FACTORS INFLUENCING THE NON-ADOPTION OF GREEN BUILDING SPECIFICATIONS IN KLANG VALLEY MALAYSIA

Abstract

The construction industry plays a pivotal role in driving economic growth and bringing more job opportunities. However, construction activities also bring adverse pollutions to the environment. Therefore, the adoption of green building specifications is crucial to mitigate these pollutions by promoting efficient resources utilisation and environmental-friendly practices. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the non-adoption of green building specifications in Klang Valley Malaysia and to examine the underlying structure caused by the latent factors. In addition, this study is conducted to investigate the effects caused by the non-adoption of green building specifications. This study adopted a quantitative research approach that utilises an online questionnaire to collect quantitative data from the respondents. According to the results, the most influential factor is “Unwillingness to change the conventional way”, while the least influential factor is “Conflicts with aesthetic issues”. Among the three effects studied, “Worsen soil pollution” is the most significant effect. Next, the factors are categorised into five-factor groupings through factor analysis, namely, Green technology related-factor, Governmental related-factor, Economic related-factor, Public awareness and behaviour related-factor and Corporate related-factor. Based on the interpretation of the results, “Unwillingness to change the conventional way” is the highest-ranked influential factor, which may be due to the habitual thinking of construction stakeholders in remaining their existing business practices. “Conflicts with aesthetic issues” is the least ranked factor because green features actually do not downgrade but enhancing the appearance of the buildings, for instance, Energy Commission Diamond Building in Putrajaya has a good physical appearance indeed. In conclusion, this study has ranked the factors to show their degrees of significance towards the non-adoption of green building specifications. Besides that, the factors are categorised into five-factor groupings and the differences among the factor groupings are also studied.