CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

INTRODUCTION
The creator was created the earth surrounded by green tropical forest and

water. However times was running so fast with full of transformation of new world
area which is natural vegetation to modern reinforcement concrete forest. Every
single day in the world, construction of new building moving forward replace the
green forest to concrete forest. The environment created by human was totally
depending on a large amount of energy to maintain it in a comfort environment for our
daily activities. Pursuant to the situation what will happen when the world was
insufficient energy or natural resources.
The function of buildings not just limited only for human live but it also place
for work, play, study and secure human safety from nature weather or disaster.
However we need to remember that the building also affect their health and
environment in countless ways. Building also give negative impact on the
environment, accounting one-sixth of the world freshwater consumption, one quarter
of its wood harvest and two-fifth of its material and energy flows (Gottfried, 1994;
Rodman and Lensen, 1996). Since the building concept also play and important
element towards environment, green building should be an alternative and efficient
ways.
Green or sustainable building can be defined as the practice of creating and
using healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation,
operation, maintenance and demolition (US Green Building Council, 2007: EPA GB
2008). Green building brings together a vast array of practices and techniques to
reduce the negative impact of building on energy consumption, environment and
human health. According to U.S Environmental protecting Agency, 2009, green
building are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human
health and the natural environment by:
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Efficiently using energy, water and other resources;

Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity; and

Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

In Malaysia, most of the constructed building was not categorised in green

responsive building. From energy views, current life style are demanding on lots of
energy to support a comfort environment to run our daily life such as air conditional to
counter Malaysia hot weather and light in indoor during day time. Ninety five percent
(95%) of energy in Malaysia generated from non-renewable natural resources such as
oil, coal and gas (8th Malaysia Plan, 2005). It was harmful to our living environment
and brewing an unsecure environment to our upcoming generation. While from
construction views, building which is not use sustainable or green material as
construction material and construction practice is considered improper managerial of
waste and land usage.
In Malaysia, green building development like a new chapter among property
developers because of various challenge in penetrating its market. According to
Environmental Performance Index (EPI) conducted by Yale University and Columbia
University, it shows the result of extensive consultation with subject area specialists,
statisticians and policymakers around the world. For year 2006, Malaysia was ranked
9 in environmental performance index with score of 83.3 (EPI, 2006). However
Malaysia drop 18 places in 2 years time, so we can conclude that Malaysia is still
much lacking behind in green building development compared to other countries
Nowadays, green building is often perceived as having higher construction
costs than conventional building. Besides that, energy efficient mechanical and
electrical system may have higher capital cost that its counterpart used in conventional
buildings (OECD, 2003, 2008). Once the new practices and technologies developed
and be accepted by property market, the extra cost for green building will gradually
reduce to reasonable and fair price. So green building become more viable to the
property developer.

1.2

BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Generally, the green or sustainability building is considered to be

environmental component as the green features. According to the Green Building

Index (GBI) Organisation, a Green Building (GB) more focused on increasing the
efficiency of resource use such as energy, water, and materials. In additional, it can
reducing the building impact on human health and the environment. Green building is
an environmental friendly building with the criteria reduce or zero consumption of
energy or natural resources. This concept also provide comfort such as indoor
environment, support green and sustainable living style, and reduce waste of daily
living activities. The term of green building have responsive on recent building
research which also used the terminology of sustainable building, ecological building,
and zero energy building and so on.
April 2009, GBI (Green Building Index) Malaysia officially launched and it
was a new chapter begin in Malaysia environmental building. The GBI rating system
introduced by the Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and to evaluate the new
building on environment impact based on six criteria Energy Efficiency (EE), Indoor
Environment Quality (EQ), Sustainable Site Planning and Management (SM),
Material and Resources (MR), Water Efficiency (WE) and Innovation (IN), (Norhaya
Kamarudin, 2013). Penang State Executive Councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo said,'
Penang also introduced green building which Malaysia have own rating systems GBI
and the Green Real Estate (Green RE) for upcoming development projects. (July 24,
2009 The Star). Some other criteria for assessing green buildings are developed in
other countries such as The LEEDS applied in the US and the Greenmark applied in
Singapore.
However, in a reality, the encouragement the greening of real estate have long
been highlighted in the conferences, industry publication and popular press for at least
a decade. Now, the question are how the developers produce more environmentally
building high performance product and what make some developers in Malaysia are
not interested to implement green building whether it all about the cost or else. This
research will identify the challenges and barriers faced by the property developer.

1.3

PROBLEM STATEMENT
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i. Green building is new development concept in Malaysia. So, there are many
challenges and barriers towards it.
ii. Lack of respond from Malaysian property development actors
iii. Green building needs to be extensive promoted to encourage the rate of
green building implementation

1.4

RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

There are three objectives that need to be achieved in this research, which are:
1) To identify the application and implementation of green building in
Malaysia
2) To determine the challenges and barriers towards green building
3) To determine the solutions in order to encounter challenges towards green
building

1.5

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

This study has been carried out to ensure the research objective will be

achieved for enhance this research. This research includes the identification of green
building such as organization, assessment and future planning. Any professional and
person in-charge who are related to green building and local authorities in building
and green technology was the targeted respondent. The respondent helped to define
the challenges and barriers in implementing green building and provide the solutions
to overcome the green building challenges.

1.6

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research is significant in order to increase interested of Malaysian

property developer in implementing green building. With the new implementation of

green building, it is important to gain information on the challenges and barriers in

facing green building. Thus this highlights the recommendation or solutions to

overcome the challenge of implementation of green building.

1.7

BRIEF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Any research process begins with the collection of data from many resources

and information such as interview sessions, journals and articles. Then the data are
analysed and explained in every chapter based on the data collected. To achieve the
objective of research a well plan and detail methodology is needed. This research was
conducted through questionnaire survey and interview which mainly focuses on
challenge, barrier and knowledge towards green building.
1.7.1

First Stage
This stage describe the overall research conducted introduction to

topics. It involved in order to identify the real problems, the objective to be

achieved, the importance of the study, detailing the scope and limitations of the
study according to the hierarchy of the chapters for the entire of this research.
1.7.2

Second Stage
Through this stage described in detail the identification, definition is

important, background research, opinion of members of professional and

materials related to academic writing. Each data collection and piece of
information generated based on the objectives to be achieved.
1.7.3

Third Stage
Description related case studies will be loaded in third stage. All

information analysed and observed according to the appropriate technique.

1.7.4

Fourth Stage
Analysis will be made based on information obtained from this study

that was carried out. The researcher develops a summary and conclusions of
the problem being reviewed. At the end of the study, the researcher report the

recommendations and plan to ensure the result achieved their objectives and
results.

1.8

STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH
1.8.1

Chapter 1- Introduction
Basically, this chapter discussed the implementation of green building.

Besides that, this chapter gives a whole image regarding the research such as
the objectives, problems statement, significance of the research, methodology
used, and scope of research and structure of the research.

1.8.2

Chapter 2- Literature Review

This second chapter is on literature review which focused on the green

building definition, the criteria of green building, the implementation of green

building from the other countries and Malaysia for example of green
responsive building, the benefits of green building and what are the problems
to implement and how to overcome the challenges.

1.8.3

Chapter 3- Research Methodology

This chapter focuses on the research methodology that has been used to

complete this study.

1.8.3.1 Literature Review
To complete this topic, a lot of academic research is needed,
like book, journal, newspaper news, conference forum, and university
research which is related to this topic. Literature review is to help
researcher to define the topic and conduct a questionnaire and
interview to collect the data.
1.8.3.2 Data Collection

Second step is to collect the data from professional such as

property developer and also local authority about the implementation
of green building and the challenges and barriers implementation of
green building. After that, identify the solution on it.
The way to get the data is by questionnaire plus interview.
Questionnaire is target on professional who involve in property
development and have an information about green building. The
questionnaire is focus on the second and third objectives which are to
determine the challenges and barriers towards green building and to
determine solutions in order to encounter challenges towards green
building in Malaysia.

1.8.4

Chapter 4- Research Analysis

The fourth chapter discusses the results and data analysis of the study.

The result analysed regarding to the challenges and barriers and the solutions
to overcome the problems is obtained. The interview is conduct with the
property developer in the Mercu UEM and also local authority. The researcher
also gain the information from local authority about the volume of proposed
project (development order) with the green building.

1.8.5

Chapter 5- Summary and Conclusion

All the results from the analysis process are discussed and explain in

this chapter. After getting decisions, it must decide whether the findings
achieve the objective or not. The researcher also gives the recommendation
and summary of this research.

1.9

SUMMARY
In conclusions, this research focuses on the most challenges and barriers faced

by the Malaysian property developer towards green building. The method used for
collecting data is questionnaire and interview. This research is significant to gain
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information to share to the developer are interested and may decide to upgrade or
implement the green building features.

REFERENCES
Aliagha, G. U. (2013). Review of Green Building Demand Factors for
Malaysia. Journal of Energy Technologies and Policy, 475-476.
EPA, U. (2008, November). EPA's Green Building Strategy. Retrieved from
EPA Green Building: www.epa.gov/greenbuilding
Esa, M. R. (2011). Obstacles in Implementing Green Building Projects in
Malaysia. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 18061812.
Fischer, E. A. (2009). Issues of Green Building and the Federal Response:An
Introduction. Congressional Research Service.
Gottfired, D. A. (n.d.). Sustainable Building Technical Manual. Public
Technology Inc.
Gou, Z. (2013). Are green buildings more satisfactory and comfortable?
Habitat International.
Kamarudin, N. (2013). Green Property Management Practice in Malaysia.
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Zhang, X. (2011). Barriers to Implement Green Strategy in the Process of
Developing Real Estate Projects. The Open Waste Management
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Zhang, X. (2011). Green Property Development Practice in China: Costs
and Barriers. Building and Environment , 2153-2160.

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