Integrating Green Building Index Consultancy with Residential Building Design

Despite government incentives, developers are reluctant to invest in green building initiatives due to their perceived extra costs – in particular additional consultant and construction implementation costs. This paper examines the issues preventing the integration of Green Building Index (GBI) consultancy with residential building development in the Malaysian construction industry. Following a literature review of the challenges involving GBI consultancy at the early stage of green residential development, a semistructured interview method was used to elicit opinion on perceived barriers to integrating the GBI process from 30 interviewees; mainly developers, GBI consultants, building consultants and regulators in the Malaysian construction industry with involvement in green building. The study found that a lack of communication between design team members and GBI consultants was a major barrier. This reduced the opportunity for a more collaborative effort to minimise costs and wastage during the design stages. Lack of insight into the impact of integrating the GBI consultancy into design process within the project time frames was evident. Effective coordination is necessary if the involvement of GBI consultants, particularly at early design stage, is to be successfully managed. It is recommended that work coordination among design team members and GBI consultants needs periodic review.