Exploring the Powerlessness of Pakistan Construction Professionals Towards Mainstreaming Sustainability

Many traditional barriers towards adopting sustainability in the built environment have been overcome over the past thirty years since 1994 when sustainable construction was conceptualised. For instance, there is increasing awareness about sustainability, and there are now multiple regulations, tools, strategies and assessment methodologies to guide its successful implementation. However, the current academic literature suggests that adopting sustainability in emerging economies like Pakistan could be more evident. Most research efforts have been made to give solutions for addressing sustainability issues in the construction sector through organisational change. However, there seems to be little understanding of the problems which construction professionals are facing in the form of sociopsychological controlling beliefs about sustainability. Using the theory of planned behaviour, this ongoing research attempts to fill this research gap by investigating the non-volitional external controlling factors that might be influencing Pakistani construction professionals' actions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Pakistan construction professionals as part of a qualitative narrative inquiry. The research findings of ten interviewees indicate that construction professionals feel powerless as they cannot translate their behavioural intention towards adopting sustainable practices due to non-volitional contextual factors, which include lack of government support, unwillingness of clients, and limited budget. This research-inprogress will help policymakers improve national policies and take initiatives through incentives and subsidies to help construction professionals in embracing sustainability. There is also a need to conduct a nationwide campaign to encourage local clients to adopt sustainable construction. This research offers future research works to track changes over time to facilitate a deeper understanding of the behavioural change and evolving dynamics of sustainability adoption within the construction sector.