Innovative Sustainable Materials and Professional Practice Reforms for Nigeria’s Global Built Environment Competitiveness

Nigeria’s built environment faces a twin pressure of a large housing deficit and a high carbon and cost burden from conventional materials, even as global construction shifts toward low-carbon and certified systems. This study aims to synthesize the evidence on innovative and sustainable construction materials and professional practice in Nigeria, to diagnose the barriers to their mainstream adoption, and to propose the professional-practice and policy reforms required for global competitiveness. Its objectives are, first, to map the materials with demonstrated technical and cost performance in the Nigerian context; second, to classify and interpret the barriers to adoption; third, to identify the professional-practice changes that adoption requires; and fourth, to set out the standards and policy reforms that would mainstream adoption. The study adopts a structured literature synthesis, complemented by documentary policy analysis, and interprets the evidence through the technology-organisation-environment framework and diffusion-of-innovations theory, modelling adoption as a three-layer system of materials, practice, and enabling environment. The findings show that the binding constraints are not technical but organisational and environmental, lying in professional capacity, regulatory inclusion, client perception, and the scarcity of demonstration projects. The study concludes that the professional-practice layer, the domain of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Building, is the under-addressed pivot on which the transition depends, and it recommends a sequenced reform pathway of standards inclusion, certified practice capacity, and procurement-led demonstration. The findings carry implications for materials policy, professional development, and Nigeria’s positioning in a decarbonising global construction market.

Keywords: sustainable construction; innovative building materials; professional practice; global competitiveness; housing delivery; Nigeria.