Exploring factors influencing construction waste reduction: A structural equation modeling approach

Construction waste reduction (CWR) refers to reducing the amount of hazardous waste produced during construction projects to the minimum feasible degree; in turn reducing the impact of waste on the environment, and promoting sustainable development of the construction industry. At present, the CWR management system in many countries lack emphasis on a suitable source plan or incentive policy in their reduction management programs. Many factors affect CWR; therefore, it is important to identify and explore its key factors and analyze their importance. In this study a literature review preceded analysis of factors that significantly affect the reduction of waste in source planning and incentive policies. The formation mechanism of each indicator was also analyzed, and the theoretical hypothesis was tested using data from questionnaires and a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of this study uncovered that: (1) the path coefficient of government subsidy as a incentive policy for waste reduction is 0.52, making it the measure with the least impact on CWR compared with the other measures; (2) nine key influencing factors have positive and significant impacts on waste reduction in incentive policies and source plans, as follows: professional ethics of stakeholders, waste management behavior, waste sustainability, government subsidy, construction contract, construction material transportation, construction material site management planning, construction material storage, and construction site operation; and (3) the path coefficient of waste reduction for waste management behavior and incentive policies, material transportation, and source plan is 0.98, while the path coefficient of waste reduction for source plan of construction material storage and construction site operation is 0.97. Therefore, among all the factors, these have the most significant effect on the CWR. This study aims to improve construction stakeholder understanding of the important measures to be taken in the implementation of CWR in construction projects and provide a reference for decision makers to formulate relevant policies with respect to CWR. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.