Implementation challenges of greening industry in Pasir Gudang

Abstract

Green industry is viewed as a potential alternative to promote energy efficiency, low-carbon, low waste, non-polluting activity and safety among industries in Malaysia especially Pasir Gudang. Despite that, Pasir Gudang is far behind in implementing greening of industries from other successful industrial cities around the globe such as Japan. In response to this, implementation of greening of industry in Malaysia needs to be emphasised in a comprehensive manner specifically related to sustainability. Besides, many recent studies related to greening of industry focused on industrial activities and not on the relationship between type of industry and implementation of the greening of industry itself. Thus, this study examined the association between the awareness status of greening of industry among industries in Pasir Gudang based on type of industry. This study identified the relationship between focus areas of greening of industry, encouraging factors and enabling factors that are related to the type of industry. Self-administered and online surveys were distributed to a sample of 202 industry representatives in Pasir Gudang and analysed using chisquare analysis. The results showed that the type of industry did not influence the level of awareness for implementing greening of industry. Meanwhile, it was found that the focus area is highly associated with type of industry. Results also showed that the type of industry is highly associated with the identified encouraging factors such as incentive policies, enhance competitiveness and requirement from stakeholders. Five out of the six enabling factors, namely financial support; incentives support; investment in resource efficient infrastructures; laws, regulations and standards; and developing skills were not directly related to the type of industry. However, the seventh factor, supporting local action was highly associated with type of industry. Based on these results, aspects to be improved by considering the needs from each type of industry comprised focus areas, encouraging factors and one aspect from the enabling factors, which is supporting local action. On the other hand, other aspects from the identified enabling factors, namely financial support; incentives support; investment in resource efficient infrastructures; laws, regulations and standards; and developing skills can be improved without taking into account the specific needs of each type of industry. To conclude, the results and findings from this research can be used as evidence to support intervention, policy making as well as future research to improve the implementation of greening of industry in Pasir Gudang.