Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Sustainable Supply Chain and Cost Reducing of Waste Management in Slovak Construction

Abstract

Sustainability in construction can be perceived across several areas. Sustainable supply chain and cost management are two of them. If this issue is addressed in the management of sustainable building materials and waste management in the implementation of construction projects, in the context of sustainability, cost management and supply chain management affect the overall success of construction projects. The aspect of sustainability is based on reducing costs and, thus, also material items. At the same time, there is a focus on the use of waste or its economic and ecological disposal. Finally, sustainability means the setting up of logistics processes. Information and communication technologies can significantly help supply chain and cost management and construction waste management. This means, on the one hand, minimizing the consumption of materials and, thus, also costs, and on the other hand, by optimally setting up the supply chain and logistics, using materials and funds efficiently and optimizing waste management. The research discusses the impact of information and communication technology on a sustainable chain and cost management on various construction projects in Slovakia. The research aims to analyze information and communication technology’s influence on a sustainable chain and cost savings of waste in construction projects. The main research hypothesis is based on the assumption that information and communication technology positively affect sustainable chain and cost management of waste in the Slovak construction industry. Data collection was performed through an online questionnaire. It contained three primary areas of data collection: The first part contained questions about the characteristics of the research sample. The second concerned the use of information and communication technologies and the third pertained to their impact on sustainability and reducing the costs of the waste management process in construction. The research samples consisted primarily of foreign companies operating in Slovakia. From the point of view of the participants in the construction project, these were developers, contractors, sub-contractors and designers. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to confirm this hypothesis. The research provides an overview of information and communication technologies and their impact on supply chain and cost management of waste in construction.