Understanding socio-economic sustainability drivers of sustainable regeneration: an empirical study of regeneration practitioners in UK

The construction industry has been recognized as a major driver towards the delivery of UK sustainable regeneration objectives. Several construction organizations have played various roles in their quest to deliver sustainable regeneration projects in line with sustainable development objectives. Yet, to-date the delivery of such sustainable development objectives has continued to be an on-going challenge for these organizations involved in the delivery of regeneration projects. The study adopted an exploratory research approach, using a questionnaire survey to collect data from 193 construction organizations/practitioners involved in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK. The findings revealed that the majority of construction organizations were promoting socio-economic sustainability principles to meet their own corporate business objectives. The findings further revealed that the majority of practitioners’ organizations were integrating socio-economic sustainability principles into their business practices because they believed doing so was the best way to gain advantage over their competitors and remain relevant in their market place

Special issue: urban regeneration for sustainable development

Guest editorial&nbsp

Sustainable Regeneration project delivery in the UK: A qualitative analysis of practitioners’ engagement

PURPOSE: The aim of this paper is to explore the key practitioner’s level of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK. Practitioners’ level of involvement is a major factor which has, and continues to determine the delivery of sustainability outcomes of regeneration projects. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper adopted a qualitative study which obtained data from 21 key practitioners’ through a semi-structured interviews in exploring practitioners’ level of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK. The semi-structured interviews are conducted with seven practitioners’ each from the three construction organisations selected through a purposive sampling approach for the study. FINDINGS: The findings identify varied levels of involvement of the key practitioners’ at the three delivery stages - early, construction and post construction of the projects. The findings further reveal that clients’ representatives, commercial managers and architects are the most frequently involved practitioners during the early stages of the projects. The findings also indicate that practitioners who have sustainability assigned to their roles and their responsibilities, such as sustainability managers etc. are the least involved in all the three delivery stages of the projects. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The study involves interview with 21 practitioners from three organisations delivering sustainable regeneration projects; hence this could limit the generalization of the research findings. However, the findings of this study could serve as a useful source of information for future further study in this area. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The paper is of the view that the level of key practitioner’s involvement in the delivery of the projects will have an impact on their knowledge and will determine how sustainability benefits are promoted and delivered from the projects. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Although some studies have been carried out on practitioner’s engagement in the delivery of ‘normal’ construction projects, none has focused on practitioner’s levels of involvement in sustainable regeneration projects. Hence, this study has brought to the fore how the key practitioners’ tasked with the responsibilities of delivering sustainability benefits of regeneration projects have been involved (at various levels of the project lifecycle) in the delivery of these projects

The role of built environment practitioners in driving the socio-economic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration

In the United Kingdom (UK), over the past three decades efforts have been made to ensure adequate promotion of sustainability objectives through various policy initiatives. However, despite the effort and the existence of these policy initiatives, sustainability projects in particular, regeneration projects are yet to deliver their intended sustainability objectives. While there is a rise in demand for higher sustainability benefits by stakeholders such as clients, communities and policy makers, the delivery of sustainability benefits from sustainability regeneration projects are yet to meet the expectations of these stakeholders. This article provides an overview of sustainability benefits within the context of the sustainable regeneration projects in the UK from a study that examines the roles and sustainability drivers of construction practitioners towards the promotion of sustainability on their regeneration projects. To do so, a qualitative research approach is adopted using a semi-structured interview technique for the study. The data obtained was analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed that out of the eight socio-economic sustainability drivers presented to practitioners, enhancement of reputation was the most important ‘socio-economic’ sustainability driver while the least important driver was legislative and legal requirement. The findings further revealed that majority of practitioners/ organisations were promoting the socio-economic sustainability driver they believed will enable them to meet their own corporate business objectives

Sustainable regeneration project delivery in UK: A qualitative analysis of practitioners’ engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the key practitioners’ level of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK. Practitioners’ level of involvement is a major factor that has and continues to determine the delivery of sustainability outcomes of regeneration projects. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopted a qualitative study that obtained data from 21 key practitioners through semi-structured interviews in exploring practitioners’ level of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK. The semi-structured interviews are conducted with seven practitioners, each from the three construction organisations selected through a purposive sampling approach for the study. Findings The findings identify varied levels of involvement of the key practitioners at the three delivery stages – early, construction and post-construction of the projects. The findings further reveal that clients’ representatives, commercial managers and architects are the most frequently involved practitioners during the early stages of the projects. The findings also indicate that practitioners who have sustainability assigned to their roles and their responsibilities, such as sustainability managers, are the least involved in all the three delivery stages of the projects. Research limitations/implications The study involves interview with 21 practitioners from three organisations delivering sustainable regeneration projects; hence, this could limit the generalisation of the research findings. However, the findings of this study could serve as a useful source of information for the further study in this area. Practical implications The paper is of the view that the level of key practitioners’ involvement in the delivery of the projects will have an impact on their knowledge and will determine how sustainability benefits are promoted and delivered from the projects. Originality/value Although some studies have been carried out on practitioners’ engagement in the delivery of “normal” construction projects, none has focussed on practitioners’ levels of involvement in sustainable regeneration projects. Hence, this study has brought to the fore how the key practitioners tasked with the responsibilities of delivering sustainability benefits of regeneration projects have been involved (at various levels of the project life cycle) in the delivery of these projects

Developing a conceptual framework for assessing the socio-economic benefits of regeneration projects in the UK

Recent decades have witnessed the evolution of building assessment methods for appraising the sustainability performance of building projects. In the UK for instance, the Government has initiated a number of assessment/evaluation methods to deal with some of the environmental problems associated with regeneration programmes. But attempts aimed at implementing sustainability assessment primarily have been limited to the environmental impact of buildings, with the socio-economic aspects often neglected. The findings of an exploratory case study on a housing regeneration project, which adopted a combination of literature review and focus-group interview approach with eight key stakeholders for data collection in the UK, are presented in this paper. The emergent framework developed and presented in hierarchical order in this paper incorporates project level and wider community socio-economic sustainability indicators

The extent of practitioners' involvement in the delivery of sustainable urban regeneration projects in UK

The requirement to deliver successful sustainable regeneration projects places enormous responsibility on the construction industry practitioners. While the concept of sustainable regeneration has being a big issue in the UK, and also being in operation within the construction industry over the years, it can be said that its achievement has been hampered and determined by numerous factors. One such factor which has affected and continues to affect and determine the sustainability outcome of regeneration projects, are the key practitioners who are tasked with the responsibility of delivering such regeneration projects. The findings of a study that obtained 193 responses through a questionnaire survey to explore the key practitioners’ levels of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK is presented in this paper. The findings identified varied levels of practitioners’ involvement in the three main stages of the project delivery/development; early, construction and post construction. The findings revealed that clients’ representatives, commercial managers and architects were the most frequently involved practitioners during the early stages of the projects. The findings also indicated that practitioners who have sustainability assigned to their roles and their responsibilities, such as the regeneration managers, sustainability managers, training/corporate social responsibility managers were the least frequently involved in all the three delivery stages of the projects

The Extent of Practitioners' Involvement in the Delivery of Sustainable Urban Regeneration Projects in UK

The requirement to deliver successful sustainable regeneration projects places enormous responsibility on the construction industry practitioners. While the concept of sustainable regeneration has being a big issue in the UK, and also being in operation within the construction industry over the years, it can be said that its achievement has been hampered and determined by numerous factors. One such factor which has affected and continues to affect and determine the sustainability outcome of regeneration projects, are the key practitioners who are tasked with the responsibility of delivering such regeneration projects. The findings of a study that obtained 193 responses through a questionnaire survey to explore the key practitioners’ levels of involvement in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the UK is presented in this paper. The findings identified varied levels of practitioners’ involvement in the three main stages of the project delivery/development; early, construction and post construction. The findings revealed that clients’ representatives, commercial managers and architects were the most frequently involved practitioners during the early stages of the projects. The findings also indicated that practitioners who have sustainability assigned to their roles and their responsibilities, such as the regeneration managers, sustainability managers, training/corporate social responsibility managers were the least frequently involved in all the three delivery stages of the projects

Exploring the knowledge ‘base’ of practitioners in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects

In recent years, sustainable regeneration has been recognised as being of major economic and social concern in the world. In the UK for instance, government has initiated a number of policies and evaluation methods to deal with some of the environmental problems associated with regeneration projects. However, the post construction evaluation of these projects has often resulted in them being seen as not achieving their set objectives. Attempts aimed at evaluating the impact of sustainability by built environment practitioners have primarily been limited to their assessment of the projects’ potential environmental impacts, with the associated socio-economic impacts being neglected. There has not been any well-defined built environment research that has been able to deal holistically with the broader issues of sustainability in terms of benefits/impacts of the regeneration projects to the communities concerned. The findings of an exploratory study that adopted a semi-structured interview approach for data collection, to explore the knowledge and understanding of fifteen practitioners who are often involved in the delivery of these projects are presented. The findings reveal a lack of knowledge and understanding of sustainability as well as structured mechanism/practices for evaluating the socio-economic sustainability factors in relation to regeneration projects

Facilitating Successful Smart Campus Transitions: A Systems Thinking-SWOT Analysis Approach

An identification of strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) factors remains imperative for enabling a successful Smart Campus transition. The absence of a structured approach for analyzing the relationships between these SWOT factors and the influence thereof on Smart Campus transitions negate effective implementation. This study leverages a systems thinking approach to bridge this gap. Data were collected through a stakeholder workshop within a University of Technology case study and analyzed using qualitative content analysis (QCA). This resulted in the establishment of SWOT factors affecting Smart Campus transitions. Systems thinking was utilized to analyze the relationships between these SWOT factors resulting in a causal loop diagram (CLD) highlighting extant interrelationships. A panel of experts drawn from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and South Africa validated the relationships between the SWOT factors as elucidated in the CLD. Subsequently, a Smart Campus transition framework predicated on the CLD archetypes was developed. The framework provided a holistic approach to understanding the interrelationships between various SWOT factors influencing Smart Campus transitions. This framework remains a valuable tool for facilitating optimal strategic planning and management approaches by policy makers, academics, and implementers within the global Higher Education Institution (HEI) landscape for managing successful Smart Campus transition at the South African University of Technology (SAUoT) and beyond