**5. Conclusions**

Overall, construction companies implement sustainable construction strategies focused on introducing their construction projects to the market. Despite companies provide timely responses to market pressure, this approach is usually incompatible with long-term organizational changes. Although companies adapt their processes to meet customers' requirements, they lack a transversal strategy involving all of the processes within the organization. This gap is evidenced in managemen<sup>t</sup> processes that prioritize customer-oriented strategies such as energy-efficient facilities and architectural design strategies instead of other managemen<sup>t</sup> processes that address waste and materials recycling, acquisitions and supply chains. Although these strategies are visible to the market, they only approach the finished product, not a deep organizational change.

Nevertheless, this study showed that although construction firms need to respond to the sustainable demands of society, they implement more and deeper sustainable construction strategies when regulations are stricter, such as the case for construction companies working in the mining industry. There is also evidence that company size directly affects sustainability. Large companies, as indicated by the number of employees, are more likely to develop and implement strategies to address new social, environmental and economic requirements. Likewise, the greatest effect on sustainability is observed in companies with a higher turnover.

This research showed that the participating companies did not pursue strategies that encourage profound organizational change toward corporate sustainability. The function of sustainability managemen<sup>t</sup> is not a permanent role in the organizational structure, as evidenced by the lack of a permanent sustainability role such as a Director of Sustainability. The lack of a role and organizational structure related to sustainability is a significant barrier for establishing a corporate sustainable strategy and the dissemination, follow-up, and results of sustainable strategies. This strategy should be conceived from the senior managemen<sup>t</sup> and extended downwards to the entire organization. Thus, the strategy's fragmentation indicates a gap in the dissemination of the policy and a defective communication of the long-term sustainable vision.

As evidenced by this study, only 32% of construction companies declare that they implement sustainable strategies. However, 71% of the respondents believe these strategies could be applied and 88% indicate that these strategies are important for business sustainability. From this perspective, companies recognize sustainable strategies' positive impact on society and on the environment, along with their inherent economic benefits for the firm. Nevertheless, their efforts are focused on the market's demands. The lack of a long-term vision may affect the transformation of sustainable strategy into a competitive advantage. Therefore, if companies do not proceed opportunely, the delay might represent a disadvantage when competitors have experienced transformation based on a sustainable business model.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors thank the Chilean Construction Chamber for providing the database of the construction companies registered in their records, and the Vice Chancellor's research (VRI) scholarship of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The authors also express their gratitude for the support of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), research gran<sup>t</sup> CONICYT/FONDAP 15110020.

**Author Contributions:** Carlos Giannoni, Luis Fernando Alarcón and Sergio Vera, conceived, designed, and wrote together this paper.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
