Challenges in implementing environmental requirements for construction of electricity infrastructure : perspectives of non-environmental project team members

Abstract

Access to sustainable electricity has been identified as playing a crucial role in the drive towards sustainable development. As a result, infrastructure projects are being implemented at a fast rate to improve availability and access to this energy source. The construction phase of infrastructure development projects is usually the most environmentally destructive and where mitigation of impacts is crucial. In order to guide the management of impacts that materialise during the construction phase of electricity infrastructure projects, there are various environmental requirements that need to be applied by construction stakeholders. These requirements emanate from environmental regulatory provisions, policies, best-practice guidelines and other tools that are aimed at promoting sound practices to manage activities with a high potential of negative impacts. The implementation of these requirements is often the responsibility of project team members who do not always have the expertise or competencies in environmental management. This is inclusive of engineers, project managers, construction workers and site supervisors, who can collectively be referred to as “non-environmental” project team members. This group of stakeholders often inherit environmental requirements which they are expected to implement as part of their construction related activities. The research question that this study aimed to answer was to determine what the challenges are that this group of stakeholders experience, based on their perspectives, in implementing environmental requirements for the construction of electricity infrastructure. In order to address the research question, the objectives of this study were first to outline the common environmental requirements relevant to construction of electricity infrastructure, and secondly finding out from the identified group of stakeholders what implementation challenges they experienced. A qualitative research design, using the interview method, was selected as the most appropriate approach to garner in-depth perspectives and experiences from the sampled participants. Purposive sampling was used to select relevant participants who met the criteria of non-environmental team members who had to implement environmental requirements for the construction phase of electricity infrastructure projects. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 participants, using a semi-structured interview guide comprising of both open-ended and structured 5-point Likert scale-based questions. The results from the interviews were analysed using content analysis through coding and development of themes from the responses to the open-ended questions. The Likert scale-based questions were analysed by calculating percentages of participant responses per variable.

The views shared by participants revealed 31 challenge categories from the open-ended questions, which were further categorised into seven (7) themes. The most prevalent challenge categories, where 50% or more of participants cited them as being a challenge to implementation of environmental requirements, involved focussing on financial and schedule targets, negative behaviour and attitudes, late integration of environmental requirements, poor site visibility of environmental personnel and training related challenges. The results from the Likert scale-based questions revealed that over half of the participants also agreed with the following literature derived challenges to implementation, these being: •lack of knowledge •other things took priority •lack of understanding •perception that requirements delay project progress •lack of earlier engagement •lack of support or resources •perception that implementation increase costs There were various recommendations provided by participants to address these challenges and these were captured as part of the discussions. Mitigation of construction phase impacts are important for more sustainable practices, and this cannot be done without stakeholders who are tasked with implementing these requirements. Therefore, having insight into the obstacles faced by non-environmental project team members could reveal opportunities for improvement in environmental management of infrastructure projects.