Impact of sustainable safety climate on poor compliance with personal protective equipment in oil and gas construction projects: quantitative analysis and best sustainable practices

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Sustainable Safety Climate (SSC) in mitigating the negative impact of poor PPE compliance in the Oil and Gas (O&G) construction industry using fuzzy set theory; and to develop sustainability-driven best practices guidelines for PPE compliance A multi-stage mixed-methods research methodology was adopted in this study for data collection and processing. This included: (1) a focus group session to identify the key SSC dimensions and the key factors contributing to poor PPE compliance; (2) the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process to rank the key SSC dimensions; (3) a questionnaire survey followed by a hierarchical fuzzy-based approach to quantify the level of significance of the poor PPE compliance factors and to examine the mitigating role of SSC in reducing the negative effects of PPE poor compliance; and (4) semi-structured interviews to develop sustainability-driven best practice guidelines for PPE compliance. The study identified 35 contributing factors to poor PPE compliance, grouped into 10 categories, and 11 SSC dimensions. Using a hierarchical fuzzy-based model, the analysis revealed that the three most effective dimensions in mitigating these factors were: the integration of safety and productivity, strategies focused on preventive and resilient risk management, and strong leadership commitment. Among these, leadership commitment showed the highest overall impact, reducing the negative effects of poor compliance by an average of 41.71%. The integration of safety and productivity followed with a 38.69% reduction, while preventive and resilient strategies achieved 38.39%. Each dimension also demonstrated unique strengths. Preventive and resilient approaches were most effective in addressing physical discomfort, reducing factors like PPE weight and bulkiness by 65.10%. Leadership had the greatest influence on logistical-related factors, cutting insufficient PPE availability by 56.91%. Meanwhile, efforts to balance safety with productivity achieved a 53.58% reduction in cultural-related factors, particularly those related to workforce diversity. To this end, this study offers a novel theoretical framework linking SSC to PPE compliance and provides a practical, fuzzy-based decision-making model for safety managers in high-risk industries. The proposed sustainable best practice guidelines offer actionable strategies for integrating ethical governance, peer-led engagement, and long-term safety planning into daily operations. These findings contribute to academic discourse by extending safety climate theory with sustainability principles and offer industry practitioners evidence-based tools to enhance occupational safety in complex construction environments.