Study On The Influencing Factors And Function Mechanism Of Contractors' Low-carbon Construction Behaviors

Owing to global warming and environmental crisis,the world has reached a consensus on the development of low-carbon economy.As the largest gross carbon emitter in the world,the Chinese government has set clear targets about reducing carbon emissions.Since building energy consumption is one of the main contributors to social total energy consumption,achieving low carbon in this sector is of great significance to China's economic and social development.Researchers have done a lot of studies about the carbon emissions of building operation phase,but ignoring the building construction phase,which also has high carbon emission intensity.This paper aims to investigate the influencing factors and mechanism of low-carbon construction behaviors from the perspectives of contractors.After clearing relevant theories about low-carbon construction behaviors,this study firstly designed the interview outline,interviewed with the invited experts,and then concluded the influencing factors of contractors' low-carbon behaviors.Secondly,this study developed the Structural Equation Model which shows the function of each influencing factor to contractors' low-carbon behaviors.Thirdly,through questionnaire survey,this study tested the hypotheses proposed in the model,and then analyzed the effects of each influencing factor on low-carbon construction behaviors.Correspondingly,several suggestions were provided to improve contractors' low-carbon behaviors.The results showed that the influencing factors of contractors' low-carbon behaviors mainly include government regulation measures,stakeholders' requirements,market pressure,corporate low-carbon awareness,corporate low-carbon capacity and corporate type.Moreover,this paper found government regulation measures have the largest total effect on contractors' low-carbon behaviors.And the second one is stakeholders' requirements.While the effects of market pressure,corporate low-carbon awareness and corporate low-carbon capacity are small.But the mediating effect of corporate low-carbon awareness and low-carbon capacity cannot be ignored.As for the effect of corporate type,this paper discovered the moderating effect of firm size is significant,while corporate nature is not.For the purpose of improving contractors' low-carbon behaviors effectively,the Chinese government should put emphasis on building good external environment for low-carbon construction,and improving contractors' internal motivation in low-carbon construction.