Study of Quantity Surveying Roles and Skills Requirement under Green Building Development in Sri Lanka

Abstract

With the development of the construction industry, modern Quantity Surveyors diversify their roles as cost managers and perform multidisciplinary job practices at present. Green building is one of the recent trends in the construction industry. There is a tendency to adopt green concepts to building construction in Sri Lanka. When adopting green technologies to the buildings, a significant reformation to design, procurement, construction, and management processes is required. Therefore, the skills and activity requirements of construction industry professionals need to evolve with this recent development. Accordingly, this research attempted to identify principal quantity surveying duties and skills that continually evolve with the green building construction practices. At the outset, a detailed literature review and three preliminary interviews were carried out, and seven core skills and twenty-five roles of a quantity surveyor were identified that possibly to be influenced by green building development. Then, a questionnaire was formed and tested the same among fifty cost experts who work closely with the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL). At the time of the questionnaire survey, 76% of the experts responded, and later, the Relative Important Index (RII) formula was used to analyze the research findings.The ultimate results revealed that the ability of a quantity surveyor to appraise is the topmost skill requirement under green building development. Moreover, the results further denoted cost planning/controlling and bills of quantity preparation of green building as the prime quantity surveying activities to be performed as a cost specialist of green construction projects.