The Confluence of Lean and Green Construction Practices in the Commercial Buildings Market

Kelsey Maris¹ & Kristen Parrish²

Abstract

Lean and Green construction methodologies are prevalent in today’s construction industry. Green construction implementation in buildings progressed quickly over the last 10 years due to the popularity and development of building rating systems, such as LEED. Similarly, lean construction has become more popular as it often results in efficient construction and improved owner satisfaction. The goal of this study was to assess whether or not practitioners reported the same thoughts on the interaction, or lack thereof, of lean and green construction as reported in academic literature. The authors identified common elements of each methodology through semi-structured interviews with five construction industry professionals with extensive experience with lean and green construction. Interviewees report lean and green construction are different “flavours” of the industry; however, interviewees also state if implemented together, these processes often result in a high-performance building. The authors note that the number of interviewees is small by design – this small sample size allowed the authors to test this research method for validating academic findings reported in literature. This work also brings the practitioner perspective to the conversation about the confluence of lean and green.

Keywords

Lean construction, green construction, waste reduction, efficiency

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Reference

Maris, K. & Parrish, K. 2016. The Confluence of Lean and Green Construction Practices in the Commercial Buildings Market, 24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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