Narrow Results

It has been increasingly recognised that construction activity imposes external costs to the environment. This paper aims to review the benefits and major problems in the implementation of ISO 14000 EMS in the Hong Kong construction industry. This study surveyed major construction firms in Hong Kong to uncover the hindrance factors contributing to the low adoption of ISO 14000. Based on the findings, this paper identifies and ranks the perceived order which hinders the construction firms' adoption of ISO 14000. The case study in Hong Kong serves as a reference point for understanding the problems in the implementation of ISO 14000 in other countries.

Specifically, this study found that the four major obstacles to ISO 14000 implementation are: lack of government pressure; lack of client requirement/supports; expensive implementation cost; and sub-contracting systems, which create difficulties in managing the EMS. Since the government is a very dominant client, the extent to which the Government wishes to restrict its choice of tenderer to those firms that have an environmental management system in place, will demonstrate its commitment to environmentally responsible operations. The public sector clients play a critical role in driving the construction industry to improve its operations through contractual requirements. Education of the end-users is also important to create market demand for environmentally friendly construction. To an extent, professional institutions and other industry bodies can help to instill a greater sense of accountability among industry participants by stipulating acceptable standards of behaviour and establishing a supportive regulatory framework.

The proliferation of global trade and commerce provides both challenges and opportunities for addressing transboundary pollution and furthering global sustainability. In addition to international policy instruments and legislation, standardised approaches to environmental management can improve environmental performance and reduce the escalating levels of pollution that are being experienced worldwide, and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

In Hong Kong, 35 organisations have been certified to the ISO 14001 international environmental management system (EMS) standard, joining over 5000 more worldwide. While this trend is encouraging, Hong Kong's experience demonstrates that significant barriers exist for EMS to become a mainstream tool for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As is it unlikely that certification will become mandatory at the international level, additional effort is therefore required to overcome these barriers, such as raising the awareness of all stakeholders to the benefits of the EMS and facilitating access to the necessary financial and technological assistance.