Obstacles to adopt green roof in Malaysia

Abstract

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.