Project Management Competencies for Embedding Sustainability in Construction Projects: A Delphi Study

Societal demand for a more sustainable construction industry remains prevalent. In response to such demands, a plethora of project management tools, techniques and competences have evolved to engender successful sustainability transitions within the construction industry. Although the salient contributions of these tools and techniques have been reported in extant literature, details of the contributions of the competence facet appears to be limited in extant literature. This study has been prompted by this observation. As such, this study, which forms an integral part of a wider study, seeks to identify, and determine the critical competences required by construction project managers to facilitate improved sustainability performance of projects, particularly during the construction phase of the construction lifecycle. This study adopts a Delphi technique wherein data was elicited from a purposively selected Delphi panel comprising of individuals with project management experience (n = 20), using questionnaires over two iterations. The data obtained was subsequently analyzed using descriptive statistics (median). Findings from the study elucidate the criticality of project management competences like planning, organizing, leadership, and technical knowledge in fostering the attainment of the desired levels of sustainability performance of construction projects. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to the corpus of emerging literature on this topic.