Risk Management in Sustainable Projects in the Construction Industry : Cases of Swedish Companies

Sammanfattning: Sustainable construction projects are expanding in the market and green codes andstandards are advancing giving the ground for development of technology and materialsapplied. With every new material and technology utilised in the field, also risks aregrowing. The importance of risk management in sustainable construction projects isthus increasing and more experience and expertise is needed. So, the purpose of thisthesis is to examine and gain deeper understanding of project related risks in sustainableconstruction projects in Swedish companies operating in built environment. It is crucialto gain knowledge of good practices within the industry to be able to propose furtherinvestigation of the subject that could improve the existing risk management andsustainable construction project goals.This thesis examines the existing theory of the risk management process and sustainableprojects by shedding light on the trends within the construction industry. The intentionof the thesis is to add value to the existing gap in the theory that suggests thatconstruction industry is exposed to more risks and uncertainty than perhaps otherindustries, and that introducing sustainability adds more uncertainties and risks. Thisphenomenon is claimed to be due to the lack of knowledge and experience in the areaand, thus, practitioners seek for new ways how to tackle the arising issues. This thesisattempts to display how Swedish companies who are working with green and highperformance buildings identify and deal with risks.Two Swedish companies operating in built environment were chosen in order toinvestigate different ways of dealing with risks and the trend of sustainability inconstruction. Those in charge of risk and sustainability within the companies wereinterviewed applying semi-structured interviews and additional information wasgathered through multiple sources, such as annual reports, web pages and otherdocuments. This thesis has exploratory and qualitative research design and appliesabductive approach for the purpose and the nature of phenomena.The findings showed the different tools how risk management is applied in thecompanies and how it is related to the risks faced in green building construction. Theresults showed the importance of tools applied tackling sustainable construction projectsthat companies have applied and added to their processes in order to manageuncertainties that could occur if these processes were not implemented. As regards thegeneralisability towards findings, there still could be added more companies and futureresearch could imply also maturity of the companies to make findings more precise.However, after consideration of the processes learnt from companies, the proposedmodel for achievement of successful sustainable construction projects can be followedand applied in other companies operating in this industry.