A socio-technical maturity framework for design firms to enable the transition to design-out-waste in Indonesia’s construction sector

The construction sector remains a major driver of resource depletion and solid waste generation, with a substantial share traceable to early design-stage decisions. Design-out-Waste (DoW) strategies, including waste-efficient documentation, modern construction methods, and prefabrication, represent a proactive approach to enhancing lifecycle resource efficiency. However, their implementation remains fragmented, particularly in developing-country contexts, partly due to the lack of a structured framework for assessing organisational maturity. This study addresses this gap by developing an empirically grounded socio-technical maturity framework for DoW implementation in building design firms. The framework integrates five socio-technical dimensions into a single operational model encompassing processes & procedures, people & culture, industry structures, technology, and goals & incentives. Using data from 116 construction professionals, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to validate the measurement and structural relationships, while Importance–Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) provided empirical importance values for weighting the maturity dimensions and attributes. These weights were subsequently integrated with a five-level maturity scoring scheme to operationalise the assessment framework. The results reveal an interdependent socio-technical structure, with Industry Structure emerging as the most influential dimension and an important upstream driver of other organisational capabilities. The resulting framework provides an empirically weighted basis for assessing organisational readiness, identifying capability priorities, and guiding DoW implementation towards circular construction. It also provides a structured basis for informing environmental assessment, project appraisal, and policy interventions aimed at improving resource efficiency and waste prevention.