Evaluating Risk Management Approaches and Frameworks in Construction: Legal and Contractual Implications for Green Building Projects

The transition to sustainable construction introduces additional legal and contractual risks alongside traditional challenges such as cost overruns, delays, and disputes. While industry risk management frameworks and standards provide structured approaches to identifying and mitigating risks, their broad governance structures often fail to address the complexities of legal compliance, contract enforcement, and sustainability related liabilities in green building projects. Standard construction contracts, incorporate risk allocation mechanisms, however, their approaches to sustainability obligations, liability distribution, and dispute resolution remain inconsistent. This paper critically evaluates the effectiveness of these frameworks and contractual models in managing green building related risks. The review employed a traditional literature review, initially using a traditional approach to identify relevant research. However, the limited data set (n=4) prompted an expanded search strategy, ultimately yielding 60 documents for review. The analysis reveals that existing risk management standards, approaches and frameworks may lack sector specific risk assessment tools, and traditional contractual mechanisms often struggle to enforce sustainability obligations, leading to legal uncertainties and potential disputes. The findings advocate for the development of an integrated risk management model that aligns legal enforceability, liability allocation, and proactive risk mitigation strategies. The research contributes to the ongoing discourse on sustainable construction risk governance and provides a foundation for exploring legal and contractual risk management frameworks for the built environment.