Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Importance of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and OHS Budgeting in terms of Social Sustainability in Construction Sector

Abstract

Mustafa Yilmaz*, Serkan Yildiz and Fatma Zorlu

Now-a-days, sustainability is one of the most important goals of also the construction sector, as it is in most of the other sectors. However, sustainability in the construction sector is dealt mostly with its environmental and economic dimensions and its social dimension remains in the background. This situation causes the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), which is perhaps the most important issue within the scope of social sustainability, to be addressed on its own, and its relationship with sustainability to be not introduced clearly. In this study, firstly, the relationship between social sustainability and OHS in the construction sector was discussed. Based on the fact that in construction projects the sustainability goal should be revealed forward to a great extent at the design stage, how to contribute to OHS by budgeting OHS activities together with project activities was explained. The study is expected to help construction sector stakeholders to understand the relationship between social sustainability and OHS, and to provide a clear picture of the role of budgeting in this respect.