CREATING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN MALAYSIA: COMPARISON IN GREEN BUILDING PRACTICES Ismail Ashmat, Tareef Hayat Khan* Department of Property

Management, Faculty of Geoinformation & Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia E-mail: sr.ismail.ashmat@gmail.com1, tareef@.utm.my2 ABSTRACT
The total concepts of Sustainable Development (SD) and its implementation need to cover all aspects, including the Property Management (PM). As such, Green Building Index (GBI) had only a rating tool for the tropical zones other than Singapore Governments GREENMARK, first launched in 2005. It became mandatory for all new buildings or works on existing buildings exceeding 2,000sq.m in floor area to achieve a minimum GREENMARK Certified rating as central in Singapore, commencing from April 2008. Projection for successful PM in SD orientation such as Green Building (GB), Carbon Emission (CE) and Energy Saving (ES) particularly in Malaysia, still in rare and out of radar. The professional organization, Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) has over the years been developing and working towards a more sustainable and green architecture. In 2008, the need for a localized GB rating tool became more evident especially in the light of increasing demand from building end-users for Green Rated Buildings (GRB) that would not overly and adversely contribute to the destruction of the environment. This was also in-line with the objectives of many companies today where good corporate social responsibility (CSR) calls for them to only support environmentally friendly initiatives including their office premises. In August 2008, PAM Council endorsed and approved the formation of the new Sustainability Committee (SC) who was tasked primarily to develop and set-up the Green Building Index Malaysia and the accompanying Panel for certifying and accreditation of Green rated buildings, which officially introduced on 3 January 2009. Through this study, its would investigate the existence gap between the set of rules and guidelines in GB and its implementation in Malaysia. The expected findings from this study, can formulated a proper policies and guidelines on GB for all aspects, especially in PM and directly to multivariate the concept of GB to support the property development in Malaysia. It is also to identify an efficiency level of awareness by the property players to adopt the concept of GB. It is highly significance to link-up to enhance the propertys value, economically and tallying with the current market trends.