Abstract

Purpose: India has a rich tradition of cultural practices and a textual heritage that dates back to several hundreds of years. The intellectual achievements of Indian thought are found across several fields of study in ancient Indian texts ranging from the Vedas and the Upanishads to a whole range of scriptural, philosophical, scientific, technical and artistic sources, which advocates environmentalism. However as the globalization took roots in India in late 80's and to withstand the competition face from global markets Indian Small Medium Enterprises ignored the environmental safety and as results of this pollution is now crossing critical limits in metro cities. Delhi experienced a number of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) during recent years and a significant number of businesses were affected including the construction sector, which is a major employment driver, being the second largest employer in the country, next only to agriculture. However, little research work has been undertaken on how construction industry is at the risk due to the EWEs. The paper profoundly aims at exploring various such EMEs and their impact on the construction businesses. And finally suggests the ways through which it could be tackled.

Research design/methodology/approach: A mix and match research design was adopted to elicit information from construction industry, involving a questionnaire survey and interviews to obtain responses from construction practitioners. Mean was used to establish the average scores for analysis and conclusion. Direct and Indirect impacts from extreme weather events on logistics, people premises, process, markets and finance are discussed in detail.

Findings/conclusions: Direct and indirect impacts from climate change include damage to products and tools from higher temperatures and increased rainfall, with consequent delays and increased costs to projects. The predominance of outdoor workers in this sector leaves its employees at higher risk from increased direct-heat stress, mostly dehydration all leading to severe effect on people.

Keywords: Indigenous knowledge; India; Extreme weather events; SMEs; Sustainability; Construction industry