Critical Factors That Lead To Green Building Operations And Maintenance Problems In Malaysia

The development of green buildings has become a trend in recent years in the effort to enhance the well-being of the community, environmental health, and life-cycle cost. However, many have argued that the complexities rendered by green buildings during the operational and maintenance phase often overshadow the benefits that can be gained through the development of green buildings. Several factors that lead to complexities in managing and maintaining green buildings have been highlighted by several scholars and practitioners in the construction industry. These factors are perceived by many as barriers to achieving the benefits that can be gained from green building development. However, the criticality of these factors has yet to be empirically explored in the Malaysian context. This paper determines the factors that lead to green buildings operations and maintenance problems in Malaysia. As an effort to shed light into this issue, a questionnaire survey was carried out involving green building maintenance management teams in Malaysia. Frequency and criticality index calculations were carried out to rank the factors according to level of criticality. The result indicated that the most critical factor that leads to green office building operations and maintenance problem is the failure to consider the aspect of maintainability during the design stage.