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This paper illustrates the development of a system dynamics model to predict the sustainability of small medium enterprises (SMEs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic did impact the country's economy, especially on SMEs on both the supply and demand perspectives. SMEs struggled to maintain their business operation during this pandemic era. To survive in the new norm, SMEs must be adaptable and innovative. Thus, this study utilizes system dynamics modelling to analyze the sustainability of SMEs' business activity in Malaysia. The causal loop diagram (CLD) is developed to represent the dynamic hypothesis of the system behavior. Next the CLD is transformed to a stock and flow diagram (SFD) with model equations to simulate the system behavior. Later, few interventions are conducted to improve the sustainability of SMEs. The research finding shows that by utilizing online business platform, and financial aid provided by the government will improve the sustainability of SMEs in Malaysia. The SD-based analysis provides unique and valuable insights on how to better identify and make strategic choices when responding to future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has been a significant concern in development and construction upon the rising environmental issues around the globe. As such, efforts have been made to come up with sustainable construction via the invention of sustainable housing. The sustainable concept is extended to housing as demand for sustainability development for energy saving. However, high prices of houses have been denoted as an issue in the housing industry. As conventional development is already associated with high costs and high prices, houses with sustainable features are offered and sold at even higher prices. This worsens affordability, which is already a problem in Malaysia. This paper explores sustainable affordable housing via a combination review of issues and challenges. This investigation sets to accomplish two objectives. Firstly, it includes studying issues concerning sustainable affordable housing. The second objective covers a detailed identifying the challenges of implementing sustainable affordable housing and gaps of this area of study around the globe. This paper structurally investigates the literature from valid databases and eminent journals from 2004 to 2018 in matters related to issues and challenges sustainable affordable housing. As very limited work has been carried out in the areas of issues and challenges of implementing sustainable affordable housing, this paper fills this knowledge gap in the context of a structured review. The findings of the research are critically discussed in light of the literature. In conclusion, the commitment of an organization or construction industry and the government will lead to actions that will accelerate the move towards sustainable development of the housing sector, especially affordable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialized Building System (IBS) is a method of construction with concentrated practices consist of techniques, products and a set of linked elements which operate collectively to accomplish objectives. The Industrialized Building System (IBS) has been recognized as a viable method for improving overall construction performance in terms of quality, cost, safety and health, waste reduction, and productivity. Malaysian construction industry considered as one of contributors towards the development of the country. The acceptance level of IBS is still below government expectation. Thus, Malaysian government has been continuously encouraging the industry to use and implement IBS. Conventional systems have several drawbacks, including project delays, low economic efficiency, excess inventory, and poor product quality. When it comes to implementing IBS, construction companies still face a number of obstacles and problems, notably in terms of contractual and procurement concerns, which leads to the low adoption of IBS in Malaysia. There are barriers to the acceptance of IBS technology, focused on awareness of historical failure and risks connected to IBS practices to provide enhanced performance. Therefore, transformation from the existing conventional building systems to the industrialized building systems (IBS) is needed more than ever. Flexibility of IBS in Malaysia's construction industry is very low due to numerous shortcomings and obstacles. Due to its environmental, economic, and social benefits, IBS could play a significant role in the Malaysian construction industry in the future. This paper concentrates on the potential role of IBS to sustainable construction practices in Malaysia. It also highlights the awareness, barriers, advantages, and disadvantages of IBS in construction sector. The study concludes with recommendations for the Malaysian construction stakeholders to encourage and increase the utilization of industrialized building systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the recent decades, green technology policy has been widely discussed amongst academic scholars, industrial practitioners and policy makers. It is still considered as one of the significant features in regards to global sustainable consumption and production in many countries. Malaysia is no exception, to which the concept of green technology is still in its infancy as compared to that of developed nations. To this day, green technology, and inevitably its policies, have faced obstacles such as a lack of local expertise and minimal government initiatives, which in turn results in a lack of market demand towards sustainable production and consumption of green products and services. This article provides a comprehensive review of green technology and related policies that could provide a basis for further research in addressing the said concerns. Three questions are proposed in this paper, creating the foundation for conducting a research with regards to the importance of green technology policy within Malaysia, the challenges faced in its implementation, as well as its effectiveness against that of other developing countries. This in turn could potentially contribute towards the nation's progressive growth of national sustainable consumption and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to raise a concern about the context and framework that social entrepreneurship in environmental sustainability. Social entrepreneurship for sustainability to go further other than organization because of social entrepreneurship have social value and innovative idea in environmental sustainability goal. By discussing the historical backgrounds of this issues to achieve environmental sustainability goal. One objective of social entrepreneurship is to ensure that the solving of social problem. This study, therefore attempted to examine the relationship between social entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability in Malaysia. The paper therefore, recommends environmental sustainability review in order to involve social entrepreneurship social values to the community. A conclusion is made that if environmental sustainability framework is properly implemented and all the associated advantages harnessed, the high level of environmental pollution in the country will be drastically reduced. In this regard, all community worldwide should actively embrace and sustain the spirit of the emerging social entrepreneurship. For example, entrepreneurial development in Nigerian higher institutions of learning can begin by encouraging the students to replicate the products that have been invented elsewhere in any part of the world while effort is then made to create what the world will also copy from them. This can be attained through community in Malaysia also. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability is the study of how a natural system functions, remains diverse and produces everything it needs for the ecology to remain in balance. Sustainability considers how we might live in harmony with the natural world around us, protecting it from damage and destruction. Today, we live in a modern and largely urban existence throughout the developed world and consume a large amount of natural resources every day. Sustainability and sustainable development focuses on balancing that fine line between competing needs to move forward technologically and economically, and the needs to protect the environment in which we and others live. While Malaysia has been pegged among the top Electric & Electronic manufacturer worldwide, E-waste has continued to become a known problem across the globe. The objective of this paper is to identify the impact of the environmental sustainability implementation as well as to determine specific collaboration between vendor and suppliers in handling the environmental issue in a case study, named Company A. A series of interview session were conducted for data collection in the company. The narrative content of interviews and open-end survey questions was then analyzed for key patterns. From the data obtained, it was observed that major contributions towards sustainability come through strategic collaboration between both vendor and suppliers in maintaining their environmental requirement aspects. A positive data trend was identified to conclude the efficiency of this collaboration. The analyzed data revealed that effective implementation of environmental sustainability in industry will not only be advantageous to the earth as a whole, but it will also prove to be highly beneficial for the company itself. One of the obvious advantages for the company is the cost reduction when recycling and reusing processes are being implemented. Reducing the environmental impact of business will improve the sustainability in business. If a company is less dependent on natural resources as compared to its competitors and has means to deal with rising costs due to climate change, the business will have a greater chance of long-term survival and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National recycling programme has been launched in the year 1993 and then re-launched in the year 2000; however, the recycling rate is at a very low level in Malaysia. The solid waste generation has been increasing due to population growth, rapid growth of economy, urbanization and changes in lifestyle. Hence solid waste management is challenging in Malaysia. Currently, most of the solid wastes are disposed in landfills as it is one of the cheaper and easier methods in Malaysia. However, the landfills have reached a maximum and critical level due to high volume of solid waste generation. Meanwhile, most of the landfills are open dumping sites, which has caused environmental pollution. New landfill sites are difficult to identify as they have been rejected by the local community, such as the Bukit Payong landfill. Nevertheless, recycling is the most convenient method to reduce the solid waste disposal in landfills. Many recycling programmes have been conducted to achieve the recycling target, including the mandatory waste segregation at source programme. Many researchers have studied the failure in sustainability of recycling programmes aimed to increase the recycling rate in Malaysia. Therefore, this research paper is based on the conceptual framework findings from the literature review of recycling programmes and aims to develop a recycling programme based on integration approaches of good governance practices, functions of management, and the PDCA concept. The integration approaches of good governance practices, functions of management and PDCA concept will be used in recycling programme formulation. All stakeholders shall be involved in the recycling programmes formulation at each stage of planning, implementation, monitoring, and improvement. The continuous improvement cycle shall be practiced in the recycling programmes for sustainability. This framework of recycling programme formulation will act as a guideline for other environmental programmes in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Information Modeling is an innovative technology coupled with process and human interactions. BIM has been used by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry in developed and developing countries including Malaysia. The reason for having BIM in practice triggered by the Director of Public Works Department (PWD) in 2009; who urged construction companies to adopt ICT to enhance productivity and efficiency. This paper aims to explore the BIM implementation in Malaysian Construction Industry. A literature review was carried out to explore on existing BIM implementation that includes definitions, BIM applications, BIM benefits and BIM future challenges. The data collected from various sources such as books, journal articles, conference papers and material available on the Internet, which related to BIM. The review highlights on several BIM benefits regarding financial, better information, communication and coordination, respond to complexity, improved visual, improved sustainability, improved safety and also create service's or business's opportunities. Nevertheless, implementing BIM is not without challenges although it gains attention from many countries. Some issues regarding culture, technology, process and policy for the construction stakeholders, organizations and policymaker have been raised to take up the challenges for effective BIM implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently, Water Footprint (WF) Approach has been used to assess the sustainability of a product's chain globally but is lacking in the services sector. Thus, this paper aims to introduce WF assessment as a technical approach to determine the sustainability of water supply management for the typical water supply treatment process (WSTP) used in Malaysia. Water supply is one of the pertinent services and most of WF accounting begins with data obtained from the water supply treatment plant. Therefore, the amount of WF will be accounted for each process of WSTP in order to determine the water utilization for the whole process according to blue, green and grey WF. Hence, the exact amount of water used in the process can be measured by applying this accounting method to assess the sustainability of water supply management in Malaysia. Therefore, the WF approach in assessing sustainability of WSTP could be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2010-2015) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), nuclear energy was identified as a potential long-term option to be explored for electricity generation in Peninsular Malaysia. The energy sector in Malaysia currently faces several concerns including depleting domestic gas supply which will affect security and reliability of supply as well as overdependance on fossil fuels - mainly gas and imported coal, and nuclear energy may offer a possible solution to these issues as well as global climate change concern. Pursuing the nuclear option, Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) is undertaking a series of comprehensive studies to facilitate an informed Government decision on the matter. This paper aims to discuss the many challenges towards the peaceful use of nuclear energy for electricity generation in the context of the New Energy Policy 2010 to achieve a balanced and sustainable energy mix. This effort will continue in the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020) with emphasis on implementing a comprehensive communications plan and public awareness programme for the potential use of nuclear energy in the future. In analysing the challenges for the development of nuclear energy in Malaysia, the traditional triple bottom line (TBL) framework for sustainability, encompassing economic, social and environmental objectives is utilized. An additional factor, technical, is also included in the analysis to provide a more holistic view. It is opined that the main challenges of developing nuclear energy for electricity generation in a newcomer country like Malaysia can be attributed primarily to domestic non-technical factors compared to the technical factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homestay is one of the government's products that promote the cultural tourism of country around the world. Homestay in Malaysia is not only thriving, but also its operation is moving gradually toward development of economic growth. Many homestays have been built throughout the country and this will give tourists an opportunity to enjoy the different and interesting environment in Malaysia. However, most of them receive less support from tourists and only certain numbers of homestays have operated consistently. This paper examines eleven sustainability criteria for homestay programme in Malaysia covering environmental, economic and sociocultural dimensions. The required data were collected through a survey of 246 homestay operators using a structured questionnaire. Data obtained was analyzed by utilizing percentage and arithmetic average. The findings revealed that the three most important criteria for homestay to remain sustained in this business area are ability and capacity, leadership and conservation of community resources. In order to improve the business performance of homestays in this country, homestay operators should focus on improving their ability and capacity and focus on enhancing their leadership skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good quality products or services are no longer adequate to guarantee the sustainability of a company in the present competitive business. Prior research has developed various innovation models with the hope to better understand the innovativeness of the company. Due to countless definitions, indicators, factors, parameter and approaches in the study of innovation, it is difficult to ensure which one will best suit the Malaysian-owned company innovativeness. This paper aims to provide a theoretical background to support the framework of the innovation value chain capability in Malaysian-owned Company. The theoretical framework was based on the literature reviews, expert interviews and focus group study. The framework will be used to predict and assess the innovation value chain capability in Malaysian-owned company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]