Purpose-Economically, Malaysia has one of the fastest growing construction industries in the world; however, the necessary balance between socioeconomic and ecological systemsto avoid further environmental damagehas not yet been reached by the industry. This paper aims to explore the extent of sustainable development practices (socially, environmentally and economically) in the Malaysian construction industry, focusing on the office building sector. Design/methodology/approach-Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 stakeholders from various backgrounds of the Malaysian construction industry are used to explore their challenges and motivations for pursuing sustainable outcomes. Findings-The study finds that economic issues are the first priorities among stakeholders in any decisionmakings for building projects and cost becomes one of the major reasons for the slow progress in implementing sustainable practices in building projects. Socially, there is still a wide gap of knowledge and awareness on sustainability issues among stakeholders, explaining the lack of commitment in achieving sustainability. Research limitations/implications-The sample size is only adequate to enable internal generalisation; hence, further research is required to test the generalisability of the findings in this research. Practical implications-This paper informs the government and regulatory stakeholders, research and education sector, private sector, and clients of the building industry, where the authors currently are and the gaps that the authors have to bridge in order to make sustainability more socially acceptable and integral in the local construction industry. Originality/value-There have been very limited studies on exploring the views from various groups of stakeholders regarding all the three components of sustainable development in the Malaysian construction industry.

Going "green" and global has marshaled Architects, Engineers and Contractors (AEC) to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) to be competitive across the globe. However, little is known on the effect of cultural and human factors on BIM technologies in industrialized building projects, especially in Malaysia. This paper examined the extant literature of BIM technologies to reduce construction waste and improving the efficiency of Industrialized Building Systems (IBS) in fabrication process. The paper supports BIM's implementation as AEC professionals' communication culture, effective cultural knowledge to mitigate knowledge loss, and key enabler for fabrication in a project. The paper concludes that despite having competent technological support, fabrication efficiency is still much affected by cultural knowledge between professionals during design phase which could affect production of waste in IBS construction. The result is expected to improve AEC collaboration knowledge during sustainable development through efficient environmental management during an industrialized project lifecycle.

One of the key features of green office buildings is the proper utilization of daylight in order to ensure a good visual indoor environment which can potentially increase the occupant's productivity. However, poor daylight condition inside office buildings can occur due to improper positioning of window blinds by the occupants. Previous studies have shown that fully lowered window blinds and the use of the artificial lightings during daytime have caused many office buildings in Malaysia to have high rates of electricity consumption. Yet, the operation of window blinds is rarely considered during the calculation of building's daylight performance in the tropics. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the frequency of window blind operations by office occupants and the driving factors behind their window blind operations. A GBI Goldcertified office building was selected for the study. The specific objectives of this paper are, 1) to find out the correlation between window blind operations with different orientations of the building, sky conditions, time and floor levels; and 2) to gauge the occupants' views on their window blind operations and also their satisfaction level with their visual working environment. This study used time-lapse photography to record the blinds positions and a questionnaire survey among the occupants. Results of the ANOVA and Pearson Correlation tests from the photographic analysis found a strong correlation between window blind occlusion values with the building orientations and floor levels, but not with time. The survey results revealed that most of the participants seldom adjusted their window blinds and, in most cases, excessive brightness or glare was the main issue. These results indicate that the occupants make a little effort in changing their blind positions, which may lead to a poor daylight condition. It is expected that the results of this study will serve as the initial steps in considering occupants' behaviour in window blinds usage during the calculation process of a building's daylight performance in order to ensure a better indoor visual environment.

With over a third of global energy used for building construction and operation, an optimum design for building envelopes is essential to improve the energy performance of the existing buildings. This study revealed that typical government high-rise office buildings in Malaysia have an average Building Energy Intensity (BEI) of 161 kWh/m2/year before any upgrading works on the air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems were conducted. This value is higher than the recommended value in Green Building Index (GBI) for commercial office buildings (150 kWh/m2/year) and the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) standard for public buildings (140 kWh/m2/year). Therefore, this study employed a case study approach combined with calibrated computer simulation to determine the optimal building envelope retrofit strategies and identify the three levels of interventions (minor, moderate and major levels) with corresponding energy reduction. A validated model representing a typical existing government high-rise office building in Malaysia was chosen as the base case model for energy evaluation studies. The effectiveness of each level of intervention and its energy retrofit measures (ERMs) were evaluated compared to the actual electricity bills. The results showed that all levels of interventions provided between 4% to 7% savings in annual energy consumption. The proposed interventions demonstrated compliance with the BEI benchmark margins of the GBI and EPU standard, namely 116 kWh/m2/year (minor intervention level), 113 kWh/m2/year (moderate intervention level), and 110 kWh/m2/year (major intervention level).

This study investigates the natural ventilation provisions of residential buildings in the hot