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ALEX OPOKU

University of Sharjah, Architectural Engineering, Faculty Member

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Dr Alex Opoku (PhD, MSc, BSc(Hons), FHEA, PGCHE, MCIOB, FRICS) is currently a Professor of Sustainable Built Environment with many years of experience working in the Higher Education sector in the UK and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), and a Chartered Construction Manager (MCIOB), having worked in the UK construction industry. He is an established academic with international credentials. He holds a PhD in Construction & Project Management from the University of Salford-Manchester and pursued Postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. His research interest is in the area of Sustainable Built Environment, focusing on the link between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Built Environment.

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University of Salford

Francis Sheridan King

University of Westminster

Rachelle Alterman

Technion Israel Institute of Technology

saran samantarat

Kasetsart University

Kansas State University

Morgan State University

North Dakota State University

Giulio Mattioli

Dortmund University of Technology - Technische Universität Dortmund

University of Lincoln

Sarbeswar Praharaj

University of Miami

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Papers by ALEX OPOKU

Education for sustainable development in the built environment

International Journal of Construction Education and Research, Dec 20, 2017

Influencing Factors of Human Errors in Metro Construction Based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

Buildings

Safety problems in metro construction occur frequently, causing substantial economic losses and e... more Safety problems in metro construction occur frequently, causing substantial economic losses and even resulting in injuries and fatalities. Studies have shown that human errors, which are usually caused by complex reasons, are an important cause of safety related accidents. However, little research has analyzed the causes of accidents from the perspective of human errors. To explore the factors influencing human errors, the factors were systematically sorted out and studied based on theoretical analysis. Firstly, the theoretical hypothesis and model were formulated through a literature review. Secondly, the scale was developed for mental factors, physical factors, technical factors, environmental factors, organizational factors, cultural factors, and human errors. Thirdly, the research data were obtained by distributing questionnaires, and the validity and reliability tests were conducted using the data and the structural equation model was tested and run. Finally, the theoretical hy...

Reconsidering adaptive industrialized construction in Chinese rural areas: responding to the challenge of COVID-19

Building Research & Information

Exploring the Trends in Construction Waste Reduction Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Science & Technology Libraries, 2022

Understanding reliability in research

Validity and Reliability in Built Environment Research, 2022

A call for action: Constructing solutions for the sustainable development goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the current, global call for action to end poverty, ... more The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the current, global call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The built environment, hereunder the construction management community, plays a central role in developing solution to meet the SDGs. This paper reports on the findings from a workshop organised as part of ARCOM 2017 conference, where the participants explored "what the academic community around construction management can do to address the SDGs?" The results reveal a consensus that the SDGs are important and that researchers and educators have a pivotal role in addressing them. However, this requires connecting research and education with other domains like policy, industry, technology and civil society. In addition, the suggested strategies all includes social and technological components, including winning the hearts and minds of the wider public and creating international mind-sets, and bridging developing and developed countries. Based on the findings from the workshop, a research agenda informed by the SDGs is suggested. The agenda should cover activities like (1) understanding the complex relationships between different goals, solutions and stakeholders, (2) establishing measures for evaluating progress and impact, (3) formulating specific projects for addressing targets of the goals globally and locally and (4) facilitating knowledge transfer between developed and developing countries.

Promoting Employee Safety Performance in the Chinese Construction Industry

In the construction industry, safety leadership has been widely recognised as an indispensable fa... more In the construction industry, safety leadership has been widely recognised as an indispensable factor that affects organisational safety performance. However, in China specifically, research on safety leadership in the construction domain is not adequately developed. This paper examines the role of organisational leadership in promoting safety performance, as moderated by safety climate. The study adopts quantitative research method through questionnaire survey with 106 construction professionals leading or participating in safety management work in the Chinese construction sectors. The results show that exerting certain leadership strategies that encourage construction stakeholders to comply with safety practices will improve safety performance. At a moment when the whole industry is suffering from momentous safety challenges, transformation is required; these findings are intended to guide construction managers in their commitment to programme safety management. The study reinforc...

Realising the sustainable development goals through organisational learning and efficient resource management in construction

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

Impact of competitive strategies on achieving the sustainable development goals: Context of Ghanaian construction firms

International Journal of Construction Management, 2022

Organisational learning and sustainability of service-based firms: a canonical correlation analysis

International Journal of Construction Management, 2022

Association of Researchers in Construction Management

Stakeholder engagement has recently been increasingly identified as key to research projects succ... more Stakeholder engagement has recently been increasingly identified as key to research projects success. Stakeholder engagement is often seen as communication of the completed research project findings; however engagement with stakeholders that focuses on communicating with and involving them in the knowledge production process is increasingly accepted as the best practice. The study aimed at exploring how the Retrofit 2050 research team engaged fully with relevant stakeholders. The study examines how key stakeholders were recruited, engagement approaches and how the whole process was managed. It illustrates the application of the approaches for stakeholder analysis, engagement and knowledge exchange strategies. This research presents a literature review that considered the power of stakeholder engagement to sustainable urban retrofit research and identified the main process of stakeholder engagement and management. The authors provide participatory and participant observational resear...

Challenges for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in the Danish Construction Industry: Building Owners' Perspective

Getting ready for your research: setting the scene

© 2016 selection and editorial material, Vian Ahmed, Alex Opoku and Zeeshan Aziz; individual chap... more © 2016 selection and editorial material, Vian Ahmed, Alex Opoku and Zeeshan Aziz; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. This chapter sets the scene for the book and will elaborate on types of research and the thought process of the research journey, from start to finish. The chapter produces a breakdown of three main zones: the literature review zone (how to be equipped to tackle it), the research methodology zone (how to approach this stage) and the data-collection stage (how to prepare for it). The chapter demonstrates the importance of the introductory chapter of any thesis; the thought process for shaping the introduction to the research (including the abstract) and how the introductory chapter of the thesis could be designed to give an overview of the research and set the scene for the thesis; how to shape the aim and objectives; and how to derive the research problem, which may lead to formulating a research hypothesis or the research questions.

Mechanisms for preventing rising damp in new building infrastructure

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 2019

PurposeCapillary rise of water in buildings has been an issue of concern among past and present r... more PurposeCapillary rise of water in buildings has been an issue of concern among past and present researchers. Despite the research efforts devoted to the proper elimination of the problem in masonry construction, it still remains a challenge that needs to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to explore treatment mechanisms that can be used to prevent rising damp in new building infrastructure.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 14 test walls are constructed, conditioned, subjected to various treatments and monitored for four years. The treatments applied to the walls include the use of polyethylene damp proof courses, damp proof coatings and dense concrete bases. The walls are then monitored with reference to the two climate seasons in Ghana.FindingsThe results highlight that rising damp is present, as suggested by the constant increase and decrease in the height of the water levels in the walls during the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. The findings further reveal that w...

Students’ Perspectives on the Relevance of Sustainability Literacy in a Postgraduate Built Environment Program

International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 2017

Achieving Sustainable Development in the built environment requires the human resource with the r... more Achieving Sustainable Development in the built environment requires the human resource with the right sustainability knowledge and skills to respond to the challenge facing the construction industry. It is argued that Educational Institutions have a key role to play in educating future generations with the right sustainability knowledge and skills. This research aims at exploring the relevance of sustainability literacy to postgraduate students on Quantity Surveying (QS) course at the London South Bank University. The study adopts a mixed method approach that examines students' perspective on the important of sustainability literacy and how it has been integrated in the programme through interview with 15 students followed by a survey with 98 part-time and full-time students on the course. The results revealed that students value sustainability knowledge and skills. Most students believe that they need sustainability literate to be competitive in the job market. More than half of the students; 53 percent argue that sustainability literacy was delivered sometimes with a satisfaction rate of 45%, which shows that students are not really happy with how sustainability literacy has been embedded in the course and argues that more needs to be done to fully integrate sustainability literacy in the programme.

The role of built environment practitioners in driving the socio-economic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration

Construction Economics and Building, 2020

In the United Kingdom (UK), over the past three decades efforts have been made to ensure adequate... more In the United Kingdom (UK), over the past three decades efforts have been made to ensure adequate promotion of sustainability objectives through various policy initiatives. However, despite the effort and the existence of these policy initiatives, sustainability projects in particular, regeneration projects are yet to deliver their intended sustainability objectives. While there is a rise in demand for higher sustainability benefits by stakeholders such as clients, communities and policy makers, the delivery of sustainability benefits from sustainability regeneration projects are yet to meet the expectations of these stakeholders. This article provides an overview of sustainability benefits within the context of the sustainable regeneration projects in the UK from a study that examines the roles and sustainability drivers of construction practitioners towards the promotion of sustainability on their regeneration projects. To do so, a qualitative research approach is adopted using a...

Exploring safety climate factors in construction

International Journal of Applied Management Science, 2021

This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools a... more This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools and dimensions. The concept of safety climate is firstly discussed with a review of different safety climate factors from the published literature. A qualitative research method was employed to explore the safety climate factors through a systematic review using four databases and specific keywords. A total of 68 papers were selected for the screening process. The screening process allowed to select the final 18 safety climate assessment tools and papers consisting of 98 safety climate factors spanning over a period of 39 years (1980 – 2019). Construction organizations may consider these factors to assess the current maturity level of their safety climate and to develop plans to achieve the required level. It is recommended that the factors discussed in this paper may be validated first before they are incorporated in the assessment of safety climate.

Sustainable development in the UK construction industry

Leadership and Sustainability in the Built Environment, 2015

The role of organizational leadership in the delivery of sustainable construction project practices

Sustainable construction project delivery should be supported by committed and inspirational lead... more Sustainable construction project delivery should be supported by committed and inspirational leadership, with a clear understanding of the sustainability challenge. Construction organizations need organizational leadership that provides the collective vision, strategy and direction towards the shared common goal of a sustainable future. The aim of this chapter is to examine the role of organizational leadership charged with the promotion of sustainability practices in the construction industry. This chapter is therefore not about how construction organizations can operate in a more environmentally friendly manner and save using energy, water, paper and ink cartridges etc., but rather how leadership can help in the delivery of sustainable construction projects from the perspective of the ‘triple bottom line’ of social, economic and environmental impacts.

The Future of Facilities Management: Managing Facilities for Sustainable Development

Sustainability, 2022

Facilities management (FM) is currently shifting emphasis towards a long-term focus through the a... more

Education for sustainable development in the built environment

International Journal of Construction Education and Research, Dec 20, 2017

Influencing Factors of Human Errors in Metro Construction Based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

Buildings

Safety problems in metro construction occur frequently, causing substantial economic losses and e... more Safety problems in metro construction occur frequently, causing substantial economic losses and even resulting in injuries and fatalities. Studies have shown that human errors, which are usually caused by complex reasons, are an important cause of safety related accidents. However, little research has analyzed the causes of accidents from the perspective of human errors. To explore the factors influencing human errors, the factors were systematically sorted out and studied based on theoretical analysis. Firstly, the theoretical hypothesis and model were formulated through a literature review. Secondly, the scale was developed for mental factors, physical factors, technical factors, environmental factors, organizational factors, cultural factors, and human errors. Thirdly, the research data were obtained by distributing questionnaires, and the validity and reliability tests were conducted using the data and the structural equation model was tested and run. Finally, the theoretical hy...

Reconsidering adaptive industrialized construction in Chinese rural areas: responding to the challenge of COVID-19

Building Research & Information

Exploring the Trends in Construction Waste Reduction Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Science & Technology Libraries, 2022

Understanding reliability in research

Validity and Reliability in Built Environment Research, 2022

A call for action: Constructing solutions for the sustainable development goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the current, global call for action to end poverty, ... more The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the current, global call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The built environment, hereunder the construction management community, plays a central role in developing solution to meet the SDGs. This paper reports on the findings from a workshop organised as part of ARCOM 2017 conference, where the participants explored "what the academic community around construction management can do to address the SDGs?" The results reveal a consensus that the SDGs are important and that researchers and educators have a pivotal role in addressing them. However, this requires connecting research and education with other domains like policy, industry, technology and civil society. In addition, the suggested strategies all includes social and technological components, including winning the hearts and minds of the wider public and creating international mind-sets, and bridging developing and developed countries. Based on the findings from the workshop, a research agenda informed by the SDGs is suggested. The agenda should cover activities like (1) understanding the complex relationships between different goals, solutions and stakeholders, (2) establishing measures for evaluating progress and impact, (3) formulating specific projects for addressing targets of the goals globally and locally and (4) facilitating knowledge transfer between developed and developing countries.

Promoting Employee Safety Performance in the Chinese Construction Industry

In the construction industry, safety leadership has been widely recognised as an indispensable fa... more In the construction industry, safety leadership has been widely recognised as an indispensable factor that affects organisational safety performance. However, in China specifically, research on safety leadership in the construction domain is not adequately developed. This paper examines the role of organisational leadership in promoting safety performance, as moderated by safety climate. The study adopts quantitative research method through questionnaire survey with 106 construction professionals leading or participating in safety management work in the Chinese construction sectors. The results show that exerting certain leadership strategies that encourage construction stakeholders to comply with safety practices will improve safety performance. At a moment when the whole industry is suffering from momentous safety challenges, transformation is required; these findings are intended to guide construction managers in their commitment to programme safety management. The study reinforc...

Realising the sustainable development goals through organisational learning and efficient resource management in construction

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

Impact of competitive strategies on achieving the sustainable development goals: Context of Ghanaian construction firms

International Journal of Construction Management, 2022

Organisational learning and sustainability of service-based firms: a canonical correlation analysis

International Journal of Construction Management, 2022

Association of Researchers in Construction Management

Stakeholder engagement has recently been increasingly identified as key to research projects succ... more Stakeholder engagement has recently been increasingly identified as key to research projects success. Stakeholder engagement is often seen as communication of the completed research project findings; however engagement with stakeholders that focuses on communicating with and involving them in the knowledge production process is increasingly accepted as the best practice. The study aimed at exploring how the Retrofit 2050 research team engaged fully with relevant stakeholders. The study examines how key stakeholders were recruited, engagement approaches and how the whole process was managed. It illustrates the application of the approaches for stakeholder analysis, engagement and knowledge exchange strategies. This research presents a literature review that considered the power of stakeholder engagement to sustainable urban retrofit research and identified the main process of stakeholder engagement and management. The authors provide participatory and participant observational resear...

Challenges for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in the Danish Construction Industry: Building Owners' Perspective

Getting ready for your research: setting the scene

© 2016 selection and editorial material, Vian Ahmed, Alex Opoku and Zeeshan Aziz; individual chap... more © 2016 selection and editorial material, Vian Ahmed, Alex Opoku and Zeeshan Aziz; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. This chapter sets the scene for the book and will elaborate on types of research and the thought process of the research journey, from start to finish. The chapter produces a breakdown of three main zones: the literature review zone (how to be equipped to tackle it), the research methodology zone (how to approach this stage) and the data-collection stage (how to prepare for it). The chapter demonstrates the importance of the introductory chapter of any thesis; the thought process for shaping the introduction to the research (including the abstract) and how the introductory chapter of the thesis could be designed to give an overview of the research and set the scene for the thesis; how to shape the aim and objectives; and how to derive the research problem, which may lead to formulating a research hypothesis or the research questions.

Mechanisms for preventing rising damp in new building infrastructure

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 2019

PurposeCapillary rise of water in buildings has been an issue of concern among past and present r... more PurposeCapillary rise of water in buildings has been an issue of concern among past and present researchers. Despite the research efforts devoted to the proper elimination of the problem in masonry construction, it still remains a challenge that needs to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to explore treatment mechanisms that can be used to prevent rising damp in new building infrastructure.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 14 test walls are constructed, conditioned, subjected to various treatments and monitored for four years. The treatments applied to the walls include the use of polyethylene damp proof courses, damp proof coatings and dense concrete bases. The walls are then monitored with reference to the two climate seasons in Ghana.FindingsThe results highlight that rising damp is present, as suggested by the constant increase and decrease in the height of the water levels in the walls during the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. The findings further reveal that w...

Students’ Perspectives on the Relevance of Sustainability Literacy in a Postgraduate Built Environment Program

International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 2017

Achieving Sustainable Development in the built environment requires the human resource with the r... more Achieving Sustainable Development in the built environment requires the human resource with the right sustainability knowledge and skills to respond to the challenge facing the construction industry. It is argued that Educational Institutions have a key role to play in educating future generations with the right sustainability knowledge and skills. This research aims at exploring the relevance of sustainability literacy to postgraduate students on Quantity Surveying (QS) course at the London South Bank University. The study adopts a mixed method approach that examines students' perspective on the important of sustainability literacy and how it has been integrated in the programme through interview with 15 students followed by a survey with 98 part-time and full-time students on the course. The results revealed that students value sustainability knowledge and skills. Most students believe that they need sustainability literate to be competitive in the job market. More than half of the students; 53 percent argue that sustainability literacy was delivered sometimes with a satisfaction rate of 45%, which shows that students are not really happy with how sustainability literacy has been embedded in the course and argues that more needs to be done to fully integrate sustainability literacy in the programme.

The role of built environment practitioners in driving the socio-economic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration

Construction Economics and Building, 2020

In the United Kingdom (UK), over the past three decades efforts have been made to ensure adequate... more In the United Kingdom (UK), over the past three decades efforts have been made to ensure adequate promotion of sustainability objectives through various policy initiatives. However, despite the effort and the existence of these policy initiatives, sustainability projects in particular, regeneration projects are yet to deliver their intended sustainability objectives. While there is a rise in demand for higher sustainability benefits by stakeholders such as clients, communities and policy makers, the delivery of sustainability benefits from sustainability regeneration projects are yet to meet the expectations of these stakeholders. This article provides an overview of sustainability benefits within the context of the sustainable regeneration projects in the UK from a study that examines the roles and sustainability drivers of construction practitioners towards the promotion of sustainability on their regeneration projects. To do so, a qualitative research approach is adopted using a...

Exploring safety climate factors in construction

International Journal of Applied Management Science, 2021

This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools a... more This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools and dimensions. The concept of safety climate is firstly discussed with a review of different safety climate factors from the published literature. A qualitative research method was employed to explore the safety climate factors through a systematic review using four databases and specific keywords. A total of 68 papers were selected for the screening process. The screening process allowed to select the final 18 safety climate assessment tools and papers consisting of 98 safety climate factors spanning over a period of 39 years (1980 – 2019). Construction organizations may consider these factors to assess the current maturity level of their safety climate and to develop plans to achieve the required level. It is recommended that the factors discussed in this paper may be validated first before they are incorporated in the assessment of safety climate.

Sustainable development in the UK construction industry

Leadership and Sustainability in the Built Environment, 2015

The role of organizational leadership in the delivery of sustainable construction project practices

Sustainable construction project delivery should be supported by committed and inspirational lead... more Sustainable construction project delivery should be supported by committed and inspirational leadership, with a clear understanding of the sustainability challenge. Construction organizations need organizational leadership that provides the collective vision, strategy and direction towards the shared common goal of a sustainable future. The aim of this chapter is to examine the role of organizational leadership charged with the promotion of sustainability practices in the construction industry. This chapter is therefore not about how construction organizations can operate in a more environmentally friendly manner and save using energy, water, paper and ink cartridges etc., but rather how leadership can help in the delivery of sustainable construction projects from the perspective of the ‘triple bottom line’ of social, economic and environmental impacts.

The Future of Facilities Management: Managing Facilities for Sustainable Development

Sustainability, 2022

Facilities management (FM) is currently shifting emphasis towards a long-term focus through the a... more