Attitude and related behavioral responses of building professionals on sustainable development

: a comparative study between Hong Kong and cities in mainland China

Abstract

In 1987, the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. To make the sustainable development successful, we have to change the way of our living pattern. The living environment is closely related to human behavior and the success of the sustainable development. Only when the living environment designed in a sustainable way would the welfare of our generations be safeguarded. Building professionals (including project managers, architects, surveyors, structural engineers and building-service engineers) are the persons who are responsible for the construction, maintenance and management of buildings as well as the design of our living environment. Their perception on sustainability will influence the decision making of a sustainable world. The aim of this study is to examine the various perceptions of the building professionals on sustainability. The study’s objective is to investigate whether the professionals would take any necessary action to promote sustainability if they perceive there is urgency to tackle the environment and sustainable problems, and the type of actions to be taken by them. Within this 458 building professionals from four main cities in China, including Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang and Hong Kong are interviewed on a face-to-face basis. They were requested to answer some structured questions to reveal their perceptions on global/local sustainable issues, the priority of and the possible actions they will take to promote sustainable development. The reliability Interval Method is used to establish the ranking of various issues. Professionals are asked whether and what actions would be taken to promote sustainability. Chi-square test, Kendall’s rank correlationship and Cramer’s V value are adopted to test if there is any significant relationship between perception and behavior. From the result, our professionals are quite aware of the urgency of environmental and sustainable problems. However, professionals from different cities have different views on the urgency of various issues. The perception is probably affected by the direct experience of their surrounding environment, the social norms and the culture of their cities. In general, our professionals are willing to change their habits and living patterns to help to remove environmental problems. Albeit, when they are asked whether they would take further relatively drastic actions or to present their opinions in the public, the general responses of the professionals are quite apathetic and unsupportive.

Date of Award	2 Oct 2007
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Siu Ming LO (Supervisor)