Factors in the Adoption of Green Behaviors in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Review of Drivers and Barriers

The construction industry is one of the world’s biggest sources of pollution. Industry actors have become increasingly aware of the problem in recent years and are now engaging in initiatives designed to reduce their sector’s environmental impact, including through the adoption of increasingly strict standards. While adopting standards is a powerful means of effective intervention, it is important to highlight the organizational and individual behaviors that can also affect change. While prior studies have neglected individual behaviors, this paper focuses on the involvement of all construction actors involved in adopting green behaviors. In accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, this paper presents a systematic review of the literature with the aim of highlighting the key factors, at both individual and organizational levels, that facilitate (drivers) and impede (barriers) the adoption of green behaviors in the construction industry. An analysis of 44 articles published over a period spanning 23 years (2000–2022) highlights 673 practices implemented at the individual and organizational levels by different actors operating in the construction industry. These practices are classified into nine main categories of drivers and barriers influencing the adoption of green behaviors in the construction industry. Results revealed five trends: (1) drivers are mostly implemented by firm-level actors across all practice categories; (2) the emergence of two new subcategories of sustainability-related factors; (3) barriers remain understudied despite their critical role in Lewin’s force field theory; (4) Site-level actors are very little involved in the implementation of drivers or the presence of barriers (5) and Building Information Modeling remains an underexplored driver. This review protocol has been registered on the platform of the International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, CRD420261299618).