Abstract:
The construction industry consumes energy and natural resources and contributes to global
carbon emissions. Most traditional building goals are to meet the minimum standards and
requirements of building codes, most building codes do not consider energy consumption,
building operation or service costs, and indoor air quality. Green buildings help to minimize
carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption and generate ecological, economic and social
benefits. The objective of this research was to assess the key roles of construction professionals
in adopting green building construction in Jimma town. The sources of data used for the
research were primary and secondary sources of data. Structured questionnaire and interview
were used to collect the primary data. Purposive sampling method was used for the research.
Microsoft excel 2010 was used to compute RII, Rank, and Cronbach’s alpha to analyze the
collected data from the structured questionnaire, and the data was presented in a statistical
descriptive way. The extent to which construction professionals integrate green building
principles in Jimma town public building construction projects is less with an RII value of 0.582,
the highest challenge for the construction professionals to adopt green building construction in
Jimma town is government-related challenge with an RII value of 0.813, the first key role of
construction professionals to adopt green building construction in Jimma town is working as a
team to successfully incorporate green building concepts in building construction projects and
adopt green building design and construction. It has an RII value of 0.898, which indicates that
the role is highly important. The government should adopt green building standards of other
countries in to the national level, enforce binding rules and regulations, environmental
guidelines and legislations, encourage the green building market and arranging public
awareness campaigns and media coverage regarding green buildings to educate the society and
to increase the demand for green building construction. The construction professionals should
develop green building standards such as LEED considering the local context, update their
knowledge on emerging new construction technologies, and develop their knowledge about
green building materials and carefully select them for use. Additional research can be developed
by changing the scope and focusing only on one of the green building principles.
