Low Implementation of Green Roof in Malaysian Universities

Pee, Kar Hui (2022) Low Implementation of Green Roof in Malaysian Universities. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The 2020 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction indicates that the building and construction industry contributed for the biggest proportion of final energy demand (35%) and energy-related CO2 emissions (38%) in 2019. With the increasing energy demand and growing environmental concern, many countries such as Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong have adopted the green roof technology as a means to achieve sustainable development. Universities often have a large proportion of unoccupied roof spaces that can withstand the minimum load of green roof, making them one of the most suitable types of buildings for green roof installation. Although the concept of green roof has begun to settle within the Malaysian construction industry, the implementation of green roof in institutional buildings like universities is still relatively low as compared to residential and commercial buildings in Malaysia. Despite the fact that green roof can provide numerous benefits in terms of environmental, economic, aesthetic and social benefits, most Malaysian universities still have concrete flat roof or pitched roof using roofing materials such as clay tiles, concrete tiles, and so on. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to identify the benefits of implementing green roof in Malaysian universities, to investigate the barriers to the implementation of green roof in Malaysian universities and to determine the measures to promote the implementation of green roof in Malaysian universities. In this research, a quantitative research method has been adopted and the source of the data is primarily comes from primary data (questionnaire survey) and secondary data (literature review). A total of 450 sets of questionnaire survey have been distributed through email to the university management team, academic staff, administrative staff and students from public and private universities located in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Out of 450 sets of questionnaire survey, there are only 150 responses that have been successfully collected from the targeted respondents. After analysing the responses based on mean and relative importance index (RII), the findings revealed that the top three benefits of implementing green roof in Malaysian universities are improved aesthetic value, improved air quality and new amenity space and health and therapeutic effects. Meanwhile, the top three barriers to the implementation of green roof in Malaysian universities are mainly cost-based barriers which include high maintenance cost, high construction cost and lack of government incentives. Enhancement of green building assessment tool, provision of financial incentives as well as increasing awareness through research and pilot project are the top three measures to promote the implementation of green roof in Malaysian universities. Overall, this research successfully identified the barriers which are mostly encountered while implementing green roof, thus allowing the government and private sectors to come out with the most effective measures to solve such barriers in order to promote the implementation of green roof in Malaysian universities.