Factors Affecting Green Procurement In Real Estate Development

Environmental problems of the real estate industry, ranging from non-renewable resource consumption, to the smog clouds, and to the global warming, have become pressing challenges to the world. Production and use of building materials are commonly considered as major contributors to these environmental problems. The procurement and use of green building materials are considered effective methods for improving environmental performance of real estate products. Real estate developers are among the main consumers for green building materials; thus green procurement practice adopted by developers is important to the promotion of GBM products. There are various factors acting as drivers and barriers for developers to adopt GP in the areas of business policy, marketing, supplier selection, and enterprise organization. There are a number of attributes to each of these areas, and some of them are key factors playing essential roles in affecting developers' GP practice. The research findings on these key GP factors can provide a valuable reference for assisting relevant government departments to formulate effective policies and regulations in order to encourage real estate developers to adopt GP and consequently promote the development of GBM.This study identifies 13 tentative drivers and 7 tentative barriers to green procurement in real estate development through conducint an extensive literature review. The research examines the green features of GBM, drivers and barriers affecting green procurement in the context of real estate development. Research data used for analysis are collected through a questionnaire survey to developers, with the receival of 78 effective responses. The hierarchical cluster analysis technique is employed to conduct a comprehensive analysis for identifying significant barriers. The one-way Analysis of Variance(ANOVA) technique is employed in identifying key drivers to GP practice. The semi-structured interview is used to verify and interpret the results of hierarchical cluster analysis, and develop suggestions for mitigating those significant barriers in promoting green procurement. The study reveals that(1) Real estate developers in Chongqing of China have little understanding of green procurement and green building materials, and few of them have experience in adopting green procurement.(2) Typical reasons for early green procurement adopters are "Policy pressure", "Marketing benefits" and "Business benefits".(3) The most significant barriers contributing to developers' lagging in green procurement include little marketing benefits, lack of incentive policies, technical concerns with using green building materials, unwell developed green building materials market.(4) Different developers with different levels of green procurement experience encounter different barriers. The crucial barrier impeding leading developers is lack of authoritative green building materials certification system. Developers lagging in GP practice are found more impeded by internal barriers within organization, such as lack of business missions, policies, expertise and awareness on life cycle cost.(5) The key drivers for green procurement practice include “Marketing benefits”, “Market pressure” and “Internal pressure within organization”.