Slide one: Introduction
Slide one: Introduction
My name is Ernest Ekwunife from the University of Salford, a PhD student in the department of Construction and Project Management and I am pleased to present my doctoral research which explores Construction Safety as a Pathway to broader Sustainability Outcomes within the Nigerian Building Code Framework in Lagos State, with sustainability understood across environmental, economic and social dimensions. Today, I will briefly discuss the motivation for the study, the research approach, some findings, and the implications for policy and practice.
Slide two: Why This Study Matters (sixty seconds)
Slide two: Why This Study Matters (sixty seconds)
The study is motivated by persistent challenges in the Nigerian construction landscape, particularly frequent building collapses, unsafe construction practices and their wider environmental and social consequences. Although the Nigerian Building Code was established to address these challenges, evidence suggests that outcomes remain weak in practice. This research therefore examines how the Code is interpreted and implemented by construction stakeholders in Lagos State, positioning construction safety as a foundational mechanism through which sustainable industry outcomes can be achieved. The study matters because without effective safety implementation, sustainability objectives within the construction industry cannot realistically be realised.
At the same time, sustainability has become a major global priority within construction. However, discussions on sustainability often focus on environmental and economic issues while paying limited attention to safety. This study argues that sustainability cannot realistically be achieved where construction safety culture remains weak.
In simple terms, if workers are unsafe, projects experience failures, and buildings do not perform as intended, then genuine sustainability becomes difficult to achieve.