Ethical issues in the Built Environment

Executive Summary

Built environment represents the man-made environment in which people live and has recently been associated with a range of ethical issues related to the development and maintenance of various forms of construction, including the construction of buildings, roads, engineering structures, and other important forms of infrastructure. When carrying out various activities and processes such as bidding and making final payments, construction managers (CM) or quantity surveyors (QS) can and sometimes do, engage in various disreputable acts. These may involve unethical practices such as bid rigging, failure to consider environmental impacts and a disregard of considering sustainable building materials and non-participatory planning which limits the planning team and excludes community intervention. If in case students are facing challenges in handling such issues, they may seek architecture dissertation help so that they can gain insights into addressing complex ethical concerns within the environment that is built.

Introduction

Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles which influence an individual’s decisions and allows them to evaluate the ramifications of those choices on others. According to the CIOB (Chartered Institute of Building) which is a “worldwide professional body that represents professionals who work within the built environment”, upholding ethical standards and principles improves transparency in the industry between client, contractors and other major stakeholders and encourages high quality construction which benefits society overall. Construction and real estate professionals are important stakeholders in the development and allocation of social, economic, and environmental resources, thus implying that everybody in the society is influenced by their ethical or unethical practices.

The construction industry is characterised by a wide range of ethical issues. When carrying out various activities and processes such as bidding and making final payments, construction managers (CM) or quantity surveyors (QS) can engage in various disreputable acts. These may involve simply unethical practices while others may be outrightly illegal. This report identifies ethical issues in the construction industry and how these issues can affect the roles and responsibilities of a CM or QS. The report will highlight the current ethical issues, how following the codes may affect the construction project and the role of construction organizations and regulatory bodies such as the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) in promoting ethical behaviour and standards.

Bid Rigging

Bid-rigging or collusion is one of the most common ethical issues in the construction industry. As per Voutsadakis & Gomzalez (2018), it occurs when two or more contractors conspire to raise the prices of their services in a competitively bid project. Typically, the competing companies agree beforehand on who will win the tender (Plummer & Darconte, 2021). Bid rigging can occur in a variety of ways ranging from a scenario where a group of contractors agree to deliver highly priced bids or bids that do not meet the tender requirements so that one of them wins a higher price; to another arrangement where the contractor withdraws from a bid to get a lucrative subcontract from a winning contractor (subcontracting).

These forms of bid-rigging can be used both in private and public construction; whereas others may be more lucrative in public projects because there is a stricter requirement for the lowest bidder winning the tender (Perugini & Gordon, 2017). Meanwhile, bid rigging is unethical because it not only subjects the project owner to high prices but also it denies all the contestants a chance to fairly win the bid based on merit and a successful portfolio.

Bid shopping is another unethical issue in the built environment. Typically, bid shopping happens when a contractor reveals the number of competing subcontractors to each other with an aim of getting the low-priced bids (Ibrahim & Shakantu, 2017). It can be practised by both the contractors and owners. This is especially unethical when a principal contractor has already won the contract as it would not be an attempt to save the owner some money or submit a lower-priced bid, but an attempt to increase profit for the general contractor (Bainbridge, 2021).

The owner can engage in bid shopping by revealing the prices to all the contractors who bid for the project. According to Bainbridge (2021), this act is unethical because it doesn’t allow tendering to the firm or contractor based on their work or merit and eliminates fair bidding.

Bid shopping is particularly harmful to the construction industry, CM or QS because it negates all the benefits of competitive bidding (Dandy et al, 2018), increases the likelihood of reduced work quality Karthaus et al (2019), delays the construction completion date, and may reduce the project’s overall safety. A major benefit of the construction bidding process is that the contractors only submit bids that they know they can complete cheaply, on time, within the owner’s budget, within the owner’s scope of quality and within a fair profit margin (Kitto & Knight, 2019). However, if the contractor engages in any form of bid-rigging, they may attempt to increase profit margin deceitfully, which may lead to low-quality output.

Environmental Impact

Environmental impact is also another significant ethical issue in the construction industry. Liu (2019) observed that due to the nature of construction work, CM and QS are more susceptible to violating environmental laws to achieve cost savings. For example, they may illegally dump construction waste with harmful chemicals that may pollute water supplies as a cheaper alternative rather than dispose of the hazardous waste in a more environmentally efficient way. Furthermore, to avoid the cost of dumping, CM’s may choose to bury debris and disturb soil density through land erosion. Additionally, if for example, the waste contains rubbles of nails, glass or other harmful materials, it will be detrimental for vegetation. If the public is harmed by the poor and careless eradication of hazardous waste, CM’s and firms may be sued for negligence, which may have financial implications in the form of compensation (Sami & Rahim, 2017).

Proper dumping of construction waste is important. Typical construction waste may contain caulking tubes, resins, adhesives, or aerosols. While these forms of waste may seem insignificant, numerous deposits of such harmful materials may have significant impacts on the soil. The dumping sites may also be harmful to the managers and employees due to the toxic vapour which may be inhaled. To guarantee safety, CM’s should have dumping manuals as well as material safety data with information on the chemical content of each construction material and how to safely dispose, handle and transport them.

Fatalities and Accidents

Data by Health and Safety Executives (2021) indicates that at least 39 people sustained fatal injuries in the construction industry in the year 2020/2021, down from the previous year’s 42: with an estimated five-year average injury of 36. While this number seems to be relatively small, the potential impact of those injuries on the victims and their family members may be significant. The victims may need to stop going to work for a while until they recover, and this means a loss of income revenue for them and their dependents. Nonetheless, (Health and Safety Executive, 2021) attributed the declining trend to increased training on job site safety and more stringent regulations.

Participatory Planning

Equality, justice, and participation are important ethical considerations to make when operating within the built environment sector. Haklay et al (2018) argues that lack of participatory efforts constantly emerges as a central theme on the ethics of communicating urban planning because the use of land for any construction activity affects the people living in close vicinity to the project (especially on land use), and hence it is important to involve them in planning process (Xiao et al, 2018).

Some construction companies may fail to include participatory planning processes in construction work to save on cost, save on time or avoid relevant red taping that may be imposed on the project by stakeholders which will surely add to costs. As such, they shy away from democratic participatory processes and avoid communicating with the stakeholders as they plan the project. In this regard, Sang (2020) recommend that construction companies must establish a process of communication that last for a longer time so that the project is adapted to the conditions of those living nearby.

Failure to involve the community and stakeholders in the planning process may lead to serious hurdles in the project’s lifeline, including lawsuits and restraint orders that may interfere with the project timelines (Moon et al, 2017). Conversely, according to Sang (2020), participatory planning helps to avoid the heavy financial loss that is associated with court cancellation orders emerging from several potential lawsuits.

Dialectical design dialogues can be used as a method of enhancing participation and the kind of interaction that is ethically required between the project managers and stakeholders. According to an article written by Walton (2020), dialectical design dialogues are based on the fundamental principle that to enhance participatory planning within the built environment, construction managers should establish a level relation between them and the local community to solve any ethical concerns regarding the development of the project. It is an approach which ensures all aspects of citizens daily life is taken into consideration in the urban planning processes.

All these ethical issues negatively impact the construction industry. The safety, environmental impact, physical damage to people and their surrounding raises significant ethical concerns that must be addressed by the CM and QS’s. As construction managers and quantity surveyors try to minimize costs and increase total profit margins through corrupt dealings, cutting corners and other forms of unethical practices, the real impact is on everybody else because those shortcuts have a trickledown effect on quality, safety, and project timelines. As such, everyone should uphold their responsibility of following the established ethical standards and regulations set by the RICS and CIOB.

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References

Bainbridge, A.F., 2021. Ethics for Engineers: A Brief Introduction: A brief introduction.

Dandy, N., Porth, E. and Hague, R., 2018. Environmental Ethics of Forest Health: Alternative Stories of Asian Longhorn Beetle Management in the UK. In The Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health (pp. 419-444). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Haklay, M., Jankowski, P. and Zwoliński, Z., 2018. Selected modern methods and tools for public participation in urban planning-a review. Quaestiones Geographicae, 37(3), pp.127-149.

Ibrahim, K. and Shakantu, W., 2017, June. A REVIEW OF ETHICS IN MATERIALS SOURCING IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY. In Joint CIB W099 & TG59 International Safety, Health, and People in Construction Conference (p. 254).

Karthaus, R., Block, L. and Hu, A., 2019. Redesigning prison: The architecture and ethics of rehabilitation. The Journal of Architecture, 24(2), pp.193-222.

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Moon, J., Flannery, W. and Revez, A., 2017. Discourse and practice of participatory flood risk management in Belfast, UK. Land Use Policy, 63, pp.408-417.

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Plummer, F.B. and DarConte, F.X., 2021. Leadership, Ethics, and Project Execution: An Evidence-Based Project Success Model. Routledge.

Sang, N. ed., 2020. Modelling Nature-Based Solutions: Integrating Computational and Participatory Scenario Modelling for Environmental Management and Planning. Cambridge University Press.

Voutsadakis, E. and Gonzalez, C., 2018. Grenfell tower fire: the importance of ethics and professionalism for the procurement of safe buildings and infrastructure in the construction industry. Professionalism and ethics in construction: Improving the global industry.

Walton, D., Toniolo, A. and Norman, T.J., 2020. Dialectical models of deliberation, problem solving and decision making. Argumentation, 34(2), pp.163-205.

Xiao, J., Lavia, L. and Kang, J., 2018. Towards an agile participatory urban soundscape planning framework. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 61(4), pp.677-698.