Exploring knowledge management principles for decision- making in low-energy building for sustainability in construction

Low energy building retrofit presents important opportunities for reducing of greenhouse gas emissions in the environment. It has been considered as one of the key approaches to achieving sustainable development in construction industry. Nevertheless, such retrofitting proves challenging due to the fact that the industry has ignored the need to manage project knowledge in retrofitting these buildings. This has arguably made decision-making difficult for key stakeholders because lesson learned are not captured in low energy retrofit projects. Managing project knowledge has been established as essential in delivering low energy building retrofit projects through decision-making hence an informed decision support framework (IDSF) has been developed. The methodology employed in development of IDSF is through literature review covering, among other things, knowledge management (KM) principles and procedures. The IDSF will help improve decision-making capabilities of key stakeholders involved in low-energy building retrofit projects to make informed and appropriate decisions. It will also help to avoid post-decision mistakes in low energy building retrofit projects. Furthermore, IDSF will assist in the development of decision support system (DSS) that will be used for making informed and sound decisions in achieving low-energy retrofit projects and also help in full uptake of retrofit projects.