Identifying and tackling the main factors causing unsustainability in construction industry in Slovakia

Abstract

Engineering and construction industry plays a significant role in growing Slovak economy. Investors have only limited support in vague and unclear urban- and zone-planning data and local community is often omitted from the area development planning activities. Construction plans are often subject to significant changes during the preparation and construction phase, and include imperfections between respective parts of the plans. Vast majority of the construction projects incur significant cost and time-schedule overruns, often caused by investor's unclear project definition, unbalanced contracts and adaptations of building plans during construction projects. The environment both locally and globally is heavily affected by construction activities and building operations. Overworks during building phase and suboptimal design solutions has significant negative impact on the environment during entire project lifecycle. Based on literature research, analysis of construction projects case studies, investigation of conference reports and reviews, in combination with interviews with leading specialist on Slovak market, three main factors of unsustainability in construction industry in Slovakia have been identified and both triggers and actors for positive change have been determined. The the respective problem is currently discussed on the Slovak market, however the individual topics are considered as isolated cases, without broader understanding of connections and relationships between them. The thesis offers new perspective on the topic with outlined actions to be taken.