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The mitigation of climate change and its adverse consequences is highly urgent. It has produced a global response in the form of the Paris Agreement, which aims to tackle global warming and adapt to it. It has resulted in enacting the Climate Change Act 2008, setting a target for 2050 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are profound implications for all sectors across the United Kingdom, and this study focuses on the construction industry. This research aims to build on the existing literature, evaluate the attitude of UK construction professionals about the achievability of the goals set, and identify methods for improvement as an industry. This investigation combines qualitative and quantitative methods to gather secondary data from the literature and primary data via a questionnaire. The analysis shows that despite climate legislation, there is a need for more significant action to meet the agreed-upon targets. Also, the construction sector and its professionals need help to achieve the set targets. This need has hampered the confidence to achieve targets within the industry. The recommendations listed in this paper illuminate the path of overcoming these obstacles and give us a way to further research how the industry can evolve and contribute toward climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Construction project delays are described as a universal problem, which has led to many empirical studies. However, most of these studies were based on the rankings by respondents, and they were rarely verified. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore professional perspectives on the causes of delay in the construction industry, where there has been little explicit consideration on this subject in recent decades.Design/methodology/approach A critical literature review and a qualitative approach was considered for a deeper and fresh understanding of the causes of delays, rather than recycling the existing themes and the risk of a statistically biased approach. A total of 41 interviews were undertaken which included the London Olympic 2012 project team.Findings In all, 32 themes were identified, which were categorised into 15 categories of causes of delay in the construction projects. Almost two-thirds of the main themes are not ranked top 15 causes of delay. These include knowledge and competence shortage, poor commercial decisions, unnecessary health and safety restrictions, poor risk management and poor space and logistics management.Research limitations/implications Due to the qualitative nature of the study, the findings might not be considered as representative.Practical implications The findings provide consideration of the causes of delay in the construction industry as seen by practitioners, which should provide guidance to enhance performance.Originality/value The study contributes to the better understanding of the causes of delays by using qualitative research strategy which is limited in the construction management literature. This study is an empirical investigation into the causes of delay in the twenty-first century and it represents an important edition to the body of knowledge within the subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the opportunities for, and barriers against, women within the UK construction industry. Women form the greater proportion of the economically active UK population and yet within construction, and other industries, they are under represented. Data available clearly indicates that women are more than capable of performing the tasks undertaken by many professional male counter-parts. Many of the professional bodies within the industry have a women's cohort, which may be perceived as a useful starting point, but does not fully reflect the potential available. It is suggested that women should be better represented and consideration is given to methods suitable for increasing the representation and reducing or eliminating some of the barriers to entry and eventual retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the failure of competitively tendered projects in the UK construction industry to procure the most suited contractor(s) to conduct the works. Such work may have equal relevance for other developed nations globally. This research seeks to teach clients and their representatives that "lowest price" does not mean "best value", by presenting a case study of a successfully negotiated tender undertaken by a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) contractor; SME studies are relatively scant in academic literature. By applying the "lessons learnt" principle, this study seeks to improve future practice through the development of a novel alternative procurement option (i.e., negotiation). A mixed philosophical stance combining interpretivism and pragmatism was used—interpretivism to critically review literature in order to form the basis of inductive research to discuss negotiation as a viable procurement route, and pragmatism to analyse perceptions of tendering and procurement. The methods used follow a three-stage waterfall process including: (1) literature review and pilot study; (2) quantitative analysis of case study data; and (3) qualitative data collection via a focus group. Our research underscores the need to advise clients and their representatives of the importance of understanding the scope of works allowed within a tender submission before discounting it based solely on price. In addition, we highlight the failings of competitive tendering, which results in increased costs and project duration once the works commence on site. These findings provide new contemporary insight into procurement and tendering in the construction industry, with emphasis on SME contractors, existing relationships, and open-book negotiation. This research illustrates the adverse effects of early cost estimates produced without first securing a true understanding of project buildability and programming. Our work concludes with a novel insight into an alternative procurement option that involves early SME contractor involvement in an open-book environment, without the need for a third-party cost control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]