Green Construction Project Design Decision-making: The Role of Design Leaders

Green construction is viewed as instrumental to achieving a low-carbon future through reducing the carbon impacts of the built environment. To achieve this, it is imperative to ensure that buildings are designed with sustainable outcomes. Sustainable outcomes of a project are mostly determined by decisions made during the early design process, which place design leaders (architects and engineers) at the forefront of influencing green construction. Based on the theories of resource mobilization and rational choice, this chapter explores how design leaders determine building solutions and examine the motivations for their decision behavior. The chapter concludes that the design leader’s decision behavior is conditioned by extrinsic and intrinsic motivations which affect rational choice. These motivations are represented by the design leader’s intuition, personal values, contextual background factors, and cost perception. Although design leaders have the capability to influence the construction climate through internal project dynamics, this is determined by the integration of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations that guide rational choice. The chapter contributes to a comprehensive understanding of design leaders’ roles as cognitive instruments capable of influencing practical changes for green construction implementation.