Nasyairi Mat Nasir

Obstacles to adopt green roof in Malaysia

The building industry is considered as the largest contributor of negative impacts to the environment especially in urban areas. In Malaysia, sustainability issues have become crucial to mitigate urban heat island and reduce global warming effect. One of the ways to reduce global warming and urban heat island is by adopting green roofs on buildings. However, the application of green roofs in Malaysia is still low whereby only few buildings in Malaysia have adopted green roofs. This paper aims to identify the obstacles in adopting green roofs in Malaysia. The survey that has been done revealed that there are nine factors that hinder the green roof application in Malaysia. More efforts are needed to encourage building practitioners to adopt green roofs. Therefore, it is important that buildings in Malaysia to adopt green roofs in order to protect the environment especially in urban areas.

Comparative study on green roof mechanism in developed countries

The building industry is known to have a great impact towards the environment in urban areas, green roof systems are seen as a way to mitigate its negative impacts. Developed countries such as Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong have widely adopted green roofs in urban areas in order to reduce the negative impact construction activities especially in the cities. Each one of these countries has their own methods of encouraging building owners to adopt green roofs. Developed countries such as Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong has taken their fare share in applying green roofs into their building industry. Thus, it is crucial for the Malaysian government to impose and instil the green roofs into our local building industry. This paper analyses the comparison of the green roof mechanism applied in Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. The findings from this paper will contribute more information and better idea on how to implement and attract public sector in Malaysia to adopt green roofs.

Comparative analysis on the policies in promoting sustainable construction in developed Asian countries

The implementation of sustainable development influenced the practice of all business sectors including construction industry towards sustainable practices, which focus for the balance between economy, social and environment performances. In order to promote sustainable construction, there are several strategies which need to be considered. A large number of research has been conducted to investigate the strategies in promoting sustainable construction. However, a study on comparative analysis on the development of sustainable construction policies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia is yet to be carried out. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive understanding on various strategies proposed in the existing studies in promoting sustainable construction in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia. This paper also aims to explore the actions undertaken by the government, nongovernment organisations and construction practitioners in promoting sustainability in construction and the progress so far. From the extensive literature review, it has revealed that besides technologies and tools, full commitment by the construction industry practitioners including the governments and the public at large are required in order to achieve sustainable construction.

Sustainable initiative and impediments towards promoting sustainable construction in Malaysia

Sustainability has become crucial issue worldwide. In Malaysia, environmental impact created from the construction activities seems to be making the headlines. Hence, the government and private sector were meticulously promoting sustainable practices as a way of achieving sustainable development. However, the green movement is still at low level where sustainable projects in Malaysia are mostly at the pioneer stage. Hence, more efforts are needed and should be directed towards the green agenda of the industry in order to increase the level of implementation sustainable construction in Malaysia. This paper aims to identify the barriers to implement sustainable construction in Malaysia. The survey revealed that there were eleven factors that contributed to the poor implementation of sustainable contruction in Malaysia. Most of the respondents agreed and recognized these factors exist. Therefore, it is vital for the Malaysian construction industry to change its conventional development with little concern for the environment towards better and responsible way of development.