GREEN CAMPUS IMPLEMENTATION IN THE MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Green initiatives had been taken seriously by all parties including higher education institutions. Many researchers believed that university is an essential institution to find solutions to the complexities of current global environment issues. Indeed, university should be the key hubs for innovation and environmental education, as well as the execution of human behavioural change towards sustainability. Most universities worldwide nowadays including Malaysia starts to implement various green campus initiatives to combat global warming and fostering sustainable campus growth. However, there are several challenges encountered throughout the implementation. Thus, this research attempts to examine on the current green campus implementation practices in the Malaysian public universities. Three Malaysian public universities participating in the UI GreenMetric 2021 World University Ranking had been chosen as the case study. Each university is represented by a senior representative to participate in the semi-structured interview conducted. The interview questions were constructed based on the most common and relevant chosen indicators from all six categories of UI GreenMetric. The research findings revealed that although most Malaysian public universities had implemented green initiatives as outlined in the UI GreenMetric, numerous challenges occurred. But there are solutions to push green campus initiatives to the forefront. The university management and the communities should play major roles towards realizing Sustainable Development Goals, as well as assuring more sustainable practices in the future.