Investigating sustainable practices in the Malaysian office building developments
Abstract
Purpose
Economically, Malaysia has one of the fastest growing construction industries in the world; however, the necessary balance between socio-economic and ecological systems – to avoid further environmental damage – has not yet been reached by the industry. This paper aims to explore the extent of sustainable development practices (socially, environmentally and economically) in the Malaysian construction industry, focusing on the office building sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 stakeholders from various backgrounds of the Malaysian construction industry are used to explore their challenges and motivations for pursuing sustainable outcomes.
Findings
The study finds that economic issues are the first priorities among stakeholders in any decision-makings for building projects and cost becomes one of the major reasons for the slow progress in implementing sustainable practices in building projects. Socially, there is still a wide gap of knowledge and awareness on sustainability issues among stakeholders, explaining the lack of commitment in achieving sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size is only adequate to enable internal generalisation; hence, further research is required to test the generalisability of the findings in this research.
Practical implications
This paper informs the government and regulatory stakeholders, research and education sector, private sector, and clients of the building industry, where the authors currently are and the gaps that the authors have to bridge in order to make sustainability more socially acceptable and integral in the local construction industry.
Originality/value
There have been very limited studies on exploring the views from various groups of stakeholders regarding all the three components of sustainable development in the Malaysian construction industry.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge that part of this work was published in the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference Socio-political and Technological Dimensions of Climate Change (STDCC2012), 19-21 November 2012, Putrajaya, Malaysia, pp. 51-62. The authors are especially thankful for the contribution by Associate Professor Terence Williamson, who was the Co-Supervisor of the first author during her PhD studies. The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia are also acknowledged for the award of scholarship to conduct this research. The authors would like to thank 30 interviewees who contributed to this research.
Citation
Shari, Z. and Soebarto, V. (2014), "Investigating sustainable practices in the Malaysian office building developments", Construction Innovation, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 17-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-12-2012-0064
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited