Edinburgh Napier University

  To reduce the substantial contribution of the built environment, contractors have to comply with the increasing number of environmental regulations. Recent interest in the subject has resulted in global research initiatives that aspire to provide an understanding on Environmental Management (EM) and Total Quality Management (TQM). Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) has emerged, in the manufacturing sector, from integrating strategic EM into TQM holistic approach. This paper is part of a research that investigates TQEM impact on contractors‟ management, design, performance, and procurement. This paper presents three case studies on the impact of TQEM for contractors. The case companies are all main contractors, selected by local accessibility based on the assumption of a design-andbuild procurement method. All the interviews, documentations analysis and site visits were carried out between October 2006 and March 2007 and were coded for analysis.The companies were categorised as „two stars TQEM‟ and „three stars TQEM‟companies based on companies‟ experience with separate initiatives associated with TQEM. Results from the cross case examination indicated that contractors in the study had approached TQEM without the help of any specific management framework, but they had implemented numerous quality and environmental initiatives on a „slice by slice‟ approach. Build-and-design procurement is recommended for controlling TQEM implementation and responsibilities among the design team, the construction team, the main contractor and the specialist subcontractors. It is suggested that TQEM needs to be supported by an implementation framework that considers the corporate-level TQEM (business and cultural aspects) and project-level TQEM (construction performance and procurement)