Youth Perception on Climate Change and Sustainable Consumption

This paper reviews the awareness level of youth on climate change issues by exploring how youth views climate change and their reaction to it. The paper also explores the social dimensions of climate change and how to promote energy-saving behaviour. This paper adopted the PRISMA systematic review methodology in selecting research articles from two scientific web databases: Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). 38 research papers were examined in-depth and categorised into three themes, youth and sustainable consumption; the impact of social media on youth’s awareness; and the role of support systems such as parents, educational institutions, and peers. From this review, we summarised that the youth have a relatively elevated level of knowledge regarding the climate change crisis due to the vast and readily available information from the internet and the increasingly popular social media platforms. Our findings suggest that future research should focus on surrounding support systems that can enhance youth motivation in combating climate change. Furthermore, providing knowledge and information on climate change alone is no longer sufficient; instead, the youth want to be informed of the actions they can immediately partake in

Youth Perception on Climate Change and Sustainable Consumption

This paper reviews the awareness level of youth on climate change issues by exploring how youth views climate change and their reaction to it. The paper also explores the social dimensions of climate change and how to promote energy-saving behaviour. This paper adopted the PRISMA systematic review methodology in selecting research articles from two scientific web databases: Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). 38 research papers were examined in-depth and categorised into three themes, youth and sustainable consumption; the impact of social media on youth’s awareness; and the role of support systems such as parents, educational institutions, and peers. From this review, we summarised that the youth have a relatively elevated level of knowledge regarding the climate change crisis due to the vast and readily available information from the internet and the increasingly popular social media platforms. Our findings suggest that future research should focus on surrounding support systems that can enhance youth motivation in combating climate change. Furthermore, providing knowledge and information on climate change alone is no longer sufficient; instead, the youth want to be informed of the actions they can immediately partake in

Implementing Energy Efficiency Standard in Buildings: Occupants Awareness and Challenges

There is an urgent need for the Malaysian building sector to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, in reaching Malaysia’s target in the reduction of 45% carbon emission by 2030 pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). In proving Malaysia’s commitment to the United Nations, the 3rd biennial report to the UNFCCC has indicated several mitigation actions including executing the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), among others. NEEAP has targeted 5 key initiatives in which one of them identifies incorporating energy efficiency (EE) strategies in new buildings. Malaysian Standard MS 1525: 2019 for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings is a voluntary standard, providing the criteria and minimum standards for EE in the design of new buildings and retrofit of existing buildings. Recommended as a reference for stakeholders concerning EE in buildings, this study focuses on identifying the occupants’ awareness level and further elaborates on the challenges and strategies when the standard is imposed within their premises. The methodology applied was a quantitative study targeting employees as respondents in a city council. The findings from the questionnaire survey distributed will ascertain how the MS 1525: 2019 can help increase the level of awareness as well as identify the challenges and issues pertaining to the EE agenda and strategize the effective implementation of the standard. At the moment, EE regulation is limited and focuses on consumer consumption. Therefore, this study will propose recommendations extracted from the findings which would mainly focus on consumer awareness, towards the betterment of EE regulations in Malaysian buildings

Implementing Energy Efficiency Standard in Buildings: Occupants Awareness and Challenges

There is an urgent need for the Malaysian building sector to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, in reaching Malaysia’s target in the reduction of 45% carbon emission by 2030 pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). In proving Malaysia’s commitment to the United Nations, the 3rd biennial report to the UNFCCC has indicated several mitigation actions including executing the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), among others. NEEAP has targeted 5 key initiatives in which one of them identifies incorporating energy efficiency (EE) strategies in new buildings. Malaysian Standard MS 1525: 2019 for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings is a voluntary standard, providing the criteria and minimum standards for EE in the design of new buildings and retrofit of existing buildings. Recommended as a reference for stakeholders concerning EE in buildings, this study focuses on identifying the occupants’ awareness level and further elaborates on the challenges and strategies when the standard is imposed within their premises. The methodology applied was a quantitative study targeting employees as respondents in a city council. The findings from the questionnaire survey distributed will ascertain how the MS 1525: 2019 can help increase the level of awareness as well as identify the challenges and issues pertaining to the EE agenda and strategize the effective implementation of the standard. At the moment, EE regulation is limited and focuses on consumer consumption. Therefore, this study will propose recommendations extracted from the findings which would mainly focus on consumer awareness, towards the betterment of EE regulations in Malaysian buildings

The urban women travelling issue in the twenty-first century

Mobility generally refers to the ability or capacity to move. The subject of women's mobility has been well documented and investigated by researchers since the 1970s. Early studies were initially inspired by the issue of gender-based violence encountered by women. At the same time, there is increasing research on women transportation mobility due to the increasing percentage of women working and travelling outside the house. However, there is an absence of studies that adopted a systematic review of studies related to women's mobility. The increase of women working in the 21st century has led to an increase in the percentage of women travelling, thus engendering issues such as safety, security, mobility and accessibility. This paper attempted to identify studies related to women's mobility in the 21st century from the year 2001 until the year of 2020 by using a systematic literature review, guided by Preferred Reporting Materials for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses, also known as the PRISMA Statement, to further understand the scenario of urban women travelling in the global context. This paper reviews previous studies conducted in the 21st century, revealing slight variations of focus among the authors on the urban women travelling issue.Abstrak. Mobilitas umumnya mengacu pada kemampuan atau kapasitas untuk bergerak. Subjek 'Mobilitas Wanita' telah didokumentasikan dan diteliti dengan baik oleh para peneliti sejak tahun 1970-an. Studi terdahulu awalnya terinspirasi dari isu-isu kekerasan berbasis gender yang dihadapi perempuan. Sementara itu, penelitian tentang mobilitas transportasi perempuan semakin meningkat karena meningkatnya persentase perempuan yang bekerja dan pindah ke luar rumah. Namun, belum ada penelitian yang mengadopsi tinjauan sistematis pada artikel terkait studi terkait mobilitas perempuan. Meningkatnya jumlah perempuan yang bekerja di abad ke-21 juga meningkatkan persentase perempuan yang bepergian sehingga menggambarkan banyak masalah antara lain keselamatan, keamanan, mobilitas dan aksesibilitas. Oleh karena itu, tulisan ini mencoba mengidentifikasi kajian-kajian yang berkaitan dengan mobilitas perempuan abad ke-21 dari tahun 2001 hingga tahun 2020 dengan menggunakan Systematic Literature Review yang berpedoman pada Preferred Reporting Materials for Systematic Reviews dan Meta Analysis atau yang lebih dikenal dengan PRISMA Statement untuk memahami lebih jauh skenario perjalanan wanita perkotaan dalam perspektif global. Makalah ini mengulas penelitian sebelumnya yang dilakukan pada abad ke-21 yang telah ditafsirkan dan diuraikan dengan sedikit variasi fokus di antara penulis tentang isu perjalanan wanita perkotaan. Kata kunci. mobilitas wanita, tinjauan literatur sistematis, perjalanan, abad ke-21

The impact of vertical greenery system on building thermal performance in tropical climates

The thermal benefits of Vertical Greenery System (VGS) in providing thermal comfort, reducing internal building temperature, and lowering operational energy consumption are not widely known. There is a lack of research and technical knowledge on the effects of vertical greenery systems related to thermal performance, especially in tropical climates, such as that of Malaysia. Therefore, this paper addresses this gap by investigating the effect of VGS on heat transfer and the thermal performance of hypothetical buildings. In this paper, a data prediction method is used to identify the overall thermal transfer value (OTTV) from several hypothetical case studies. A variety of combinations of variables have been used to identify the best design with the lowest OTTV reduction through VGS. From the calculation, Linear Greenery System achieved the highest OTTV reduction with an average of 6.87%, followed by Modular Green Wall (6.82%), Double-skin Green Facades (2.97%), and Direct Green Facades (1.32%). Therefore, this paper can conclude that Linear Green Wall is the best greenery system for reducing heat transfer for the tropical climate of Malaysia

Review of Coronavirus transmission in urban clusters: Survival in Water and Wastewater Systems

The ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected over 58 million people and claimed over 1.58 millions deaths globally (as of 11th December 2020) since its first outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Initially, the numbers of infected patients and death was largely contained in China with 98% of all confirmed infected cases. However, the increased rate of new infected cases outside of China like United States, Italy, and Spain raises questions on the virus characteristics and its routes of transmission. Although the main transmission modes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are through direct contact and respiratory droplet/aerosol inhalation, current studies stipulate that SARS-CoV-2 RNA is found in sewerage, suggesting the potential transmission of SARS-COV-2 through wastewater systems. This paper seeks to review potential exposure routes of SARS-COV-2 in urban environments, the survival rate of coronaviruses that pose human health risks, and to provide relevant safety recommendations to reduce the impact of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need for wastewater effluent and water treatment supply epidemiology surveillance, especially in developing countries with subpar wastewater treatment systems and infrastructure to reduce human and ecological risks to protect populations from infectious diseases outbreak

Environmental assessment schemes for non-domestic building refurbishment in the Malaysian context

The increase in global warming, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions has gained attention in various regions. In Malaysia, the government announced a voluntary commitment to reduce 40% of CO 2 emissions by 2020 and to refurbish 100 government buildings. Existing buildings make a large contribution to energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, therefore refurbishing existing buildings is an essential strategy to achieve the commitment. There is no single assessment scheme for building refurbishment in Malaysia and hence, this study aims to develop a comprehensive list of assessment themes and sub-themes for building refurbishment purposes. It examines and compares 10 assessment schemes from various countries: BREEAM, LEED, CASBEE, BEAM Plus, GBLS, Green Star, HQE, Green Mark, GBI and MyCrest. The findings revealed fourteen themes that were considered for assessment: management, sustainable site, transport, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), water, waste, material, energy, pollution, innovation, economic, social, culture and quality of services. Energy and IEQ are dominant themes in all assessment schemes. Most of the schemes are considered relatively weak in evaluating economic and social aspects, in comparison to environmental aspects. The assessment of quality of services is overlooked in most of the schemes, including GBI and MyCrest in Malaysia. Outcomes from this paper will form the baseline for a new environmental assessment scheme that aimed at non-domestic building refurbishments in Malaysia. A new model is proposed for the development of an environmental assessment scheme in the further stage

Energy Prediction versus Energy Performance of Green Buildings in Malaysia. Comparison of Predicted and Operational Measurement of GBI Certified Green Office in Kuala Lumpur

Forward from the sustainability agenda of Brundtland in 1987 and the increasing demand for energy efficient buildings, the building industry has taken steps in meeting the challenge of reducing its environmental impact. Initiatives such as ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ design have been at the forefront of architecture, while green assessment tools have been used to predict the energy performance of building during its operational phase. However, there is still a significant hap between predicted or simulated energy measurements compared to actual operational energy consumption, or is more commonly referred as the ‘performance gap’. This paper tries to bridge this gap by comparing measured operational energy consumption of a Green Building Index (GBI) certified office building in Kuala Lumpur, with its predicted energy rating qualification

Building Energy

<p>Mandatory building energy performance codes have been shown to be the most cost-efficient and effective policy instruments for reducing building energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, without mandatory and comprehensive energy efficiency policy, Malaysia faces locking in substantial inefficiencies, and higher than necessary climate change impacts from its building sector</p