Bridging the Compliance Gap in Indonesia Green Building Projects Through a Systems Thinking Approach

Despite pressure to scale green building (GB) adoption in Indonesia, many government building projects underperform against their initial intended design, creating a compliance gap between the design and construction phases and reducing the GB rating and its potential benefits. This study investigated the barriers and drivers affecting the Indonesian government’s GB projects’ compliance using a systems thinking (ST) approach. A causal loop diagram (CLD) was constructed from stakeholder interviews and literature scoping, followed by semi-qualitative analysis, combining systems archetype identification, eigenvector centrality (EC), and influence mapping to propose potential leverage points as a basis for policy analysis of the current regulatory scenario. Key findings show that knowledge development, sustained stakeholder integration, project documentation readiness, and government support reinforce GB compliance, but are undermined by financial constraints. CLD analysis identified that the more sustainable factors, including regulation alignment, capacity building, and enhancing collaboration, should become a focus of interventions in the system, instead of focusing solely on the provision of funding. This study presents a novel exploration of the GB adoption problem in an Indonesian governmental context through a comprehensive and systems approach. Further research might require narrowing the system boundaries, broadening the literature and stakeholder validation, and performing quantitative modelling to test intervention scenarios to support rigorous decision-making processes.