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European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218 ISSN: 2239-5938
Doi: 10.14207/ejsd.2014.v3n4p207
| 1,3Faculty of the Built Environment, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
2Faculty of Human Science, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia.
Sustainable Building through Project Planning Process
1Anuar Alias, 2Nor Kalsum Mohd Isa and 3Zulkiflee Abdul Samad
Abstract
Planning process has a significant impact on the ability of a construction project to
success. This is the stage where the detailed directions are given which would affect the
whole course of the project. The process is argued to be the most crucial stage which the
principles of sustainability are integrated throughout the whole life of building. The
purpose of this research was to investigate the Malaysian building project stakeholders’
perspectives on the most significant strategies to integrate sustainability principles into the
whole life of building through the project planning process. From the review of available
literatures, there are 21 strategies to integrate sustainability principles during a building
project planning process have been unveiled. A total of 357 Malaysian project stakeholders
who have been directly involved in sustainable building project and/or the stakeholders
who are judged to be knowledgeable on the project were selected to be contributed for
questionnaire survey. The collected data were analyzed using cronbach’s alpha
measurement to assess their internal reliability, and frequency and descriptive analysis to
measure the relative importance of the factors. The result shows that all the 21 strategies
(the factors) to integrate sustainability during a project planning process were identified by
the respondents to be very crucial to be implemented throughout the planning process of
a sustainable building project in Malaysia. This paper offers ideas and recommendations
on the sustainability integration strategies to be practiced throughout the project planning
process towards delivering a successful sustainable building project. The concept is very
useful to be a starting point for the development of a practical ‘Sustainability Integration
Framework’ during the planning process of a sustainable building project in the future.
Keywords: Sustainable Building Project; Construction Project; Project Planning Process
1. Introduction
It is very difficult to define precisely the constitution of a sustainable building.
However, most of them have been extended to be based upon the three pillars of ‘triple
bottom line’ concept which developed in 1997 by John Elkington (Edward, 1998; Sayce
et al, 2004; Adler et al, 2006). Sustainable buildings have many desirable attributes and
ultimately growing in demand. In this project, buildings are planned and designed in
parallel rather than series so that the cumulative effect of planning and design decision
concerning one system can be evaluated on other systems. Thus, an integrated and
determined planning process is needed to integrate the sustainability attributes into the
project’s whole life and this required a great demand on an efficient method of
208 European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218
Published by ECSDEV, Via dei Fiori, 34, 00172, Rome, Italy http://ecsdev.org
integration. Planning is the most important process conducted in managing the whole
life of the projects (Kerzner, 2006; Zwikael et al., 2005; Hamilton et al, 1996; Turner,
1993). This is the stage which the detailed directions are given which would affect the
whole course of the project. During this stage, the relevant stakeholders involved to
understand and perform their part in the project. Incorporation of sustainability
principles later after this stage will be a burden and should be avoided.
There are many intellectual publications on the subject of sustainable building, but the
ones that relate to the planning process of the project are very few. Several papers were
published, which discussed the importance of planning process towards delivering a
sustainable building project successfully. These papers however were more theoretical-
based than research-based. In Malaysia, there was some evidence that indicated the use
of several sustainability principles during the project planning process for instances,
integrated design process throughout the Malaysian Green Building Index (GBI) fully
certified building projects – Low Energy Office (LEO), Green Energy Office (GEO)
and Diamond building. Many other projects might have been conducted integrated
design process throughout their project planning which is not known by the public. As
planning process is believed as a strategic position to deliver a successful sustainable
building outcome, one unanswered question remain which becomes the prominence
gaps of this research - how do the sustainability principles should be integrated into the
whole life of a sustainable building through the project planning process? For that
reason, this study attempt to respond to the question by searching for the
strategies/factors that should be considered throughout the planning process of a
sustainable building project in Malaysia in order to perform the sustainability integration
successfully. From that, sustainability principles are efficiently integrated into the project
and ultimately, improve the changes of delivering a successful sustainable building
outcome. This paper has taken initial step to venture into this area by studying the
Malaysian building project stakeholders’ perspectives on the most significant strategies
that should be practiced throughout the planning process of a sustainable building
project in order to integrate sustainability principles into the building whole life
successfully.
2. Planning Process of a Sustainable Building Project in Malaysia
There was not much discussion about project planning process in Malaysia. A
typical project planning process in Malaysia is involved with legislature and development
plan. There are over fifty (50) laws and guidelines that should be considered by the
construction players (Abdullah et al, 2011) when planning for a property development
project such as National Land Code (NCL) 1965, Town and Country Planning Act (Act
172), the Government Act 1976 (Act 171), Uniform Building by Law 1984 (UBBL), the
Environmental Quality Act 1984 and so forth. A layout and building plan that will be
submitted should comply with various development plans such as the national physical
plan, a structure plan, a local plan and a specific area plan that have been formulated
under Part III of the Act 172 which a developer has to obtain all planning approvals
before any physical work can commence on site. Preliminary discussion will normally
take place between the planning consultants and the planning department at the
A. Alias, N. K. M. Isa and Z. Abdul Samad 209
© 2014 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2014 European Center of Sustainable Development.
respective local authorities during the layout plan, building plan or planning permission
submission process. A registered town planner is a principal submitting party (PSP)
engaged by the developer or land owner to prepare the layout plan and will act as PSP
for all planning approvals at the planning permission stage. The civil and structural
engineer is required to produce the platform design for the earthwork plan application
and structural building design for the architect to submit at the building plan approval. A
good working relationship between the consultant, the developer and various respective
departments at the local authorities will directly contribute to a successful planning
approval (Abdullah et al, 2011).
In conventional Malaysian building projects, planning process is typically not conducted
very well due to its complexity and extra costs that almost always associate with it
(Mansur et al, 2003). Malaysian clients and consumers of the construction industry place
on emphasis on costs, often at the expense of quality. Two practices that cause this focus
on low cost are budget constraints imposed by clients and the use of many levels of
subcontracting. Moreover, industry representatives have noted that many clients do not
award projects to contractors based on their technical capabilities (CIDB, 2007).
On the contrary, in Malaysian’s so-called sustainable building projects such as LEO,
GEO and Diamond buildings, sustainability measures mainly on environmental aspects
were implemented throughout various facets of the overall design. Passive architecture
design has been incorporated in order to enhance the future operations for energy
efficiency and lowering operational costs. An Integrated design process which
emphasizes more upfront investment has been employed by a range of stakeholders’
groups’ involvements. On top of the usual laws and guidelines that should be considered
by the construction players, they should also consider the MS1525 (Code of Practice on
Energy Efficiency and the Use of Renewable Energy for Non-Residential Buildings) in
the development of the building. The owners who intend their buildings to have GBI
certified; an application should be submitted directly or through a GBI facilitator, of a
comprehensive design and other necessary documents for GBI assessment. The
information submitted should be based on preconstruction information such as tender
documentation stage when all principles of the design have been finalized. A provisional
design assessment certificate is given at this stage. Further completion and verification
assessment for a full GBI certification will be given after the criteria have been properly
implemented and verified within 12 months of getting certificate of completion and
compliance (CCC) or earlier if not less than 50% occupancy (GSB, 2009).
3. Sustainability Integration through Project Planning Process: Developing a
Theoretical Concept
A theoretical concept was developed to define the most significant strategies to
be considered to ensure efficient sustainability integration into a sustainable building
project during its planning process. There are four (4) main strategies have been unveiled
as the most important to be implement during the project planning process as follows
(Isa, et al, 2014);
210 European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218
Published by ECSDEV, Via dei Fiori, 34, 00172, Rome, Italy http://ecsdev.org
Sustainable Project Orientation
To deliver a sustainable building project, sustainability goals and project priorities must
be set since the strategic and early planning stage of the project as they establishes the
framework in which all future project decisions are made (Robichaud and Anantatmula,
2011). The early planning of a project generally includes a group discussion about the
needs and requirements for the project, project scope definition, early designs are
formulated, critical decisions are made and the specific project execution approach is
defined. It is the project phase encompassing all the tasks between project initiation and
detailed design (Gibson and Gebken, 2003) which is the starting point of achieving
sustainability to realize the goal of sustainability (Wu and Low, 2010). Sustainability
principles should be introduced to the team members during this stage so that they are
able to improve the end result by ensuring that all building systems work cooperatively in
the most sustainable manner (Glavinich, 2008). Success during the detailed design,
construction and the rest phase of the project depends highly on the level of effort
during this stage (Gibson and Gebken, 2003; Dumon et al, 1997).
Integrated Project Team
Active design professionals’ involvement in planning was repeatedly claimed as the key
to increase project success (Gibson and Gebken, 2003). Thus, to plan for a successful
sustainable building project, the stakeholders who are involved in the planning process
must fully understand the issues and concerns of all parties and interact closely
throughout the planning process of the project. Each project shall have a core integrated
project team that shall be cross-functional to accomplish the various tasks of the project.
Stakeholders from the operation and maintenance group, financial, environmental, health
and safety, security, information technology and facilities, or space planning, also should
be included and are involved and maintained during the whole process of project
planning and delivery (The State of Minnesota, 2009; Department of Health and Human
Services, 2008). They have to be committed and having core the knowledge of
sustainable buildings project. Without a sustainable building project knowledge base,
they will not be able to evaluate and deliver such projects accurately and effectively
(Choi, 2009; Mochal and Krasnoff, 2010). The sustainable development education needs
to reach beyond designers and architects for the acceptance of the sustainable building
construction. The project personnel should be educated to ensure they focus on
sustainability in their work for the projects (Halliday, 2008). The project team members
should be informed on the sustainability issues. Sustainability quality and capability
should be considered during the selection of the team members during the feasibility and
planning stage. They are selected based on their familiarity with the product type and
market, and will have exposure to all phases of the sustainable building project (Doyle et
al., 2009; Bogenstätter, 2000). Continual communications and training for all project
personnel are essential during the planning phase to ensure the accomplishment of
sustainable project goals in a cost effective manner and within the time frame (Mochal
and Krasnoff, 2010). Lack of understanding of the project’s characteristics will lead to a
defective delivery process and increased cost and time.
A. Alias, N. K. M. Isa and Z. Abdul Samad 211
© 2014 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2014 European Center of Sustainable Development.
Integrated Design Process
The traditional project management process runs linearly and usually has minimal input
from engineering disciplines, operation and maintenance groups or the outsider during
the planning and design stage (Doyle et al., 2009; Choi, 2009). There were also lack of
effective communication among various technical experts who tend to use their own
tools, protocol, and industry standards for making decisions and tracking information
(Sappe, 2007). On the contrary, a sustainable building project works best when the
expanded group of stakeholders work together to concentrate the majority of their
creative efforts as early in the planning process (Prowler, 2011; Muldavin, 2010;
Bogenstätter, 2000). There is the need to adopt strategies that facilitate collaborative
working among project teams, as a prerequisite to achieving sustainability objectives
(Ugwu and Chaupt, 2006). Sustainability principles in building are integrated successfully
into the project by applying an integrated design process throughout the planning
process. The process incorporates nine (9) sub-strategies; 1) Involve diverse set of
stakeholders on the team, 2) Committed and collaborative team throughout the process,
3) Bringing the team together as early as possible, 4) Sustainability and integrated design
requirements and the process are included into the project documentations, strategic and
comprehensive plan, 5) Do whole building design and system analysis, 6) Commissioning
process is added during this process and described in a specific section, 7) Planning
should reflect all the project stakeholders (internal and external), 8) Design should reflect
the end user community, 9) Effective communication and incorporation of charrette
process (Isa et al, 2014). The adoption of these strategies ensures the lowering of overall
building costs by the promotion of synergies between building systems that may
minimize or eliminate the need for certain building features. Early incorporation and the
modeling of design features may minimize change orders during later stages where
increase costs and time may be much longer. The strategy also enable the production of
a more efficient, durable structure, which will lower long term operating and replacement
costs (Choi, 2009; Doyle et al., 2009, Lapinski et al., 2006; Beheiry et al., 2006, Reed and
Gordon, 2000).
Sustainability Regulations and Code Compliances
Regulatory processes and codes that meet the sustainability goals can help to promote
sustainable building practices (Muldavin, 2010; Choi, 2009) for example, government
policies can heavily influence the development of a sustainable building project. Codes
and ordinances can be used as a regulatory tool to encourage a sustainable development
by setting clear criteria that stakeholders need to meet. Meanwhile, regulatory guidelines
and processes are areas where incentives or allowances can be adjusted to encourage
sustainable practices. Monetary or process-oriented incentives can be offered such as to
ease the initial cost differential or difficulty factor. Monetary incentives can offset any
cost differential or provide savings for choosing a sustainable building, making the
adaptation to a sustainable development more feasible for property owners and
developers (Choi, 2009). It can also be used to fund an integrated design or bring in
expertise for consultation. Additionally, a marketed incentive can bring positive publicity
to the practices, offering developers an alternate design where the developers and the
community may both benefit.
212 European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218
Published by ECSDEV, Via dei Fiori, 34, 00172, Rome, Italy http://ecsdev.org
4. Research Methodology
The theoretical concept derived from understanding the literature forwarded the
idea that planning process has the capability to integrate sustainability principles into a
sustainable building project successfully. A total of 357 project stakeholders who have
been directly involved in sustainable building project and/or the stakeholders who are
judged as knowledgeable on the project were selected to be contributed for questionnaire
survey. The respondents are 160 respondents from class A contractors who are
registered in the Malaysian Contractor Service Center (PKK), 75 respondents from
Malaysian Institute of Architects’ corporate member firms (PAM), 11 respondents from
the engineering firms who are registered in the Malaysian Institute of Engineers (IEM)
and also registered member of consulting firm in the Association of Consulting
Engineers Malaysia (ACEM), 10 planner firms who are registered with Malaysian
Institute of Planners (MIP), 88 developers who are listed by Real Estate and Housing
Developers’ Association (REHDA), 2 representative from the Malaysian local
universities and 11 officers who are working in among 154 local authorities in Malaysia
which listed by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government of Malaysia (KPKT).
However, only 188 samples were successfully obtained within the range of 42%-100%
from each group, making the overall response rates of 53%.
5. Data Analysis
The responses received shows a hundred percent (100%) of the respondents are
degree holders, which is 11% of them are also master’s degree and PhD holders. A total
of 62% of the respondents have been directly involved in sustainable building project.
This percentage is considered unquestionable because this project is still new and
unusual among the project stakeholders in Malaysia (Zainul Abidin, 2010). It was
revealed that majority (81.9%) of the respondents have been active in the industry
between 11 to 15 years and 62% of them also having experiences in sustainable building
project. The rest of 18.1% respondents have been active in the industry between the
ranges of 16 to 26 years and above, 62% of them are also involved in sustainable
building project. The duration of working experiences between 11 to 15 years are
considered fairly long for construction industry. Moreover it was found that the
respondents within this group were also the majority (82%) out of the total respondents
who have been involved in between 1 to 15 sustainable building projects (62%). Majority
of the respondents (79 out of 117 respondents) who have been involved in sustainable
building project were also occupied in the planning process of the project. Considering
the level of education, working experiences and career development, the respondents
who gave their responses in the survey are considered to be competent to give their ideas
on the subject matter.
There are 21 strategies to integrate sustainability through a building project planning
process were listed in the questionnaire in order to seek understanding and identifying
the most important sustainability integration strategies from the views of Malaysian
building project stakeholders as listed in the first column of Table 1. Respondents were
required to give their opinion on the most important strategies to integrate sustainability
A. Alias, N. K. M. Isa and Z. Abdul Samad 213
© 2014 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2014 European Center of Sustainable Development.
through a building project planning process. They were requested to rank the importance
of the strategies on a scale of 1 to 5 where a score of ‘1’ represents ‘not at all important’,
‘2’ represents ‘slightly important’, ‘3’ represents ‘neutral’, ‘4’ represents ‘important’ and ‘5’
represents ‘very important’. Throughout this part of questionnaire, spaces were provided
for respondents to suggest additional strategies that were not included. In the effort to
analyze the collected data for the most important integration strategies through planning
process, there were two stages of data analysis have been utilized which are cronbach’s
alpha measurement, and frequency and descriptive analysis.
6. Findings and Discussion
In the first stage, cronbach’s alpha method was used to measure the inter-item
consistency in this study. Through the analysis that was done, the alpha reliability of the
scale in this study was 0.950 for the set of sustainability integration strategies. Since the
result achieved above 0.7, it shows that all variables have indicated internal consistency
and achieved high reliability. Thus, due to high coefficient values of cronbach’s alpha, it
can be concluded that the respective respondents were admitted the importance of the
strategies to be implemented throughout the planning process of a sustainable building
project.
In the second stage, the data was analyzed using frequency and descriptive statistic
analysis in order to measure the central tendency and dispersion of the questionnaire
responses. This stage is very important to the researcher because the related results are
very useful in order to find the most important strategies that should be implemented
throughout the planning process of the project. It was decided that only the strategies
that recorded a mean score (MS) of more than 4.0 and above (range ‘important to very
important’) are considered to be the most important factors.
The summary of the empirical analysis findings of the survey approaches are as tabulated
in Table 1. It was found that all 21 factors of the strategies to integrate sustainability
through project planning process have been determined to be significant which should
be practiced throughout the planning process of a sustainable building project. There are
2 out of 21 strategies were rated as ‘very important’ (MS=4.5) by majority of the
respondents to be the most important strategies to integrate sustainability during
planning process of building project in Malaysia. The strategies are ‘the team should have the
core knowledge of sustainable building project’ and ‘government policies to encourage sustainable
development’.
214 European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218
Published by ECSDEV, Via dei Fiori, 34, 00172, Rome, Italy http://ecsdev.org
Table 1: Frequency and Descriptive Analysis of the Strategies to Integrate Sustainability
through Project Planning Process
No.
The Strategies to Integrate Sustainability through
project planning process
*Total
Influencing
Frequency
(TIF)
**Total
Influencing
Percentage
(TIP)
Mean Score
(MS)
Standard
Deviation (SD)
Stakeholders’
Preferences
Category 1: Sustainable Project Orientation
1.
Specific sustainability goals and project priorities
80
43%
4.3
0.796
Important
2.
Sustainable concern during establishment of project
scope, project charter, drawing, contract and
detailed project plan
85
45%
4.3
0.750
Important
Category 3: Integrated Project Team
3.
The project team members are involved and
maintained throughout the planning process
69
37%
4.2
0.760
Important
4.
Local community representative is involved in
support of the project
59
31%
4.1
0.809
Important
5.
An integrated design/ sustainability coordinator is
appointed as one of the project’s team members
66
35%
4.2
0.701
Important
6.
The team should have the core knowledge of
sustainable building project
112
60%
4.5
0.665
Very
Important
7.
Team members are educated on sustainability issues
including vendors
100
53%
4.4
0.695
Important
8.
Team members’ selection with sustainable
development quality and capability
83
44%
4.4
0.604
Important
9.
Team members are fully informed on sustainability
goals and priorities of the project.
99
53%
4.4
0.730
Important
Category 2: Integrated Design Process
10.
Involve diverse set of stakeholders on the team
79
42%
4.2
0.871
Important
11.
Committed and collaborative team throughout the
process
82
44%
4.3
0.788
Important
12.
Bringing the team together as early as possible
during planning process
95
51%
4.4
0.679
Important
13.
Sustainability and integrated design requirements
and the process are included into the project
documentations, strategic and comprehensive plan.
89
47%
4.4
0.746
Important
14.
Do whole building design and systems analysis
93
49%
4.3
0.854
Important
15.
Commissioning process is added during this process
and described in a specific section
70
37%
4.1
0.818
Important
16.
Planning should reflect all the project stakeholders
66
35%
4.1
0.785
Important
17.
Design should reflect the end user community
98
52%
4.4
0.807
Important
18.
Effective communication and incorporation of
charette process
68
36%
4.1
0.787
Important
Category 4: Regulations and Code Compliances
19.
Government policies to encourage sustainable
development
112
60%
4.5
0.782
Very
Important
20.
Compliance with code and regulatory tool of
sustainability
94
50%
4.3
0.853
Important
21.
Incentive to encourage sustainable development
107
57%
4.4
0.867
Important
A. Alias, N. K. M. Isa and Z. Abdul Samad 215
© 2014 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2014 European Center of Sustainable Development.
Note:MS 1= Not at all important 2= Slightly important 3= Neutral
4=Important 5= Very Important
*TIF = Frequency score for answer scale 5
**TIP = Percentage for answer scale 5
There are 8 strategies have been revealed as the most popular choice by majority
respondents where a half and above of them ranked the strategies to be ‘very important’
(answer scale of 5) to be implemented during project planning process in order to deliver
a successful performances of sustainability in building project. Three (3) out of the 8
strategies, which are the ‘team should have the core knowledge of sustainable building
project’ (TIP of 60%), ‘team members are educated on sustainability issues’ (TIP of 53%)
and ‘team members are fully informed on sustainability goals and priorities of the
project’ (TIP of 53%) come from the sub-factors of ‘integrated project team’. Another 2
strategies which are ‘bringing the team together as early as possible during planning
process’ (TIP of 51%) and ‘design should reflect the end user community’ (TIP of 52%)
come from the sub-factors of ‘integrated design process’. Meanwhile, the rest 3 strategies
which are ‘government policies to encourage sustainable development’ (TIP of 60%),
‘incentive to encourage sustainable development’ (TIP of 57%) and ‘compliance with
code and regulatory tool of sustainability’ (TIP of 50%) come from the sub-factors of
‘regulation and code compliances’. The results revealed that all strategies indicated in
‘regulation and code compliances group were considered to be very significant to be
addressed in the proposed framework with the mean values ranges from 4.3 to 4.5 which
represent to the answer of ‘important to very important’ factors. This study coincides
with studies by most researchers such as Luce, 2011 and Choi, 2009 whereas; regulatory
processes and code that meet sustainability goals are very significant to promote
sustainability integration practices.
Surprisingly, the finding reveals that there is no one sub-factor has been selected as ‘very
important’ (answer scale of 5) by more than 50% respondents from the first category of
strategies which are ‘sustainable orientation project’. Late consideration on sustainability
principles, which is after planning process might leading to funding and other problems
due to the changes such as plan redesign, rescheduling process and so forth. It is very
critical that the specific sustainability goal and project priorities, needs and expectations
to be considered and informed early to the project team during the planning process in
order to minimize misunderstanding and future complication (Doyle et al, 2009 and
Choi, 2009). The delay can cause sustainable project failure including cost overrun,
reschedule and increase change orders during construction which also affect the quality
of the building and stakeholders’ dissatisfaction.
Sustainable building project works best when the sustainability ideas and efforts are
considered very early in the planning process. However, the result shows that less than
50% of the respondents valued ‘specific sustainability goals and project priorities’, (TIP
of 43%) and ‘sustainable concern during establishment of project details (TIP of 45%) to
be ‘very important’ strategies to integrate sustainability through project planning process.
It shows that Malaysian building project stakeholders have placed these strategies as a
second priority in during project planning process. The findings contradict with the
studies by Robichaud and Anantatmula, (2011); Mochal and Krasnoff, (2010) and Wu
216 European Journal of Sustainable Development (2014), 3, 4, 207-218
Published by ECSDEV, Via dei Fiori, 34, 00172, Rome, Italy http://ecsdev.org
and Low, (2010) who revealed that sustainability goals and project priorities must be set
since the strategic planning of the project in order to establish the framework in which
all future sustainable project decisions are made. This is the starting point of achieving
sustainability to realize the goal of sustainability (Wu and Low, 2010). At this stage,
project scope, contract and construction drawing and detailed project plan which focus
on sustainability and stakeholders’ expectation should be prepared (Mochal and
Krasnoff, 2010). Without a proper planning at this stage, the sustainability in building
project will carry a lot of risk and tend to fail (Doyle et al., 2009).
Though, luckily both strategies from the ‘sustainable project orientation’ category has
achieved the mean values of more than 4.0 which are MS of 4.3, meaning that the
respondents appreciated the factors to be the ‘important’ strategies to integrate
sustainability through project planning process.
Conclusion
The advantages of sustainable building have been revealed through much
research and case studies conducted worldwide. However, as this subject is a new
territory in Malaysia and lack of exemplar project made the project less appreciated. To
surmount the issues, there is a need to search and introduce effective ways to deliver a
sustainable building project. A clear guideline to highlight the principles of sustainability
within this project and the strategies to integrate the principles throughout the project
through its planning process should be invented to enable those aspects be managed
efficiently. Significant adjustments to the conventional project planning process and
procurement system should be explored. A shift in mindset towards the longer term
benefits of sustainability need to be initiated. From the survey, many stakeholders in
Malaysia believed that focus should be given especially throughout the project planning
process. The project should be sustainability oriented, employing of an integrated design
process by an integrated design team, comply and supported by sustainability code and
regulatory tools. The sustainability integration strategies during a building project
planning process are paramount towards a successful sustainable project delivery and the
building performances through its whole life. This research is very useful to provide an
essential guide to the project stakeholders and researchers especially for formulating a
clear guide of sustainability integration strategies during planning process for upcoming
sustainable building projects. For further studies, it is interesting to investigate in depth
the proposed sustainability integration strategies for its possibility to be practiced within
the industry.
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