Certification for Green Project Managers (GPM) in the Malaysian Construction Industry: Analysis of Success Factors

Abstract

Since the 19th century, the sustainability concept has grown rapidly especially in terms of recognition and the issues of achieving it have been addressed by the construction players. The Construction Industry Transformation Plan (CITP) aims by the year 2020 to develop the Malaysian construction industry into an environmentally sustainable construction industry to a point that it can eventually be rolled out as a model to the emerging world. In order to achieve it, the Project Manager’s involvement is important when confronting sustainable issues. Therefore, Malaysia has launched its first National Green Project Managers (GPM) Awards in 2015. Although it has been two years, the promotion of certification of GPM is still lacking. Hence, the aim of this paper is to determine the success factors of promoting certified GPM in the Malaysian construction industry. Using a questionnaire survey of 30 respondents, comprising of Project Directors, General Managers and Project Managers, this research focuses on three (3) objectives which are to : (a) explore the need of certified GPM; (b) identify the limitations of promoting certified GPM; (c) establish the success factors of promoting certified GPM in Malaysian construction projects. From the analysis using SPSS, this research discovered the top reason GPMs are needed in the construction industry is because of the responsibilities of GPMs to ensure successful delivery of green development goals. However, there are a number of barriers to promoting certified GPM, which include limited training for Project Managers that touch on sustainability elements. To date, a private sector organization, known as Bridgit, is the sole provider of specific training in GPM in Malaysia. Therefore, training for Project Managers is important to provide them with the necessary skill and knowledge towards becoming certified GPM and turn to achieve as a true success factor. Finally, the outcome of this research will become a baseline to promote certification of GPM in the future.