when compared with the average international standard at 60%, while infrastructure conditions in Sabo-Oke and Fate found a bit below the average international standard condition. The study also found that the performance of residential property investment is magnificent in the area where there is a frequent market transaction with good and functional infrastructure, as it is discovered across the selected neighborhoods in Ilorin. The study concluded that infrastructure have weighty influence on residential property investment returns relative to functional infrastructure and that, residential property market performance hinges on functional infrastructure and it must be given extreme consideration when making a property investment decision.