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This study aims to investigate the interrelationship between critical design criteria (CDC) that affect health, well-being and productivity (i.e. WELL) for residential buildings in developing countries, using Malaysia as a case study. To achieve the aim, the objectives are to identify CDC that affect WELL collectively; determine CDC that affect health, well-being, and productivity simultaneously; and analyze the interrelationship between the CDC.

Data from the semi-structured interviews and a systematic review of the existing literature were gathered for survey development. Next, survey data was collected from 114 professionals living in multistory buildings. Finally, normalized mean analysis, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), agreement analysis and Spearman correlation analysis were used to analyze the collected data.

Out of the 51 potential design criteria, 16 are critically affecting WELL collectively. Furthermore, six are critically affecting WELL collectively as well as health, well-being and productivity simultaneously: property price, water flow and supply, water treatment, pest management, management services and waste management. Finally, “water treatment” is highly correlated to “water management” and “water flow and supply.” In addition, “waste management” and “management services,” as well as “fire safety” and “emergency evacuation plans,” are highly correlated.

This study's originality includes investigating the CDC of residential buildings for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, in a developing country. As a result, this study uncovers holistic design criteria for policymakers to establish holistic building assessment tools for residential buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the corporate sustainability culture of contracting firms, particularly in the Midwest. Many of the local firms operate nationally. The local corporate culture influences their regional offices. Other than convenience, the firms are selected from Midwest since their headquarters are situated in Midwest region and comprises of more number of employees than their other regional offices. This helped the research to approach more contractors for better survey and interview responses. The paper documents the study on existing management and construction practices these contractors adopt on sustainability and examines how their sustainability efforts influence the firms’ performances.

This research utilized surveys and interviews as the primary means of data collection. The data were collected from survey and interviews with selected companies operating in the Midwest region of the USA. One of the companies also operates offices across the country. Data from the interviews and surveys were analyzed using statistical analysis system software application. χ² analysis, particularly the frequency procedures using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) method was the primary analysis method used to study the relationships between different factors. The CMH method compares the association between and within two groups and permits adjustments of the control variables.

The findings of this paper include the results from various Midwest commercial building contractors. The results on different aspects of sustainable practices and their success rates among the contractors are determined and discussed, and future scope of improvements are mentioned at the conclusion of this paper.

In summary, sustainable business practices are beneficial to society and favorable for the construction business. Embracing sustainable business practices has a positive impact on firm strategic performance for commercial building contractors through employee satisfaction, project opportunities, and market advantage. Sustainable business practices extend into the lives of individuals involved which exceedingly impacts society. The construction industry has advanced sustainability efforts, but there is a long way to go on the journey to being better stewards of the environment and resources.

A rival theory became apparent during the investigation that a new building consolidating all local company employees could have an impact on firm strategic performance. Third, this paper is confounded by a great recession that made project opportunities and revenue considerations analysis problematic. Some information regarding these aspects were helpful; however, expanding this paper during a more stable and typical economic period could provide additional insight.