Overcoming Barriers to Green Business Models in the UK Construction Industry

The environmental potential for green business models is considerable if current barriers can be identified and ways of overcoming them developed. Barriers to green business models are investigated by conducting a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews are carried with a selected 19 UK construction industry experts from both academia and practices and results are obtained by applying thematic analysis. Five major categories of barriers are emerged from the analysis: government constraints; financial constraints; industry constraints; company constraints; and lack of demand. The results show that the barriers are both internal and external to construction companies. Financial institutions are expected to play a major role on the future of green business models by investing in performance-oriented models and allowing access to finance for construction companies that perform better in environmental terms. Finally, a collective effort is needed from governments, financial institutions, construction industry leaders, client groups, community, and individuals to combat these barriers and to increase green business models uptake.