ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the consequences with respect to the construction environment, focusing on the social costs of the situation where the consequences are often externalised from the client. The ethics foundation forms the basis of the Organisation Cultural Maturity Index, a diagnostic metric aimed at ascertaining the level of workplace cultural maturity within the construction industry and providing the client with a development plan for corporate and societal sustainability. The tradition of bad practices has left many professionals, those charged with the task of bringing projects to completion, ill-equipped and poorly supported to autonomously make and implement the ethical decisions necessary to ensure good practices within the industry. It is in this aspect of an industry's culture, its 'safety culture', where workers face the risk of harm that had become the focus of attention of those working in the field of occupational safety and health.
