Synergising Lean Thinking and Circular Economy Practices: A Pathway to Enhancing Sustainability Goals in the Construction Industry
摘要
As Industries across the world realign their practices with a key focus on sustainability, the adoption in Construction and Built Environment has been glacial at best despite being one of the top contributors to carbon emissions and waste generation. The industry must restructure its practices to comply with net-zero goals set forth by various governments and international authorities and this study aims to examine how an integrated adoption of Lean construction and principles of Circular economy could help ease this transition. A survey based strategy to collect data measured on a Likert Scale was employed for this study, aided by interviews with professionals in the industry and academia as well as an in-depth analysis of existing data and literature. The results indicated varied levels of awareness of Lean and Circular Economy principles, but several principles associated with them have gradually been adopted in the industry, i.e. greater levels of collaboration, emphasis on cleaner supply chains, waste reduction and management etc. The awareness was also inversely related to the experience, indicating the recency of these concepts among industry professionals and how lack of awareness, reluctance to change and adopting new practices one of the greatest hurdles to their widespread implementation. This study provides valuable insights for construction stakeholders on the significance of integrating Lean thinking and circular economy practices to maximise resource efficiency, waste minimisation, and progressing toward net zero carbon targets.