Sustainable Development At Malaysian Local Governments : Staff's Awareness & Constraints

Abstract

Sustainable development is for the economical, societal and environmental sustainability for humankind to develop built environment. There are a lots of ways sustainability elements can be incorporated in services at local governments. Hence, capable staffs at local government are much needed. Importantly sustainability represents the link between society and built environment professionals. However, those links still unclear where built environment are still being developed in an unsustainable way and staff at local governments as well as society still unaware with the concept of sustainability. This gives huge impact to our environment and also human health. This paper focuses at the role of the Local Governments and how the staff play their roles towards sustainable development. This study involved interviews with 14 officers from 14 different Local Governments offices. The result shows that Local Governments‟ staffs need better understanding and awareness in acquiring and disseminating knowledge on sustainability. This study is to contribute to the enrichment of the role of Local Governments in the planning approval for sustainable development.