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By Damiete Braide
When Oluwaseun Jegede moved to the United Kingdom to study for an MSc in Construction Project Management at the University of Bolton, he crossed paths with a stronger academic focus on sustainability, environmental management and the changing expectations placed on the construction industry. That gave him a different lens to examine what he had seen on Nigerian construction sites.
Before sustainability became the subject of his academic research, Jegede was faced with challenges on construction sites in Lagos. “The contrast between my experience in Nigeria and during my MSc in Construction Project Management pushed me towards this research,” he recounted his experience during a conversation in the Victoria Island area of Lagos state.
“During my studies I got exposed to more structured approaches to sustainability, environmental management, waste hierarchy, regulation and project controls. In the UK context, for example, construction waste management is connected to defined responsibilities, regulatory requirements and documented management processes.”
As a young building professional, Jegede worked his way from a resident builder intern to roles in project safety and construction management. He worked on residential, commercial and industrial-related projects, dealing with the everyday demands of construction; materials, schedules, quality, safety and coordination. But alongside those responsibilities was another reality about what happened to waste and other pollutants generated during construction.
His master’s thesis, “Assessment of Pollution Management in the Delivery of Construction Projects in Lagos State, Nigeria,” became the meeting point between his professional experience and his academic studies.
Away from the conventional. Jegede never treated pollution as a problem that begins and ends at the construction site. Through his research, he delved into the wider systems around it; how projects are planned, how environmental requirements are applied, the responsibilities of construction professionals and the role of regulation.
“My research was not just about saying that one country manages pollution better than another. I wanted to understand why sustainable pollution-management practices are difficult to implement in the Nigerian construction sector and what practical measures could make them more effective.
“Lagos experience gave me real world problems. My studies in Bolton gave me both a theoretical and analytical framework to investigate it.”
It was in the hallways of Bolton that he first stumbled into sustainability initiatives. Jegede participated in CIC Northwest’s Green Skills and Green Economy programme and a workshop on regenerative approaches to environmental, social and governance issues. He also served on the University of Bolton’s Student Sustainability Committee and took part in activities linked to COP27, including a Sustainable Future event.
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Consequently, he began to ask himself some relevant questions, “How much of what is being discussed about sustainable construction can be translated into the realities of a rapidly developing construction market such as Lagos?”
Now, on Nigerian construction sites, project teams must balance cost, time, materials, safety, client expectations and regulatory requirements. Environmental concerns can compete with those immediate pressures. However, the challenge is determining how pollution management can become part of ordinary project delivery. That is where Jegede’s story moves beyond his personal academic journey.
It was for this reason that Jegede’s research raises questions about the effectiveness of environmental regulation, the responsibilities of construction professionals and the practical measures that could reduce pollution during project delivery.
It also points to a larger issue plaguing the construction industry about how environmental responsibility can move from policy documents to professional discussions into everyday decisions on construction sites?
Indeed, Jegede’s journey from an internship on a Lagos building project to sustainability-focused study in the UK and research focused on Lagos offers one perspective on that question.
“On construction sites in Lagos, the pollution was often treated as a secondary issue compared with completing the physical works,” he told this correspondent. “I saw construction debris, excess materials, packaging and other waste accumulating around sites, with limited segregation or systematic disposal.
“There were situations where dust runoff and poorly managed materials could affect the surrounding environment and neighbouring areas. What concerned me was the absence of a consistent management process i.e. who was responsible for it, where it should go, how it should be monitored and how waste could be reduced in the first place. Research on Lagos construction sites similarly identifies weaknesses in environmental management and waste practices.”
As someone working in construction, Jegede began to see pollution as a project-management problem involving planning, cost, responsibility, compliance and site control.
Through his work, Jegede suggested that it may depend not only on stronger regulations, but on how those regulations are implemented, how construction professionals are trained and whether environmental considerations become part of project planning from the beginning.
For someone who began his career learning how buildings are put together, he believes in stronger monitoring and enforcement, the need to build the waste-management infrastructure, and measure environmental performance to move the needle in emerging-market construction.
For Jegede, projects could be required to record indicators such as waste generated, percentage recycled, disposal routes, pollution incidents and corrective actions. That turns sustainability from a statement into something that can actually be managed.
