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Reducing construction waste generation and carbon emission in the construction industry is crucial for the “dual carbon” goal. Evaluating the efficiency of reducing construction waste generation and carbon emission in the construction industry at the regional level is an important evaluation basis for the sustainable development of the construction industry. It provides a basis for formulating construction waste and carbon reduction policies tailored to local conditions and comprehensively promote the sustainable development of the construction industry.

A three stage SBM-DEA model based on non-expected outputs is proposed by combining the SBM-DEA model with the SFA method. The proposed model is used to evaluate the efficiency of construction waste and carbon reduction in the construction industry in 30 regions of China from 2010 to 2020. Moreover, the study explores the impact of environmental variables such as urbanization level, proportion of construction industry employees, resident consumption level, and technological progress.

From 2010 to 2020, the efficiency of construction waste and carbon reduction in China’s construction industry has been increasing year by year. Provinces with higher efficiency of construction waste and carbon reduction in the construction industry are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, showing an overall pattern of “East>West>Northeast>Middle”. There is a clear correlation between the level of urbanization, the proportion of construction industry employees, residents’ consumption level, technological progress, labor input, machinery input, and capital investment. The construction waste and carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry in various provinces is greatly influenced by environmental factors.

The research results provide policy makers and business managers with effective policies for reducing construction waste generation and carbon emission in the construction industry, especially circular economy policies. To provide empirical support for further understanding the connotation of construction waste and carbon reduction in the construction industry, to create innovative models for construction waste and carbon reduction, and to promote the multiple benefits of construction waste and carbon reduction in the construction industry, and to provide empirical support for countries and enterprises with similar development backgrounds in China to formulate relevant policies and decision-making.

The construction industry is a high investment, high energy consumption, and high pollution industry. This study uses the three stage SBM-DEA model to explore the efficiency of construction waste and carbon reduction in the construction industry, providing a new perspective for the evaluation of sustainable development in the construction industry, enriching and improving the theory of sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural, symbolic and economic capital to find meaningful work in the Australian construction industry.

The paper reports the results of a survey of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who have either successfully or unsuccessfully searched for employment in the Australian construction industry.

The findings dispel widely held negative stereotypes of about this group by describing a highly capable workforce which could address significant skills shortages in the industry, while concurrently diversifying the workforce. However, it is found that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants face considerable barriers to finding meaningful employment in the construction industry. In circumventing these barriers, education institutions, charities and community-based organisations play an especially important role, alongside friends and family networks. They do this by helping refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and deploy the necessary capital to secure meaningful work in the construction industry. Disappointingly, it is also found that the construction industry does little to help facilitate capital accumulation and deployment for this group, despite the urgent need to address diversity and critical skills shortages.

Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus, the findings make a number of new theoretical and practical contributions to the limited body of international research relating to the employment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the construction. The results are important because meaningful employment is widely accepted to be the single most factor in the successful integration of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into a host society and the construction industry represents an important source of potential employment for them.

This study aimed to investigate and analyze the level of awareness and adoption of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) within the Nigerian construction industry. The focus was on addressing the current state of DLT utilization, identifying challenges and opportunities and proposing strategies to enhance the integration of DLTs into the construction processes and practices of Nigerian professionals and organizations.

The research was underpinned by a robust theoretical and conceptual framework, drawing from established theories of technology adoption. A comprehensive literature review guided the identification of various DLT types. This informed the development of a well-structured questionnaire, which was then distributed to Nigerian construction professionals. The collected data underwent analysis using percentages, frequencies, mean scores, the Kruskal–Wallis H-test and the Shapiro–Wilk test.

A significant finding of this study reveals a generally low awareness and implementation of DLT among construction professionals in Nigeria. These findings emphasize the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to bridge the gap between awareness and adoption of DLT within the Nigerian construction industry.

Industry associations, regulatory bodies and educational institutions can collaborate to develop specialized programs aimed at familiarizing professionals with the benefits and applications of DLTs. Additionally, technology providers and policymakers can leverage these findings to design user-friendly interfaces and guidelines for seamless DLT integration into construction processes.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive assessment of the awareness and adoption of DLTs specifically within the Nigerian construction industry. While the global recognition of DLT’s potential in construction is acknowledged, this research delves into a regional context, shedding light on the specific opportunities within Nigeria. Furthermore, the study’s identification of a gap between awareness and implementation highlights a critical area for future exploration and development in the field of construction technology adoption.

Although social media has gained prominence as a communication and marketing tool in various sectors, its adoption and utilization within the construction industry remain relatively underexplored. Therefore, this study fills this gap by evaluating the level of awareness and the extent of adoption of social media within the Nigerian construction industry, shedding light on its current status and potential impact.

This objective was attained via a quantitative research approach that utilized a structured questionnaire to obtain responses from construction professionals such as architects, builders, engineers, quantity surveyors and estate managers. Frequencies and percentages and the mean item score (MIS) were used to analyze the questionnaire responses and assess the overall awareness and adoption of social media among construction professionals. Additionally, the Kruskal–Wallis H-test provided valuable insights into the variations in social media adoption levels among different professional categories within the construction industry.

The results indicate that construction professionals possess a generally high level of awareness regarding various social media platforms. However, despite this awareness, the extent of adoption does not align with the level of awareness, suggesting that adoption rates are not as widespread as anticipated.

The findings of this study underscore the importance of not just awareness but also effective adoption and utilization of social media platforms. While awareness is a crucial first step, construction firms should focus on implementing strategies to encourage greater adoption and integration of these platforms into their daily operations. This can go a long way in bridging the awareness – adoption gap which was revealed in this study.

While the limited existing research on social media in the construction industry has predominantly concentrated on areas such as marketing, addressing the root causes of fatalities, data environment tools and business branding, none have undertaken a thorough evaluation of social media awareness and adoption within the sector. This study fills a critical gap by narrowing its focus to the adoption dynamics and the technology’s potential impact on communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing among construction professionals.

In this chapter, the nature and extent of corruption in the construction industry is considered from a worldwide perspective, but particularly in the context of research conducted in South Africa. The definition of corruption is expanded to include conflict of interest and unethical conduct. Corruption in the construction industry is found to be universal and pervasive, occurring in all areas, at all stages, at all levels, and in all forms. A simple triangular model of corruption is replaced by a more complex four-dimensional risk-based model. The challenge for the construction industry, in combating corruption, will essentially require multilateral action in all four dimensions of the enhanced model: eliminating and reducing opportunities where possible; relieving the pressures to commit corrupt acts; rebutting the rationales and arguments used to excuse corruption; and substantially improving and innovating more forensic methods of detection. While the decision to engage in corruption is risk-based, particularly in terms of the capacity to evade detection; in essence corruption is a cultural and moral issue for society.

Production-related industrial zones, super structures and infrastructures are constructed by the construction industry. Nearly all industries and their environmental emissions are influenced by the construction industry including its sub-industries, companies and their supply chains. Furthermore, cities play an important role in economic growth. Cities are hubs for productivity, production, supply and demand, and innovation with the help of their human capital and built environment (e.g. offices, factories, industrial zones, infrastructures, etc.).

Industrial growth fosters urbanisation which is vital for the supply side in the economy to reach to the human resources. Urbanisation which supports industrial growth obstacles industries’ efficiency due to urbanisation problems (e.g. traffic, air and water pollution, health problems).

Construction industry and its sub-industries affect total factor productivity growth in nearly all industries. Construction industry can be a facilitator industry for economic growth and industrial growth considering total factor productivity growth and environment aspects. All industries’ green and sustainable total factor productivity growth can be supported by rethinking construction industry, its sub-industries and their outputs (e.g. construction materials, built environment, cities) as well as construction project management processes.

This chapter aims to introduce carbon capturing smart construction industry model to foster green and sustainable total factor productivity growth of industries. This chapter emphasises current and potential roles of construction industry, its sub-industries and their outputs in fostering other industries’ growth through green and sustainable total factor productivity growth. It focusses on carbon capturing technologies and design at different levels. Furthermore, this chapter emphasises cities’ role in green and sustainable total factor productivity growth. This chapter provides recommendations for construction industry policies and carbon capturing cities/built environment model to solve urbanisation problems and to foster industrial growth and green and sustainable total factor productivity growth. This chapter is expected to be useful to all stakeholders of the construction industry, policy makers, and researchers in the relevant field.

The construction industry's application of supply chain management (SCM) principles is confronted with numerous Gordian Knots ranging from late delivery, fragmentation and others. The challenges could be attributed to multiple factors. The most crucial amongst them are adopting management ideas rooted in the second and third industrial revolution without taking consideration of the present industrial revolution. Evidence from literature and practice revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). This chapter calls for developing a model that supports construction supply chain management (CSCM) in tandem with the principles of 4IR. This chapter presents the idea behind the conception, development and benefit of this research book to construction stakeholders and academia. The various shortcomings in the existing model for CSCM were also discussed in this chapter extensively.

Chapter one of this valuable book focuses primarily on the construction industry and emphasises on thematic areas such as industry entities, including its social and economic impact supported by the workforce within the industry. The workforce, which consists of a wide variety of training, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers, is crucial to the building sector. These people are vital to the conception, management and accomplishment of construction projects in various industries. The chapter also highlights the lack of female gender involvement and how the gender gap would be filled.

In the quest for better construction workforce management, this chapter explored the background of workforce management and related theories, models, and practices. Through a review, the chapter provided meaning to the concept of construction and workforce management. The chapter concluded that while the construction industry worldwide is important to the economic growth of the countries where it operates, the industry’s management of its workforce is challenged by several problems. These problems include the nature of the industry, skill shortage, unhealthy working environment, and poor image of the industry, among others. Also, while the construction industry is rich in diversity, this has been a major source of problems for workforce management. The chapter further revealed that to improve workforce management and attain better-performing construction organisations, careful recruitment, effective training, providing a safe working environment, putting policies to promote diversity, and ensuring innovativeness, among others, are essential.

The model and existing practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia was presented in this chapter. The policies and reports that support the practice of the CSC were examined in both countries. It was discovered from the review of literature that the UK has a more detailed report targeted at improving the CSC than Australia. However, both countries have a common factor affecting their CSC which originates from fragmentation experienced within their supply chain. Construction stakeholders in the UK and Australia believe that collaboration and integration are vital components for improving performance. The majority of the contractors in both countries embrace collaborative working for the sole purpose of risk sharing, access to innovation and response to market efficiency. However, most of the models developed for managing the CSC in the UK are built around building information modelling (BIM). Also, the reviewed studies show that supply chain management practice will be effective following the following principle: shared objectives, trust, reduction in a blame culture, joint working, enhanced communication and information-sharing. Finally, the UK has a more established framework and more CSC models compared to Australia.