PurposeA long-term collaborative public water infrastructure procurement contract in New Zealand adopts “Enterprise Alliance” delivery (strategy) with a Construction Consolidation Centre (CCC) (operational) logistics solution. New Zealand's unique spatial, market, regulatory and economic circumstances present a research gap pertaining to the sustainability impacts of the combinatory implementation. The paper suggests a literature review-based research framework for examining these.Design/methodology/approachSystematic literature review (SLR) discovers unique New Zealand attributes, and sustainability impacts of both the approaches overseas. Towards formulating a research framework, the paper discusses sustainability of construction and its New Zealand context, and research focus within the implemented model. Significant issues from SLR reveal Design, Logistics, Impacts and Spin-offs research domains. The paper suggests a research framework and examines an appropriate research design.FindingsCCC implementation under a programme alliance is without precedent in New Zealand. Variance of New Zealand's unique attributes from North American and European characteristics behind successful implementation are likely to impact domestic outcomes. A research framework to test this hypothesis will enable investigating the relevance of the concepts to New Zealand settings and provide a contextual implementation datum. Implementation benchmarks will potentially influence public policy and enrich indigenous knowledge corpus, potentially transferrable to associated domains (urban planning, transportation and energy).Originality/valueThe paper attempts to define a research direction in the domain of applying supply chain management principles to the New Zealand's construction sector by investigating the employment of a CCC in a collaborative environment as an infrastructure project delivery vehicle with sustainability leanings.

The construction industry’s inherent fragmentation fuels Construction Supply Chain (CSC) complexity. Logistics form an essential part of the CSC in terms of costs and project management. In turn, transportation accounts for more than half the logistics costs due to construction materials being low-cost/high-volume, and most other logistics processes being business processes and not physical ones. Construction transport is almost entirely road bound, one of the least sustainable modes with externalities far out of proportion to its numbers. Ergo, its optimisation presents substantial greening (de-carbonisation) opportunity, with potentially far-reaching sustainability impacts. The ASI (Avoid-Shift-Improve) concept considers activity, modal structure, and energy intensity/efficiency as transport carbon components, providing a fundamental optimisation framework. 93% of New Zealand’s freight (a third of it construction related) is road bound, with 99% fossil-fuel (diesel) dependence. Government adoption of ASI elements viz Supply Chain (SC) efficiency, transport optimisation, data/information sharing, and collaboration for transport decarbonisation aligns with Industry 5.0, but seeks further research for concrete implementation pathways. This paper aims to bridge the gap by proposing a research framework for greening of construction transport as a sustainability enabler for New Zealand.

New Zealand (NZ) construction is highly fragmented, comprises primarily micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); 32.5% of approximately 67,000 operating businesses are ‘small’ (up to 19 employees), while 65% are sole traders. The construction supply chain (CSC) is extensive, prone to inefficiencies at segmental boundaries accentuated by project-centric delivery. Conversely, it presents significant opportunity for consolidation and improved efficiency. Vertical integration and CSC management from the supplier-end rather than the project-end enable component elements to be individually independent in terms of ownership, while integrating their management above the tactical CSC level. This leads to improved operational philosophy and employment. Quantifying impacts, however, is a challenge due to lack of tangibility. This can be effectively overcome using quantifiable parameters associated with the CSC’s transport component. The paper investigates transport operations in a narrow NZ CSC segment over a three-month period to quantify improved performance using operational data and further potential for resource optimisation using operations research-based planning. Research outcomes point towards: (i) Fleet management strategy; (ii) Integrated planning and operational delivery; (iii) Non-price attributes in tendering/contracting; (iv) Change in the delivery model of manufactured construction products; (v) Information and communication technology-based solutions; and (vi) Integration of reverse logistics.