Towards a sustainability assessment model for affordable housing projects: the perspective of professionals in Ghana
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 5 May 2020
Issue publication date: 8 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents a sustainability assessment model to holistically guide sustainable construction and green retrofitting of affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive review was carried out, which yielded 16 sustainability indicators. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted among respondents in the Ghanaian housing sector. Forty-seven valid responses were received and analysed using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique.
Findings
A four-index model was developed that includes: Housing and Transportation (H + T) index, household-satisfaction index, efficient stakeholder-management index and quality-related index. These indices account for 25.3%, 26.3%, 23.6% and 24.9% of sustainability attainment in affordable housing, respectively. Accordingly, household-satisfaction has the greatest contribution to sustainability attainment in affordable housing.
Research limitations/implications
Due to challenges in obtaining responses to the questionnaire, the study was conducted with relatively small number of responses.
Originality/value
The model serves as a tool that could be used to objectively and comprehensively assess sustainability performance in affordable housing. Besides, it could be used as a baseline to calibrate future projects and for benchmarking success levels of comparable housing projects. Finally, the estimated indices are applicable in decision making for optimum resource allocation for sustainable low-cost housing in the Ghanaian perspective.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a research project entitled “Affordable Housing Supply: A Comparative Study between Developed and Developing Economies”, from which other deliverables have been made with different aims but sharing common background. The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the Research Grants Council (RGC) and the Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Polytechnic University, for their financial support in conducting this study. The authors are also thankful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that helped to improve the quality of this paper.
Citation
Adabre, M.A. and Chan, A.P.C. (2020), "Towards a sustainability assessment model for affordable housing projects: the perspective of professionals in Ghana", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 27 No. 9, pp. 2523-2551. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-08-2019-0432
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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