Environmental Performance and Lean Construction Concepts - Can We Talk About a Clean Construction

This paper tries to answer this question: in the same way that lean production concepts give support to lean construction ones, can we talk about a 'clean construction', supported by environmental performance and lean construction concepts? The goal should be to better meet environment demands, while respecting the production purposes. This paper shows that the answer is affirmative. More than that, it shows that we can improve the performance of the production management process, including environmental aspects. This new approach could lead to a so-called 'clean construction'. This article shows the state of the art in this matter, describing some of the solutions found in academic researches and some on-site experiences concerning environmental aspects in building construction. The main objective is to identify the major environmental approaches that could lead to a 'clean construction', respecting production goals, so that the building sector could contribute to a more sustainable development.