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The Market for Green Buildings in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experts Perspective on the Economic Benefits in Ghana
Michael Nii Addy1, Emmanuel Adinyira2, Florence Dadzoe3, Desmond Opoku4.
Part of the ideals of promoting sustainability is the green building (GB) concept. Nevertheless, the uptake and use of GBs amongst most stakeholders in Africa are still on the low. Despite the plethora of studies on the economic benefits of green building, there is a dearth in studying the benefits in Africa. Within these economies, the presence of market restrictions, socio-cultural and political factors may mitigate against these benefits. This study seeks to unearth the economic benefits of GBs within the context of a sub-Saharan African country, Ghana. By adopting a quantitative research approach, a comprehensive literature review was first conducted. This was followed by the use of a questionnaire survey. A structured questionnaire was issued to building consultants in Ghana to elicit their perspectives on the economic gains of GBs. Mean scores, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were respectively used to rank and assess the level of agreements amongst the various consultants on the economic benefits. Five economic benefits were identified from the study. This includes savings in energy, lower lifetime cost, lower operational cost, increased work productivity and "transforms the construction industry". The findings show that most of the economic benefits identified from literature cannot be realised in the study region, including "high return on investment" and "increase in building value". Consequently, building energy cost seems to play a crucial role in pushing the demand for the GB within the study milieu. The study provides a contextual understanding of economic benefits, useful to construction
clients, property owners, real estate investors, consultants and the research environment. The findings are useful in providing market enablers to enhance a large-scale uptake of green construction. It is recommended that the provision of GBs should not be limited to only its impact on the environment and sustainability but also affordability concerns. This study provides a unique contextual perspective on the economic benefit of GB in a sub-Saharan African country.
Affiliation:
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
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Indexation |
Indexed by |
MyJurnal (2021) |
H-Index
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3 |
Immediacy Index
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0.000 |
Rank |
0 |
Indexed by |
Scopus 2020 |
Impact Factor
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CiteScore (1.3) |
Rank |
Q2 (Architecture) Q3 (Management of Technology and Innovation) Q3 (Building and Construction) Q3 (Strategy and Management) |
Additional Information |
SJR (0.26) |
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