ABSTRACT
The construction industry is moving towards the principle of harmonising its activities with environmental considerations to ensure sustainable construction activities. However, it is argued that to date, the translation and operationalisation of this vision has been predominantly based on the underpinning precepts of the existing organisational systems which have supported and encouraged unsustainable construction activities in the first place. This dysfunctional paradox is described as representing change within the system instead of addressing what is really needed, that is, changing the system itself.
This incongruity is articulated as being indicative of the prevailing neo-classical tendency to conceptualise and configure the environmental debate as being devoid of organisational context. Environmental management systems, energised with the prajna ruling myth, is presented as a useful platform from which to embed environmental issues within wider, mutually crafting, environmental and organisational contexts.
Finally, building upon this theoretical position, a rigorous soft systems methodology is proposed as a practical mechanism to create the permeable organisational boundaries advocated by the prajna ruling myth. The methodology is aimed at enabling organisations (and researchers) to reduce the overall environmental impact, in this particular case, of building and cities, through the creation of a core contingency model of environmental management good practice.
