Abstract
The impetus for widespread change within the private‐sector building industry is about no single owner retaining a constructed project during its entire life cycle. This impetus will be difficult to establish as statutory relief because of changes in private‐sector ownership. This is not true in most cases for federal agencies. However, with the advent of sustainability in construction and bioremediation in environmental construction, federal agencies also need to address the problem in an integrated fashion by improving their project management, planning, and implementation strategies. Thus, federal agencies have a responsibility and duty to take the lead in developing processes to ensure environmentally friendly construction. Currently the motivations are only voluntary, not regulatory. The divided nature of the construction industry complicates the problem further. Construction will become substantially more environmentally friendly if private‐sector owners are motivated through rewards and federal agencies through more integrated life‐cycle planning and programming, built within the socioeconomic and regulatory framework. In this article, the building industry, which currently stands fragmented, is analyzed in the context of the incentives and structural changes it needs to implement environmental laws fully. This article presents the motivation for adopting a holistic approach toward environmental compliance by modeling the strategic interventions required. These interventions, within and outside the construction industry, are also used to compare economic parity issues between existing building stock and future environmentally compliant buildings. Fundamental internal and external changes have been identified in the manner business is presently conducted to reward and benefit those who comply with the environmental laws and regulations. The authors further encourage federal agencies to take the lead role, through both voluntary and required processes, in changing the construction industry to be environmentally compliant in an integrated approach. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.