Client’s contribution to achieve sustainability through corporate social responsibility in the Sri Lankan construction industry

The Sri Lankan construction industry's impact on the environment, social and economy is inevitable; emphasising the need to adopt sustainability.Sustainability is distinguished in order to avoid depletion of natural resources as well as to maintain the ecological balance.Sustainability could result in a corporate level, based on construction business organisations further illustrating the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).CSR focuses on impact by organisations concerning the triple bottom line.CSR is identified as a path to achieve corporate sustainability.Stakeholders' participation is crucial to incorporate in a sustainable development plan which facilitates the identification of the clients who play a prominent role.This research followed a qualitative study by interviewing clients selected through snowball sampling in the Sri Lankan construction industry.Phenomenology was the approach followed for this research and bracketing was used as a method of analysis.Results of the research identified categories to achieve sustainability through CSR in the perception of clients as: cost constraint, government regulatory approach, consultants' intervention, client's apprehension on sustainability and their attitude on social and environmental aspects, thereby paving the path to develop recommendations.