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Integrating lean and sustainability for waste

reduction in construction from the early design
phase

Waad Waheed, Laila Khodier & Fatma Fathy

To cite this article: Waad Waheed, Laila Khodier & Fatma Fathy (2024) Integrating lean and
sustainability for waste reduction in construction from the early design phase, HBRC Journal,
20:1, 337-364, DOI: 10.1080/16874048.2024.2318502

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/16874048.2024.2318502

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UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group.

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HBRC JOURNAL
2024, VOL. 20, NO. 1, 337–364
https://doi.org/10.1080/16874048.2024.2318502

Integrating lean and sustainability for waste

reduction in construction from the early design
phase
Waad Waheed, Laila Khodier and Fatma Fathy
Department of Architecture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

ABSTRACT
Lean and sustainability are found to have the same agenda of waste reduction.
Sharing waste reduction is particularly important for understanding how lean
and sustainability can be weaved together to support mutual benefits.
However, many publications concentrate on these strategies in isolation, pay­
ing less attention to their integration in the design phase. This paper presents
an exploratory study from extant literature. It reviews more than 30 papers that
have been published from 2018 to 2023 and examines the concepts of lean and
sustainability on the issue of waste reduction from the early design phase. It
explores the opportunities to enhance environmental and construction perfor­
mance by implementing sustainability-lean practices to reduce the sources of
waste generated in different design stages. Results indicate that ‘Clearness,
recognition, and Communication’, ‘Inappropriate supplying of information’,
‘Coordination and accuracy’ and ‘Design Expertise’ are the most important
sources of design waste since they have the highest number of waste causes.
Results show that design waste sources are affected the most by a wide practice
of embedding waste reduction strategies in the Preparation and Briefing and
Technical Design stages. The paper shows the most applicable lean tools that
aim to reduce waste from the early design phase. The overall conclusion of this
study is compatible with the same studies worldwide, which were applied in
terms of increasing the performance of the waste reduction plan in construction
by identifying the sources of design waste to achieve positive outcomes in
terms of environmental, social, and economic dimensions.

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 28 November 2023; Revised 31 January 2024; Accepted 3 February 2024

KEYWORDS RIBA plan of work; design waste sources; design waste causes; lean design seven wastes;
lean tools; resources and material; 3 R s strategy; designing out waste

CONTACT Waad Waheed waadwahed.1991@gmail.com Department of Architecture, Ain Shams

University, 1 Elsarayat St. Abbaseya, Cairo 11517, Egypt
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the
Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
338 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Introduction
The term lean is an approach that was developed in the Japanese automotive
industry and then converted and promoted to be appropriate for use in the
construction industry after the publication of the Koskela report to the Center
for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University, ‘Application
of the new production philosophy to construction’ in 1992 [1]. It was high­
lighted that lean construction can achieve positive impacts on the construc­
tion industry after studying the deficiencies of the traditional system. It aims
to eliminate waste, satisfy the client, focus on value for money, enhance
communications, and improve quality management, and supply chains
from the early design phase [2].
Otherwise, sustainability has been crucial within our societies and econo­
mies since the publication of the report of the World Commission of
Environment and Development (WCED), ‘‘Our Common Future” in 1987,
which describes the idea of sustainable development in connecting social,
resources, and environmental concerns through a long-term environmental
perspective [3]. The most important aspects of sustainability are the environ­
ment, society, and economy. They can be described through different
approaches related to environmental protection, climate change reduction,
fossil fuel replacement, human well-being, security of supply, and living
standards improvement [4].
The construction industry is one of the main industries expected to con­
tribute to enhancing these approaches; therefore, the definition of sustain­
able construction is necessary. Sustainable construction is known as the
response of the building to the challenges faced by sustainable development
[5]. It aims to use the minimum amount of building materials and energy
consumption that leads to reduced pollution and waste at each phase of the
project. Starting from the design phase, this reduction can be achieved by
creating widely accepted architectural design standards for building perfor­
mance and performing a comparison with efficient sustainable building
designs [6].
Lean and sustainability seem to be two independent and separate
strategies. However, it has been found that they are interdependent and
share the same agenda of waste elimination. Recognizing the commonal­
ities of the goals of both strategies can lead to a better understanding of
the components of each one. This can help integrate both concepts during
the early design phase to protect human health, the surrounding environ­
ment, and economic development without affecting the future [7]. It is
important to note that although many literature sources stated that lean
concepts can be applied in the design phase of a construction project to
reduce costs and achieve sustainability. The concept of integration was
only implemented in construction, in the operation of a process, in
 HBRC JOURNAL 339

manufacturing, or on-site processes, paying less attention to its implemen­

tation in the early design phase and the identification of its impact on the
issue of waste reduction [8].
Thus, this paper investigating the concepts of lean and sustainability,
highlighting the opportunities to enhance environmental and construction
performance by implementing sustainability-lean practices that relate to
waste reduction in the early design phase is the main objective of this study.

Materials and methods

Research methodology
The literature study behind this paper aimed to explore the opportunities to
enhance environmental and construction performance by implementing
sustainability-lean practices that relate to waste reduction from the early
design phase. To do so, the relevant studies were located on the Web of
Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases, the papers
published between 2018 and 2023 are investigated by using titles, keywords,
and abstracts in the manual search process. The used keywords on the
database are lean, sustainability, waste reduction, resources and materials
and early design phase among articles and review papers in both Scopus and
Web of Science databases. The initial search returns 50 papers.
The literature review consists of three stages to define the most relevant
papers in the field of construction waste reduction by the integration of lean
and sustainability from the early design phase. These stages are database
selection, sample searching, and sample selection. Similar study used the
same methodology to examine the waste management strategies [9].
Literature review methodology is shown in Figure 1.

Database selection
There are several database engines are utilized to follow the path of scientific
publications such as Web of Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and
Scopus database. Research conducted by [10] implied that the Scopus data­
base has a preference over the other databases; however, there is another
study conducted by [11] that ensured that the journal classification of Web of
Science is preferred. Thus, this paper considers both the Scopus database and
the Web of Science database, meanwhile, Google Scholar is also used as an
assistant tool.

Sample searching
For this purpose, the papers published between 2018 and 2023 are inves­
tigated by using titles, keywords, and abstracts in the manual search
process. The used keywords on the database are lean, sustainability,
340 W. WAHEED ET AL.

1-Database
selection
Identification of the most suitable database search engines,
Scopus database and Web of science were selected with

Time framed defined (2018-2023).

2- Sample Searching

50 papers selected using the keywords “lean”, “sustainability”,

“waste reduction” and “early design phase” in the title of the

Content analysis and detailed literature review performed to

pick the most relevant papers.
3- Sample Selection

Finally, 30 papers were selected for analysis.

Results lead to identify matrix for construction waste reduction

from early design phase.

Figure 1. Literature review methodology. “Source. Authors’’.

waste reduction, and early design phase among articles and review papers
in both Scopus and Web of Science databases. The initial search returns 50
papers.

Sample selection
After reading the abstracts of 50 papers in the first step, the second step is to
identify the suitability of papers based on an in-depth reading of the whole
paper, so the number of 30 papers with the most relevant content for
construction waste reduction from the early design phase by the integration
of lean and sustainability, are selected. The results of this search indicate that
there are 24 articles and 6 review papers. Among the years, the maximum
number of papers were published in the year 2022 (8 papers), followed by
2019, 2020 and 2023 (5 papers) as shown in Figure 2. Figure 3. Shows the
types of the 30 located studies. Meanwhile, regarding journals, the highest
number of articles were published in the Sustainability Journal with 4 articles
and 3 published articles in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
 HBRC JOURNAL 341

Number of Analyzed Researches

30%
17% 17% 17%
20% 13% 27%
10%
Years
0% 10%
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Year of publication

Figure 2. Publication period of analyzed studies. “Source. Authors’’.

Number of Analyzed Researches

100% 87%
80%
60%
40%
13%
20% Types of Articles
0%
Journal articles Conference proceedings

Types of articles

Figure 3. Types of the located studies. “Source. Authors’’.

Results and discussion

Waste in construction
Waste in construction has been defined as various building materials
generated directly or indirectly from previous construction activities,
and they do not have remaining value such as bricks, wood, concrete,
etc. Also, it has been found that construction activities are responsible
for 35% of the total waste when compared with other activities by
other industries [11]. Despite, the difficulty of evaluating the average of
waste generated in sites exactly due to different construction condi­
tions, It has been concluded that between 4% to 30% of transformed
building materials to the site are converted to waste because of differ­
ent purposes during the construction, this is based on what was
emphasized in August 2022, at the International Conference on Civil
and Architecture Engineering (ICCAE-14), ‘Causes Influencing
Construction Waste Generation During the Design Process: An
Analytical Study’.
342 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Types of construction waste

Construction waste is a global issue that negatively impacts the project’s
performance, society, and the environment. Waste can be generated in
different shapes as shown in Figure 4. Waste happens in the shape of
material, time, and cost overruns [11].

Material waste as a physical construction waste

Material waste is the major shape of physical waste generated from construc­
tion activities such as bricks, wood, concrete, etc [11]. Also, it has been proven
that material waste has negative impacts related to increasing costs and
harming the environment. One of the results generated from the huge
amount of material waste is illegal dumping. Illegal dumping is a law-
breaking activity of dropping waste into the land. It is a worldwide harmful
activity because it causes severe problems to the environment. The illegal
dropping of physical waste on the land is steadily increasing, which leads
directly or indirectly to global pollution [12]. Thus, it is very important to
understand the current situation by identifying the root causes of the waste
in construction to avoid negative outcomes as described in the following
sections.

Cost and time overrun as a non-physical construction waste

On the other hand, waste can be classified as non-value-adding activities
[12]. The expression non-value adding activity is applied to distinguish
between physical waste and other waste types that happen during con­
struction [13]. Also, it is known as intangible waste. A study [14] identi­
fied nonphysical waste as any activity that consumes resources but brings
no value such as errors that require corrections, overproducing, extra
processing, waiting for other activities, and unnecessary movements. All
these activities require more time and money which cause failure for

Construction Waste

Non-Physical Waste
Physical Waste

Time Cost
Material
Overrun Overrun
Waste

Figure 4. Classification of construction waste. “Source. Authors after [11,12]’’.

 HBRC JOURNAL 343

most construction projects. In other words, nonphysical waste influences

the economic growth and social development of countries signifi­
cantly [13].

Root causes and impacts of construction waste

The most efficient way to reduce waste is to identify its causes, revealing that
there are common factors that mostly cause most of the waste occurring in
the construction industry from the early design phase. These factors force
construction organizations to develop and implement new rules and prio­
rities that help in controlling waste generation at the source to minimize the
negative results related to human health and the environment [13,14].
Table 1 clarifies the root causes of waste where their impact was explored
related to sustainability pillars namely environment, society, and economy.
Despite there are different factors that contribute to generating waste in
the construction process. The most significant cause of waste is associated
with design activities that happen during the design phase [15]. Therefore,
design stages and sources of construction waste generation from the early
design phase are studied in detail in the following sections.

Waste in design
One of the most important phases that any construction project goes
through is the design phase [5,6], where the client’s needs are transformed
into technical drawings and specifications [7]. Also, the design phase is
considered crucial due to the critical decisions that influence the performance
of the project. It contains the development criteria through several actions
that are arranged based on their necessity. Accordingly, the priority of these
actions in the project is assigned. Thus, huge benefits are predictable when
waste reduction techniques are applied from the early design phase [15], as
they concentrate on identifying the sources of construction waste generation
and defining creative solutions that achieve the desired outcomes.

Design phase stages

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) plan of work outlined the
design phase into five stages as shown in Figure 5. In this section, these
stages are described as follows [16]:

● Stage 0 - Strategic Definition (SD): The first stage of the RIBA plan of work
illustrates the project brief including project scope, design aspects, the
required project outcomes, and sustainability goals. These are investi­
gated in the context of the site context, lessons learned, and project
344 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Table 1. Root causes of construction waste.

Construction
waste’s main
causes Root Causes Impact References
Design -Design changes. Increasing the cost due to the rework and [6]
-Design Errors. extra processing (economic impact). [12]
-Change in client Changes lead to waste in the material [15]
requirements. which can be thrown and releases
-Complex design. harmful gases (environmental impact).
-Errors in the
contract.
- Insufficient design
quality and quality
control.
- Lack of necessary
design information
-Bad selection of
material.
-Communication
problems.
Procurement - Limited early Extra materials lead to resource waste [9]
coordination among (economic & environmental impacts). [14]
parties during design. [12]
-Waste from [15]
packaging.
-Mistakes in quantity.
-Suppliers’ error.
- Purchased goods do
not agree with the
requirements.
Workers -Workers errors. Stress at work cause health issues (social [12]
-Overtime. impact).
-Time stress. Errors lead to inadequate usage of
-Lack of training. material. (economic & environmental
impacts).
Site -Late information flow. Increasing the cost of the material [15]
management -Leftover materials. because of rework and redoing
-Procedures in an (economic impact).
uneconomic way.
-Using the wrong
materials
-Bad material
handling
Construction -Poor supervision. Lack of experience leads to rework and [15]
operation -Poor experience and overdoing (economic impact).
knowledge.
-Inadequate planning
Storage -Inadequate storage Material consumption (environmental [6,14,15]
methods. impact)
External Factors -Weather Material damage and waste of resources [13]
- Lighting problems (economic & environmental impacts). [14]
-Inaccessible project
location
-Governmental
issues.
-Stealing issues
-long project
duration
 HBRC JOURNAL 345

Strategic
Definition
(SD)

Technical Preparation
Design and Briefing
(TD) (PB)

Spatial Concept
Cordination Design
(SC) (CD)

Figure 5. Design phase stages “source. Authors after [16]’’.

circumstances to integrate them into the upcoming stage. Developing

a project program that contains the responsible parties, feasibility stu­
dies, project risks, and sustainability methods is the expected result of
this stage.
● Stage 1- Preparation and Briefing (PB): As can be understood from the
name of this stage that it is concerned with gathering all the data from
the previous stage to initiate the first brief draft including the project
goals and the client’s business situation. Essentially, this stage also
ensures the execution of any relevant feasibility studies, risk assessment
reports, project surveys, budgets, sustainability strategies, and execution
plans.
● Stage 2 - Concept Design (CD): In this stage, the focus is on the archi­
tectural design concept. The designers present to the client visualiza­
tions that explore the ideas based on the project brief. Moreover, several
instructions can be employed to prepare the structural design, building
services, and project specifications proposals.

● Stage 3 - Spatial Coordination (SC): More considerations are given to

design studies and analysis. The design is achieved more clearly and
developed in parallel with structural design and cost exercise to ensure
346 W. WAHEED ET AL.

its possibility in construction. In addition, the evaluation of the design

concept with the spatial measures takes place in this stage.
● Stage 4 - Technical Design (TD): all the information is prepared, devel­
oped, and detailed for the construction.

A deep identification and understanding of these stages are certainly useful

in identifying waste reduction techniques using lean and sustainability con­
cepts that fit each stage of the design based on its characteristics to improve
the currently existing strategies.

Impact of the design phase on construction waste generation

There is an agreement about the relationship between design and construc­
tion waste in literature sources [10,11], the literature is rich in this discipline.
However, publications that specifically identify design causes and sources in
relation to their origins from the early design phase are absent from the
literature [1,17]. Therefore, Table 2 underlines the different causes and the
sources of these causes based on what was confirmed in August 2022, at the
International Conference on Civil and Architecture Engineering (ICCAE-14),
‘Causes Influencing Construction Waste Generation During the Design
Process: An Analytical Study’. These Causes are the reasons behind 33% of
construction waste generation as it has been found that 33% of waste gener­
ated on construction sites is connected to design directly or indirectly [17].
These sources in the design phase that generate waste in construction
must be mitigated or preferably eliminated [15]. Therefore, environmental
problems related to natural resources, pollution, contamination of water,
landfills, gas emissions, global warming, and human health can be avoided.
Waste reduction is a strategy that must take a lot of attention from the early
design phase [6] by fixing human activities and improving the current appli­
cations of design management as described in the following sections [18].

Construction waste reduction from early design phase

As mentioned before, starting the waste reduction strategy from the
early design phase by refining the project design through well-defined
waste reduction responsibilities among participating parties minimizes
waste generation in the construction, saves natural resources, and
protects the surrounding environment [18]. Based on the upcoming
analysis, it could be observed that the paper identified four main
themes in literature studies by which the researchers attempted to
examine the construction waste reduction from the early design
phase as follows:
 HBRC JOURNAL 347

Table 2. Causes and sources of design waste.

Causes of Waste
Inappropriate supplying of
information
Clearness, recognition, and
Communication
Feasibility study
Coordination and accuracy
Project users
Value
Quality and Sustainability
Technological Advancement
Sources of Construction Waste generated in the design References
- Poorly defined waste reduction roles. [6]
-Waste reduction strategies are not included in [15]
contract documents.
-Missing waste reduction guidelines
- No waste reduction target setting.
-Delay in providing information to the late design
stages.
- lack of necessary design information
-Unrespect for environmental requirements
-Client is unaware of waste reduction advantages. [5]
-Waste reduction is not a requirement among [15]
designers.
- Inadequate communication between project
parties.
-Design changes by designers.
-Insufficient and incomprehensible project brief.
-Design doesn’t include client requirements because
they are not clear enough.
-Delay in information flow.
-Design visualization is missing.
-Design complexity
-Difficulty in communication among different
specialists.
-Inadequate feasibility studies. [7]
-No waste management feasibility studies.
-Limited early coordination among parties. [17]
-Waste reduction strategies are not involved during
design.
-Errors in design.
-Errors in construction drawings.
-Insufficient design quality and quality control.
-Users rarely participate in the briefing process. [6]
-Unrespect for users’ cultures. [7]
- Several last-minute changes provided by the client.
-Frequent value engineering changes. [18]
-Upgrading project facilities [3,4,7]
-Bad quality for the selected materials.
-Unrespect for the complete project life cycle.
Insufficient response to technological advancement. [15]

(1) Categories and sources of causes that are responsible for construction
waste generation from the early design phase have been mentioned in
detail in the previous section [3–7,13–15].
(2) The implementation of advanced technologies and methods of con­
struction waste reduction from the early design phase [15–18].
(3) Construction waste reduction according to the architect’s point of
view; they believed that waste generated during construction is
related to site operations and rarely generated from the design
phase [19,20].
(4) Challenges faced the application of construction waste reduction from
the early design phase such as Architectural technologies, waste reduc­
tion investment, economic incentives, etc. All these challenges must be
348 W. WAHEED ET AL.

identified as they are crucial to implementing waste reduction strate­

gies from the early design phase [8,21].

Essentially, this study is focused on the first theme which identifies the
categories and sources of causes that are responsible for construction
waste generation from the early design phase.

Waste reduction from lean perspective

Lean in the AEC industry is a new approach that focuses on waste reduction,
continuous improvement, process control, flexibility, optimization, people uti­
lization, and customer satisfaction [1,2]. The core concept of lean is depending
on dividing all activities of the system into two main groups, based on adding
value to the process. Thereby, the value-adding activities are defined as ‘con­
version activities’ or ‘former activities’, while non-value-adding activities that
consume resources and time are known as ‘flow activities’ or ‘latter activities’
[4]. The application of lean thinking in construction leads to improving conver­
sion activities and eliminating flow activities [6]. Thus, applying these principles
will not only lead to significant benefits to the design and construction
companies by becoming a cost leader when eliminating cost-consuming flow
activities in the system and diminishing the amount of waste generation [7] but
also, to the communities and environment itself [14].

Waste in lean context

A study [49] defined waste as activities that result in utilizing materials,
energy, sources, labor, or equipment in unneeded amounts to deliver the
building. Waste has been divided into seven main categories recognized by
the literature related to lean philosophy namely transportation, waiting,
overproduction, defects, inventory, motion, and extra processing which are
listed and described in Table 3.

Design waste from lean waste perspective

The most significant design waste causes and sources were compiled pre­
viously (see section 4.2), lean design waste items are grouped under the
seven waste categories related to lean context as shown in Table 4.
‘Source. Authors after [3–7,13–16]’
Identifying design waste items under the seven waste categories related to
lean, explains the expected output and the embedded waste that could occur
in the construction processes [15] such as rework that happens due to
insufficient cooperation [1,2]; transportation, and motion in the construction
site due to the poor logistics design [6]; waiting due to missing resources or
 HBRC JOURNAL 349

Table 3. Waste in the context of lean.

Waste Category Definition References
Transportation Unnecessary movement of materials, and tools this leads to [1,2,14,16,17]
increasing the cost and variability of the project.
Waiting Much variability in the design processes leads to problems with
activities flow that also end up with time waiting for the following
processes with no adding values to the final product.
Overproduction Producing earlier or more than client orders. (Unordered products).
Thus, waste of resources, waiting, and inventory are the
outcomes.
Defects Producing parts that do not meet the client’s satisfaction. So, rework
cycles and more resources are wasted to reproduce the product to
meet specifications.
Inventory Related to unnecessary material stores and work processes that lead
to a lack of workspaces and additional costs.
Motion Unnecessary movement of individuals or equipment that does not
add value which could result in decreasing the productivity of the
processes.
Extra Unnecessary process steps to produce things exceeded what is
processing needed by the client or defined by the project scope

data [14,15]; extra processing, overproduction, and inventory because of

inadequate planning procedures [16,17,20]. Waste identification is consid­
ered the first step that allows waste reduction to occur through improving
the workflow and process efficiency and achieving perfection with the sup­
port of different lean practices [21].

How lean can help in construction waste reduction from early design
phase
Lean is divided into five main elements: value, value stream mapping, flow, pull,
and perfection [17,20,21]. It goes beyond production management principles
that achieve waste reduction, and customer satisfaction [6]. It focuses on value-
adding activities and value streams aiming to reach perfection, granting relia­
bility in the project delivery phase, and bringing off continuous
improvement [7,14].

Lean procedures for construction waste reduction from the early design
phase
Many studies [17,22,23] have indicated that the principles of the lean concept
in waste reduction can be briefed in the following tips:

● Achieving a balance between flow and conversion activities.

● Minimising the portions of non-value-adding activities.
● Setting up a benchmark.
● Maximising the value of output by establishing a systematic approach
related to client needs.

Table 4. Lean design waste items.
Category of Waste Sources
Inappropriate supplying of
informatio
Clearness, recognition, and
Communication
Feasibility study
350
Lean Wastes
Sources of Construction Extra
Waste generated by design Transportation Waiting Overproduction Defects Inventory Motion Processing
Poorly defined waste reduction roles. √ √
Waste reduction strategies are not included in √
the contract.
W. WAHEED ET AL.
Missing waste reduction guidelines √ √
No waste reduction target setting. √
Delay in providing information in the late design √ √ √ √ √
stages
Lack of necessary design information √ √ √
Unrespect for environmental requirements √ √ √
The client is unaware of waste reduction √ √
advantages.
Waste reduction is not a requirement among √ √
designers.
Inadequate communication between project √ √ √
parties.
Design changes by designers. √ √ √ √
Insufficient and incomprehensible project brief. √ √ √ √ √ √
The design doesn’t include client requirements. √ √ √ √
Delay in information flow. √ √ √
Design visualization is missing. √ √ √
Design complexity √ √ √ √
Difficulty in communication among different √ √
specialists.
Inadequate feasibility studies. √ √ √
No waste management feasibility studies. √ √
(Continued)
Table 4. (Continued).
Lean Wastes
Sources of Construction Extra
Category of Waste Sources Waste generated by design Transportation Waiting Overproduction Defects Inventory Motion Processing
Coordination and accuracy Limited early coordination among parties. √ √ √
Waste reduction strategies are not involved √ √
during design.
Errors in design. √ √ √
Errors in construction drawings. √ √ √
Insufficient design quality and quality control. √ √ √ √ √
Project users Users rarely participate in the briefing process. √
Unrespect for users’ cultures. √ √ √ √ √
Several last-minute changes provided by the √ √ √ √
client.
Quality and Sustainability Upgrading project facilities √ √ √
Bad quality for the selected materials. √ √ √ √ √
Unrespect for the complete project life cycle. √ √ √ √
Value Frequent value engineering changes. √ √ √
Tech.Advan. Insufficient response to technological √ √ √ √ √
advancement.
Regulations Ineffective communications with the government √ √ √ √ √ √ √
Design Expertise Waste reduction is not a design priority. √ √
Lack of understanding of design waste causes. √ √ √ √
Selected materials are not available on the √ √ √ √ √
market.
Not design to standard material sizes. √ √ √ √ √
Cost Limited fees √
Time Inappropriate design timeline √
HBRC JOURNAL

Unforeseen Conditions Sudden conditions √ √ √ √ √

Mar. cond. Insufficient response to market condition √ √ √ √ √
351
352 W. WAHEED ET AL.

● Fulfilling continuous improvements in the design phase.

● Diminishing variability that could occur in the design phase processes as
much as possible.
● Focusing on the completion of the design phase processes.
● Clarifying the various processes and parts.
● Rising with transparency.
● Increasing the flexibility of the outputs.

Lean procedures for construction waste prevention from early design

phase
Several lean tools are referred in the literature to prevent waste from the early
design phase such as:

● Pull technique is an efficient procedure that works based on supplying

only the exact quantities due to the project requirements [2,22]. The
implementation of this procedure prevents waste and guarantees ade­
quate planning for all the activities in the project [23].
● Mistake proofing is a procedure that is specialized in improving the
performance of the project by minimizing the time of certain tasks to
save it for critical activities [23,24].
● Process analysis is a well-known lean procedure to prevent waste in
a way that develops special criteria for the organization including qua­
lifications and standards associated with waste reduction guidelines
[14,22]. Also, this tool can identify analysis strategies that avoid waste
from the very beginning of the construction project [24].

Impact of construction waste reduction from early design on

sustainability
Many challenges face sustainability which stem mainly from the neces­
sity of balancing the main sustainability pillars namely economic, social,
and environmental issues [6,7,17]. One important starting point for
improving the strategies that support sustainability is to enhance the
chances that currently use the best practices [18,22]. For example, the
lean concept tackles sustainability challenges and is adapted to fit
sustainability requirements [22]. Hence, various publications have
described the influence of lean methods and practices on different
pillars of sustainability. For instance [25], indicated that applying lean
to reduce waste provides perfect conditions to implement sustainability
initiatives to reduce waste associated with the consumption of energy,
natural resources, or water. Additionally, waste reduction of lean design
aims to line up with good environmental practices. For example, wait­
ing is one of the seven wastes tackled by lean context [17]. In this case,
when this waste is reduced or eliminated, it does not only reduce
 HBRC JOURNAL 353

Table 5. Impact of waste reduction on sustainability.

Benefits References
Transportation Reducing transportation leads to reducing energy usage, emissions, [26]
and cost.
Waiting Reducing waiting can accelerate the phase of design. Thus, less [22]
energy will be consumed in cooling, heating, and lighting during
the design time.
Overproduction Reducing the unnecessary parts will lead to less usage of raw [26]
material, energy to operate, and the risks of not using these parts
Defects Reducing defects means that there is less energy consumption that [21]
is used to produce or recycle defective parts.
Inventory Reducing inventory means that organizations can use the spaces [27]
efficiently for necessary demands, less consumption of raw
materials, and decrease the risks associated with obsolescence
and undiscovered defects.
Motion Reducing motion means that the distances which must be taken by [22,27]
employees are less which leads to improving the human factor
and minimizing the consumed energy.
Extra Improving the processing means that there is a cut down on waste [23]
processing and minimizing the negative impacts on the environment.

operational costs but also the unnecessary consumption of energy that

might be used in cooling, heating, and lighting during the design
phase [22]. Table 5 lists the benefits that could be gained by organiza­
tions related to finance, environment, and social aspects when reducing
the seven lean wastes.
As a proven consequence, when reducing waste using lean thinking, the
quality, and efficiency of design activities are improved, while time and cost
are minimized [6,21]. The implementation of lean design techniques and
procedures to reduce waste is crucial to create a productive and sustainable
working environment [22].

“Resources and material” waste reduction from early design

phase
Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) are useful tools to evaluate whether
a building is environmentally friendly or not. They can serve as guidelines for
assessing the performance of a particular building in its different phases.
Generally, they contain different main categories, including energy, water,
indoor air, and resources and materials, etc. Construction waste management
principles and related items are included and the benefits of avoidance (i.e.
reduce, reuse, and recycling) options are recognized in the ‘Resources and
Materials’ category. This paper tackled ‘Resources and Materials’ category’s
related items from LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as
it currently considered to be a leading GBRS worldwide. The choice of LEED
system over others is simply based on researches gathered and inter­
preted [1,28].
354 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Relationship between “lean wastes” and “resources and material”

The main objective of ‘Resources and Materials’ category in LEED is to
guarantee best practice for resources consumption in terms of materials.
The category mainly concentrates on the reusability and maintenance of
construction materials. It also addresses construction waste reduction,
where this reduction not only rely on waste management plans that are
implemented for demolitions, reuse of materials and products and recycle
back the waste materials to the manufacturing process but also encourage
the reuse of part of existing building [3,18].
As mentioned before in Table 5. Identifying lean seven wastes in the
construction environment is the first step in the lean implementation
process to reduce waste. Table 6 illustrates the relationship between
different wastes defined in lean construction and their relationship with
‘Resources and Materials’ sustainability’s parameter. Lean wastes of over­
production and extra-processing directly result in resources and material
waste and could lead to additional raw material extraction due to the
producing unrequired quantities or components. Also, waiting waste could
indirectly affect the resources and material. For example, concrete in
transit mixers waiting to be poured and structural elements waiting to
be installed could deteriorate with time leading to resources and material
waste. Defects lead to rework which might need to be abandoned or
rectified. They cause direct resources and material waste due to raw
material loss. Similarly, excessive inventory could lead to improper storage
and space constraints which directly affect the resources and material due
to spillage or deterioration [7]. Therefore, identifying wastes from early
design as defined by lean construction and making efforts to reduce them
will have a positive influence on the sustainability in the construction
sector. The following section deals with the application of lean design
principles with the help of various tools that are adapted in the back­
ground of lean philosophy in order to reduce ‘Resources and Material’
waste [12].

Table 6. Relationship matrix between lean wastes and sus­

tainability impacts related to ‘resources and material’ waste.
Resources and Material Waste Generation
Transportation -
Waiting Indirect
Overproduction Direct
Defects Direct
Inventory Direct
Motion -
Extra processing Direct
’Source. Authors after [7]’
 HBRC JOURNAL 355

“Lean design” for “resources and material” waste reduction from early
design
While design is a phase that incorporating various construction techniques
and materials to produce value to a client. It is important to note that
considering the effects, the design has on the overall life of a facility is very
crucial. Design of a sustainable construction project is especially decisive
because green materials, resources and construction technologies require
comprehensive coordination for the best performance in green facilities [25].
Lean design is an approach that aims to reduce resources and material
waste during the construction of sustainable facilities. Its contribution to
waste minimization originates from its focus on optimizing resource utiliza­
tion [8]. Several lean design methods could be implemented in the project to
reduce the material waste as follows:
- Integrated Design: is one of the most important methods for sustainable
construction as it encourages architects and designers to integrate various
green materials and construction technologies in the early design phase.
Also, it ensures their necessity to reduce using energy and other resources
which maximize the sustainability of the project [6].
- Just-in-time (JIT): considered as environmentally-friendly method as it
reduces the various sources of extra material inventory because it works on
the concept of delivery of materials, information and drawings, or any input
required for a project to the point of usage. Many advantages and long-term
objectives are the outcome of using such method. These benefits are inven­
tory reduction, reduction of costs and reduction in the timeline of projects
which lead to enhancing the productivity of the construction industry and
achieving sustainable built environment [1,2].
-Kaizen: is an intensive and focused approach to process improvement in
the workplace that helps to waste reduction by defining tasks for responsible
parties, time, and tools to uncover areas for improvement and to support
change which leads to efficient use of resources [4].
-Value Stream Mapping (VSM): identifies the flow of both information and
material needed to achieve the project, the way value is recognized and
establishes when and how the decisions are necessary to be made. Also, it
maximizes the performance during the design phase through establishing
choices to the surface and finding alternatives. Furthermore, maps are pro­
vided in project level and then analyzed to better investigation on how the
design, material and resources work together to support customer
value [7,12].
- Prefabrication: is the process of making the construction compo­
nents in a place different from construction site. It is considered one of
the most successful lean methods for resources and material optimiza­
tion as it enhances the supply chain integration of green materials,
356 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Another advantages of using prefabrication related to economic pillar

of sustainability such as; reduce the cost of prefabricated units when
comparing with on-site units, reduced overall life cycle cost and
enhanced flexibility and adaptability. In addition, there are benefits
related to the social aspect of sustainability which is represented in
a safe working environment [14].

“3 R s” for “material and resources” waste reduction from early design

To achieve the mission of sustainable construction, a lot of countries are
looking forwards accomplishing the balance between developing the built
environment and saving the natural resources as sustainable construction
is not only focused on environmental aspects but also on economic and
social aspects. This balance can only be reached by changing the tradi­
tional way of linear production process into a cyclic one that depending
on the 3Rs method of reduction, reuse and recycle of material waste
[12,13]. This strategy aims to guarantee best practice for resources con­
sumption as far as materials. Furthermore, it improves waste management
in construction as follows:

Reduce: Reducing waste generation factors starting from early design

phase may perhaps be helpful in the construction industry. It is
a process that aims to reduce environmental destruction and the cost
of construction. Nevertheless, minimizing the use of resources from the
beginning of projects and reducing transportation work [1,3].
Reuse: reusing material waste intending to prevent material waste from
entering the landfill, reuse needs fewer resources, less energy, and less
labor when comparing with manufacturing new products from raw
materials [8,13].
Recycle: recycling of material waste plays an important part in waste man­
agement plans. This obtains the reprocessing of material waste into
a usable raw material or product thus, extending material life in addition
to reducing resources consumption and avoiding disposal costs [21].

Managing landfill waste and long-term negative environmental eco­

nomic and social impacts of material waste are now becoming very
important for the sustainable construction. Thus, identifying waste root
causes from the early design phase and progress in moving toward
lean and sustainability is considered essential and cannot be
overemphasized.
 HBRC JOURNAL 357

“Designing out waste” for “material and resources” waste reduction

from early design
Waste reduction must be an essential part of the sustainability agenda
from the early design phase by implementing the principles of design­
ing our waste strategy. This strategy explained the resource usage
efficiently by reducing the generation of waste from the early design
phase and identifying how to be reduced [29]. The UK waste and
resources action program that originated this strategy to reduce
waste from the early design phase has promoted five main principles
[28] which are summarized in Table 7.
Design activities that focus on efficient usage of resources to cut waste
from construction projects which in turn leads to achieving different sustain­
ability objectives is the clear definition of designing out waste strategy
[28,29]. These activities are added to the final matrix for construction waste
reduction from the early design phase as an explanation for sustainability’s
crucial role in increasing the performance of waste reduction plans from the
early design phase.

Table 7. Designing out waste strategy principles.

Designing out waste
approaches Description References
Design for Waste - Identifying the root causes of reused substances and [29]
Efficient Procurement materials.
- Minimizing the packaging that is used for materials
Procurement.
- Ensuring the logistics of material delivery within the
needed time
Design for Materials - Concentrating on the minimum material usage from early [29]
Optimization design.
- Promoting the use of local materials.
- Defining recycling criteria.
- Focusing on building maintainability.
- Replacing defective parts throughout the building life
cycle.
Design for Off-Site - Using prefabricated building parts. [16]
Construction - Using off-site elements, modular volumetric
construction, and pre-cut building components
Design for Reuse and - Re-entering construction materials and parts in the [9]
Recycling production chain.
- Evaluating, if any existing building parts on-site such as
windows, tiles, and bricks could be partly or completely
reused.
-Identifying the adjustments to these components to fit
the project needs.
Design for - Considering maintenance and refurbishment as priorities. [30]
Deconstruction and - Identifying material recovery strategies during the life
Flexibility. cycle of the building.
358 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Discussion and conclusion

Matrix for construction waste reduction from the early design phase
A matrix for construction waste reduction from the early design that inte­
grates lean and sustainability best practices is presented in Table 8 in order to
consistently increase the performance of the waste reduction plan and
ultimately lead to balanced performance improvement in terms of environ­
mental, social, and economic aspects.
This matrix for construction waste reduction from the early design phase
includes the courses of action for the different identified sources that are
responsible for construction waste generation from the early design phase
using lean techniques and sustainability strategies. It is important to note that
the matrix arranges the sources of waste based on their importance accord­
ing to the high number of design wastes’ causes each category contains
related to Table 2. For example, ‘Clearness, recognition, and Communication’
is the most important waste source as it contains 24% of design wastes
causes and so on. The implementation of this matrix can generate favorable
outcomes on the different sustainability pillars.

Benefits of the matrix

The matrix can contribute to enhancing design phase activities that serve the
waste reduction issue by integrating courses of action that minimize con­
struction waste generation from the early design phase using sustainability
and lean concept implementation. The benefits of the matrix lie in explaining
what the steps are to be taken by architects in different stages of design
namely strategic definition, preparation and briefing, concept design, spatial
coordination, and technical design to control the deficiencies of the tradi­
tional design phase and identifying the challenges facing the construction
waste reduction from early design using efficient lean techniques and sus­
tainable designing out waste strategies. This correlation presented in Table 8
promotes client value and achieves sustainability objectives through improv­
ing the living conditions of the society, focusing on the surrounding environ­
ment, and increasing the economic aspects.
Results show that this study confirmed the results of studies applied in
different countries: integration of lean and sustainability from the early
design phase in the issue of waste reduction, achieves efficient outcomes;
this includes but is not limited to resource management, energy minimiza­
tion, elimination of non-value-added activities, and health and safety
improvement.
This research explores relationships between lean and sustainability on the
issue of waste reduction from the early design phase. Many previous studies
encouraged the implementation of lean and sustainability integration in the
 HBRC JOURNAL 359

Table 8. Matrix for construction waste reduction from the early design phase.
Category of Waste Design phase stages
Sources Course of action SD PB CD SC TD
Clearness, recognition, Identifying waste reduction advantages to the client √ √
and Communication Considering Waste reduction strategies as Design √ √ √
Priority
Providing adequate communication between project √ √ √
parties using the last planner system (LPS) lean
technique
Minimizing design changes by designers as much as √ √ √
possible
Providing sufficient and comprehensible project brief. √ √ √ √
Involving clients at the early stages of the design √ √
Including all the client requirements in the design √ √ √
Efficient information flow. √ √ √ √ √
Providing Design visualizations. √ √
Simplifying the design. √ √ √
Establishing training programs to promote the √ √ √
realization and the technical skills of responsible
parties
Granting efficient communication among specialists. √ √ √ √
Appropriate supplying Well-defined waste reduction roles. √ √
of information Including waste reduction strategies in the contract √ √
Providing waste reduction guidelines √ √
Setting waste reduction targets. √ √
Providing information from the early design stages √ √ √ √ √
Providing all the design information √ √ √ √ √
Focusing on environmental requirements √ √ √
Coordination and Providing early coordination among parties. √ √ √ √ √
accuracy Involving Waste reduction strategies during design. √ √ √ √ √
Minimizing design errors as much as possible √ √ √
Minimizing errors on construction drawings. √ √
Providing sufficient design quality and quality √ √ √
control.
Design Expertise Understanding design waste causes. √ √ √ √
Considering maintenance in design decision making √ √
Choosing designers based on their experience √ √
regarding sustainability
Project users Participating of project users in the briefing process. √ √
Importance of respect for users’ cultures. √ √
Minimizing several last-minute changes provided by √ √ √ √ √
the client.
Quality and Minimizing upgrading project facilities if it is not √ √ √ √
Sustainability crucial
Respect for the complete project life cycle. √ √ √ √
Focusing on procedures related to energy savings √ √ √ √
and environmental issues
Applying lean construction management for √ √
achieving sustainability
Using 5s and error-proofing lean techniques to √ √
develop health and safety considerations for
employees.
Reusing building facilities √ √ √
Reusing demolition parts √ √ √
Identifying recycling criteria √
Using precast steel frames √
Encouraging the commitment of top management to √ √
sustainable waste strategies
(Continued)
360 W. WAHEED ET AL.

Table 8. (Continued).
Category of Waste Design phase stages
Sources Course of action SD PB CD SC TD
Feasibility study Providing adequate feasibility studies. √ √
Providing waste management feasibility studies. √ √
Value Minimizing the frequent value engineering changes. √ √ √ √ √
Resources and Material Good quality for the selected materials. √ √
Using local material. √ √
Rapidly Renewable Materials √ √
Using certified wood √ √
Choosing reusable and sustainable materials. √ √
Design a storage to collect recyclables √
Using material waste reduction strategies such as √ √
3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Ensuring that the selected materials are available in √ √
the market
Reusing existing materials √ √ √
Recycling used materials √ √ √
Design to standard material sizes (Standarisation) √ √ √
Design to Prefabrication √ √ √
Adopting the “just-in-time” lean technique to reduce √ √ √
material supply delays.
Technical Efficient response to technological advancement. √ √ √
Advancement Offsite prefabrication elements and structures √
Considering new technologies for design based on √ √
cloud computing such as BIM
Regulations Efficient communications with the government √ √ √ √ √
Cost Unrestricted design fees √ √
Controlling the payment schedules to ensure that √ √
companies get paid on time.
Time Appropriate design timeline √ √ √
Unforeseen Conditions Preparation plans for reducing waste result from √ √ √ √ √
weather conditions
Market Condition A sufficient response to market condition √ √ √ √
Supervising price changes in the construction √ √ √ √ √
material market
’Source. Authors after [3,4,6,12,13,15,16,18,20,22,30]’

issue of waste reduction from the design phase to the completion phase of
a project, involving all construction stakeholders holistically to guarantee an
optimistic flow of activities [17,18]. The overall conclusion of this research is
compatible with the same studies worldwide, which are focused on waste
reduction as a common and highly considered characteristic in both philo­
sophies of lean and sustainability and its impact on project value and cost
reduction which increases productivity and continuous improvement
[6,16,18,20,29]. According to that, many conclusions can be derived from
the research discussions and analysis, these are:

(1) Causes of Construction Waste generated in the design: Results show

that there are some important sources, designers must take care of
since they have a high number of causes. The first source of waste is
 HBRC JOURNAL 361

‘‘Clearness, recognition, and Communication” with a higher value as

it contains 24% of design wastes causes, then ‘Inappropriate supply­
ing of information’ with a value of 17%, ‘Coordination and accuracy’
& ‘Design Expertise’ with 12% and 10%, respectively [3,6,14,15].
However, ‘Value’, ‘Technology Advancement’, ‘Regulations’, ‘Cost’,
‘Time’, ‘Unforeseen Conditions’ and ‘Market Conditions’ are the less
important sources of waste generation. They have less amount of
design sources that are responsible for generating waste in con­
struction. (See Table 2.) [4,7,13,14,17]. Implementing lean and sus­
tainability integration matrix could eliminate waste by controlling
these sources through adopting lean & sustainability tools and
techniques from the early design phase.
(2) Results indicate that design waste sources are affected the most by
a wide practice of embedding waste reduction strategies in the
‘Preparation and Briefing’ and ‘Technical Design’ stages when compar­
ing with the other design stages [6,7,15,16,18,20,29]; waste reduction
target setting and a good understanding of design waste causes by
designers; influenced by efficient coordination and communication
between project members; and facilitated by adequate waste reduc­
tion feasibility studies and material optimization.
(3) ‘Last Planner System’, ‘Design Visualization’, ‘5S Process’, ‘Error
Proofing’, ‘Standardization’, ‘Just in Time’, ‘Integrated Design’,
‘Kaizen’, ‘Value Stream Mapping’ and ‘Prefabrication’ are the most
applicable lean tools that aim to reduce waste
[1,2,4,6,7,14,17,21,23,27]. Risk management is not applied appropri­
ately in the integration of lean and sustainability for construction
waste reduction from the early design phase despite its well spread
in the construction industry. Improving project management systems
and expanding the use of risk management systems in buildings can
lead to reducing inventory waste and rework [7,20].
(4) Courses of Actions for Waste Reduction: The literature divided three
groups of expected sources of actions in adopting the construction
waste reduction from the early design phase [3,15,20,29]’’. The major
expected sources of actions are economically related followed by
environmental actions and at the last level comes the social actions
[4–6,10,13,16,23,24]’’. It can be concluded that researches need to
focus on social actions because of their greater return on all respon­
sible parties in the construction projects, who can achieve environ­
mental and economic benefits.
(5) Results reveal that project stakeholders particularly architects,
designers, clients, and developers are responsible for implementing
best practices for waste reduction at source from the early design
phase [5,7,11,17,19]. However, it can be concluded that researches
362 W. WAHEED ET AL.

need to concentrate on the efficient role of contractors in identifying

the decisions related to waste reduction processes. This could in turn
contribute to an efficient improvement in the current attempts to curb
the rapid and significant pace of the levels of construction waste
generation from the early design phase [11].

Finally, the conclusions of this study comply with the conclusions of the
previous studies that were applied in terms of the importance of increas­
ing the performance of the waste reduction plan in construction by
identifying the sources of design waste to achieve positive outcomes in
terms of environmental, social, and economic dimensions. This study
recommends implementing the integration of lean and sustainability
from the early design phase to help the industry move away and solve
many problems related to waste reduction. Also, to guarantee the efficient
achievement of lean and sustainability integration in the early design
phase related to waste reduction methods that offer the potential for
greater returns, Designers and other responsible parties must have deep
knowledge of waste reduction strategies and tools of their practical
applications.
It is expected from this study to serve as a benchmark for continuous
improvements in the performance of the construction industry. Although the
data required for the study were collected from different researches related to
various countries, the study findings are generalized and are not categorized
according to the country. Apart from this, there is a requirement to study the
developed matrix on this relation in different cultures to enhance their
generalizability and make adequate methodological and validation adjust­
ments that consider the context and the design and construction character­
istics of projects related to various countries and cultures. Furthermore, the
level of significance of each of design waste source can differ from project to
project depending on company size, project type, geographical, and weather
conditions.
Despite the contributions brought by this study, there are limitations in
the research, primarily related to being just a theoretical overview that
investigated English data only, published between 2018–2023. Future studies
can examine the effects of design strategies on the reduction of construction
waste throughout the building lifecycle stages, integrated lean tools, and
designing out waste techniques. Furthermore, it is required to apply the
matrix of construction waste reduction from the early design phase in real-
world situations.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
 HBRC JOURNAL 363

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