The Sustainable Construction Business: A Missing Ingredient in Creating a Sustainable Built Environment?

Abstract In this paper we attempt to connect the corporate social responsibility agenda with current debates within sustainable construction. We reveal an apparent disconnect between the focus on sustainable products and processes and the orientation of the businesses within which they reside. Current agendas are characterised by a desire to create a more sustainable built environment, but with little regard for the businesses that enact such agendas. We argue that the firm is the enabler of a more holistic CSR agenda, and that sustainability needs to be present, visible and integrated in the business at all levels and in all functions of the sustainable construction organization. An archetype of a sustainable construction business is developed based on a synthesis of related literatures that could act as a framework for enacting responsible strategies in the future. In arguing for a ‘business focus’ we seek to broaden the current debates within the sustainable construction literature, and to open up new research trajectories around responsible sourcing, business ethics and organisational change for corporate sustainability, which have hitherto been underplayed within built environment research literature.

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