Integrating Sustainable Building Design Criteria to the Green Building Index (GBI) and MyCREST in Malaysia: Insights from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Sustainable building design is pivotal in mitigating environmental impacts and promoting energy efficiency. To support designers in achieving these goals, sustainable rating systems have been established globally according to the climate and suitability of each country including Malaysia. However, the proliferation of sustainable rating systems has led to a fragmented landscape of diverse standards. This poses challenges and confusion for stakeholders particularly designers in designing sustainable buildings which meet the sustainable rating systems requirement. Therefore, by utilizing a systematic review and meta-analysis approaches, this study attempts to align the sustainable building design criteria with the sustainable requirements in Malaysia’s rating systems namely Green Building Index (GBI) and Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool (MyCREST). By adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) framework, a rigorous search strategy was applied across the Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases, as well as sustainable guidelines, to identify the sustainable building design criteria which then systematically aligned with the primary sustainable criteria required in the rating systems. Finally, a meta-analysis approach was performed to synthesize the quantitative data and provide a consolidated view of the most critical and frequently cited sustainable building design criteria according to the primary sustainable criteria classification. This review offers a comprehensive alignment of sustainable building design criteria with Malaysia’s leading rating systems and serving as a fundamental reference for designers in integrating the sustainable practices into building design. It is hoped that this review will alleviate the confusion among designers, while also highlighting areas for improvement within the rating tools themselves to promote greater clarity, consistency, and integration of sustainability criteria in the country.