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Introduction: Safety is one of the critical and persistent challenges in the construction industry. Measuring safety performance could allow decision-makers to check safety production processes and enhance the health and safety environment., Method: This study developed a total-factor framework based on the global Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to measure safety performance. The performance trend and influencing factors of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency were separately investigated. The safety performance of construction employees in Australia was measured as a case study., Results: The results demonstrate that the safety performance in the Australian construction industry has been evidently enhanced, which is mainly promoted by the progress of pure technical elements. The scale factors did not play a positive and important role in driving the performance., Conclusions: The increasing regional differences in safety performance could be reduced by learning the practices from the benchmark construction industry, such as a young worker program, small business safety program, workplace mental health program, and advanced construction technologies., Practical Applications: The method can be utilized to measure safety performance and investigate the pathways to enhance performance without influencing production inputs and outcomes. The model and experiences of how to promote safety performance on the policymakers and employers were recognized., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) is a sustainable and green approach for rapid construction with the ability to create complex shapes to preserve the intended aesthetic appearance for an affordable cost. Even after a decade of attempts, there are many limitations and challenges to applying this technology for constructions without borders. The lack of guidelines for mix designs, quality control procedures during extrusion, printing and building phases, compatibility of material with extruder, standard testing, and guidelines to verify suitability of mixture with respect to the application and exposure conditions and limited machine capacity are several areas to be addressed for applications without borders. The development of 3DCP applications as a sustainable and green technology is another challenging task due to high Portland cement consumption in 3DCP. However, reducing the high usage of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with pozzolanic waste materials replacement and environmentally friendly cement indicates the direction of moving 3DCP into a sustainable pathway. The authors reviewed more than 200 refereed articles published on materials and techniques in 3DCP. Inconsistency in disseminating knowledge in research articles has hindered the creation of a monolithically connected chain of research efforts and findings in accelerating the development and adoption of this technology. This paper summarizes the common approach to developing 3DCP mix designs and identifies the key areas for the future development of materials and techniques and challenges to be addressed for the global adoption of 3DCP. The current progress and challenges in the context of Australia's construction industry and future trends for the acceptance of 3DCP are also reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite efforts to promote gender diversity, the construction industry in Australia remains one of the most male-dominated industries. Women, compared to their male counterparts, progress more slowly and encounter major obstacles to career development in the construction industry. Existing research tends to focus on broad factors that impact women's career development in all career stages despite the fact that women's career priorities often change as they progress through different career stages. This study applied Super's career development model to investigate the influential factors on women's career development across four career stages: explore (precareer), establishment (early career), midcareer, and late career. By conducting a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, this research identified influential factors related to women's career development in the construction industry, namely, attitude, capability, interest, past experiences, family responsibilities, parental influences, role models, support, culture, organizational practice, and policies and regulations. Based on the women's empowerment framework, the identified factors were coded and synthesized into three dimensions: individual, relational, and environmental. The research finds there is a significant focus on providing relational and environmental support to women in construction, and less attention is given to individual factors. The review revealed that personal interest and parental perceptions in construction influence women's career development in precareer and early career stages, while masculine culture significantly impacts women's career development in all career stages. This study also summarizes the theoretical contributions and practical implications drawn from existing research on different stages of women's career development and provides guidance for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building operations use 45% of the total energy in Australia, and Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) are instrumental in achieving net zero emissions by 2050. However, research reveals that various factors hinder NZEB adoption in Australia, and it is imperative to contextualise the barriers, thereby highlighting clear gaps that can be addressed to enhance the implementation of NZEB in Australia. This study presents a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis to examine the barriers that hinder the implementation of NZEB contextualised within the Australian building industry. The paper's novelty resides in its contextualisation of barriers to NZEB thereby highlighting clear gaps that can be addressed to enhance the implementation of NZEB in Australia. Emergent results reveal the most impactful barriers experienced and the inter-relatedness between barriers and their effects on each other. These identified barriers are also compared with comparable countries, including the UK, China, Italy and the US. New insight and knowledge acquired provide a basis for assessing potential solutions to the main barriers. Findings show that a lack of knowledge, climate issues, and cost issues, in addition to government policy factors, are considered primary barriers encountered by the industry, hindering the achievement of NZEBs. It is imperative that future studies and initiatives counteract these impacts to realise a better implementation of NZEB in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations play an essential role in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. Despite attempts to encourage gender diversity in the workplace, the construction industry in Australia remains one of the most male-dominated industries. Existing research tends to focus on identifying barriers to gender equality and women's career development, with limited exploration of organizations' current initiative implementation. To fill this research gap, this study aims to examine how organizations implement initiatives affecting gender equality and women's career development in the Australian construction industry. This study applied the women's empowerment framework and conducted a thematic analysis of diversity, inclusion, and equality policies, strategies, action plans, corporate reports, annual reports, and websites within the context of gender equality and women's career development in construction companies. Through a comprehensive analysis, the study identifies prevalent practices and initiatives related to gender equality initiatives in the construction industry, synthesizing them into six themes: flexible working arrangements, inclusive and anti-discriminatory culture, promoting career development, recruitment, and promotion, shared caring responsibility, and strategic commitments. The findings also revealed areas for improvement, giving recommendations on how to further empower women in the construction industry through enhanced gender diversity initiatives. This study sheds light on the current state of gender diversity and inclusion efforts within construction companies and provides practical recommendations for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and organizational leaders who seek to foster more inclusive and equitable work environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The construction industry is resource intensive, dominated by brick and concrete, and generates substantial waste. • A bottom-up approach to material flow analysis was used to estimate stocks and flows. • Existing datasets are not able to adequately quantify the material flow for construction in Australia. • Variations in material use and waste intensity between states were identified. • Addressing CDW data gaps at a regional level is critical to closing the loop in material flow analysis. Material use within construction dominates resource consumption worldwide. Correspondingly, construction is associated with high rates of waste. Transitioning to a circular economy relies heavily on domestic markets, efficient supply chains, and a clear understanding of current and predicted material flows. Material flow analyses have been used extensively globally to generate insights into materials in use, changes over time and future waste generation. However, existing databases do not hold the necessary information to conduct such an analysis for the Australian residential construction industry. This paper uses a novel qualitative bottom-up approach to complement data gaps in existing databases to establish a material stock and flow analysis of the Australian residential construction industry. This approach has highlighted the dominance and continued growth of concrete by the sector, and has shown the importance of addressing data gaps in the industry as well as employing a location-based approach to move towards the circular economy. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]