The novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic outbreak forced closure of construction sites across the states and people to work from home. The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector was mostly hit by the pandemic because of its engagement in complex projects that entails large supply chain and multiple parties in delivering construction projects. Disruption in supply chain of materials and workers to construction sites has introduced new management system in AEC projects. Remote management of multiple project parties sparked unprecedented challenges and project organizations struggled to transform into new forms of budget, quality and time management systems. These unprecedented changes and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic have introduced new psychosocial risks for mental health of project management (PM) practitioners in the AEC sector. This research is aimed at improving the mental health status of PM practitioners in AEC projects during the pandemic by exploring the pandemic-associated psychosocial risk factors, evaluating the stress level of PM practitioners, assessing organization-level interventions, and establishing a psychosocial risk management framework. These research objectives were attained through an expert forum, an industry questionnaire survey and a quantitative analysis based on structural equation modelling. The findings are expected to help organizations in the AEC sector to take effective measures to improve the mental health of their most valuable assets – PM practitioners.

The best way for the construction industry to safeguard the environment and be responsible partners in sustainable development is to transition to net-zero carbon project management (NZPM) practices. Consequently, governments and other construction stakeholders’ efforts have recently intensified to encourage project managers to adopt net-zero approaches in projects. This urgency arises from the construction industry’s significant carbon emissions, adversely affecting water, climate, and soil. Although strategies exist to minimise the carbon emissions in projects, past industry reports and literature have minimally addressed the competencies necessary for project managers (PMs) to lead, plan, manage, and reduce emissions in construction projects. Therefore, this report aims to explore the critical roles of PMs in delivering net-zero projects and develop a net-zero project management competency maturity model. The study adopted mixed methodologies such as literature review, questionnaire survey and expert forum. The questionnaire survey was used to ascertain project managers’ critical net zero roles and the critical NZPM competencies. The expert forum with ten experienced practitioners was used to develop a robust maturity model for NZPM. Results indicate that the major roles played by PM in delivering net-zero projects are: Development of net-zero carbon project implementation plan and timeline, defining net-zero carbon project scope levels, Development of net-zero carbon risk management strategies, utilising net-zero carbon construction materials and Continuous monitoring of net-zero carbon performance. Further, PMs’ five most critical competencies to manage net-zero projects are net-zero carbon and sustainability benefits management, net-zero procurement management, quality assurance and verification of net-zero transactions, change management towards climate adaptation and schedule and roadmap management towards net-zero.

Based on the derived competencies, a maturity model with three maturity levels was developed. With the maturity model, PMs can accurately assess their NZPM competency through three 6 levels of maturity progress, i.e. beginner, competent, and expert. The outputs of this study will inform practitioners of their roles in delivering net-zero projects, and more importantly, the maturity model will enable project managers and professional organisations to develop competency programs for delivering net-zero project management.