Green Building Practices and Principles in the Zambian Construction Industry

Experiences on green buildings projects can encourage people to make the right choices on the green building practices conducted on construction sites and in turn reduce the negative effects on the environment. Understanding the level of awareness, perceptions and attitudes of artisans, communities and professionals on green building practices provides a good baseline on which to disseminate information on green building technology. This paper investigated the level of awareness, attitudes and perceptions of green building practices amongst participants in a green buildings housing project in North-western and Lusaka provinces of Zambia. A qualitative descriptive cross sectional study was used and all the people who were directly involved in the project were interviewed. The findings suggest that amongst the professionals and artisans who were interviewed, the ones who had participated in other sustainability projects showed greater awareness than those who did not. The professionals had attained the knowledge from workshops, media, green building demonstration houses and institutions of higher learning while the artisans had attained it from a previous project on renewable energy. The community members who were aware were few but the few had attained this knowledge from reading and watching documentaries. The results suggest that professionals who spent most time on the green building project demonstrated greater awareness. On the other hand the artisans who spent an equal amount of time on the project seemed not to have gained as much awareness in comparison with the professionals. The professionals showed the highest positive perception and attitude on the Likert scale. All the groups agreed that green building materials could only be affordable if they were locally produced. The study concluded that the best way of training the local community is by demonstrating the use of local materials and practices whereas for the professionals and artisans, the introduction of regulations on green building practices may increase the level of awareness.