ABSTRACT
With increasing concerns on environmental issues, climate change and sustainable development, much improvement and innovation in industry standards and government policies are required. The UN sustainable Development Goals covering 17 thrust areas encompass various aspects to ensure environmental sustainability by pushing every country to incorporate principles of sustainable development into their policies and programs. Nationally the Malaysian Government has addressed the issues on climate change by the introduction of the National Policy on the Environment in 2002 and the National Policy on Climate Change in 2009 and National Green Technology Policy in 2009 under the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KETTHA). These published policies serve as the framework for the government agencies, industries and community to improve the environmental management and climate change for sustainable future. The building industry responsible for a significant impact on the environment due to natural resource consumption and the emission released. It has also been identified that the global energy consumption from residential and commercial buildings had increased gradually between 20 and 40% in developed countries. Due to the increasing awareness of environmental issues, numerous studies on reduction of building’s energy consumption and its environmental impact including the implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a systematic method for quantifying industrial process and products, by itemizing flows of energy and material use, wastes released to the environment, and evaluating alternatives for environmental improvements. LCA has been accepted internationally as a tool to improve processes and services environmentally and can be utilized to the building industry. The adoption of the LCA method can assist in determining the environmental impact potential in the development of buildings by identifying critical areas in the system that had the potential for overall environmental improvement.
