Bamboo as a green building material: challenges from a Malaysia perspective

Despite bamboo's well-documented advantages as a sustainable construction material, including rapid renewability, high strength-to-weight ratio, and carbon sequestration capabilities, its global adoption remains limited to niche applications. Significant implementation barriers persist across technical, economic, and institutional domains, preventing bamboo from becoming a mainstream alternative to conventional materials like steel and concrete. These challenges range from material standardization issues and supply chain fragmentation to knowledge gaps among construction professionals and inadequate policy support, collectively constraining bamboo's potential to transform sustainable building practices despite its environmental benefits. Hence, this study identifies and analyzes the key barriers hindering bamboo's integration as a green building material within the construction industry. Adopting a quantitative research methodology, the study surveyed 100 practicing architects through a structured questionnaire to assess their perceptions of bamboo's viability. Data were analyzed using the Social Science Statistical Package (SPSS), employing descriptive statistics and mean score ranking to evaluate the critical challenges. The findings reveal three predominant obstacles lack of awareness regarding bamboo usage, unorganized supply chains, and difficulties in standardizing bamboo resources and usage. The study contributes novel empirical evidence by quantifying architects' perspectives for assessing sustainable material adoption. Practically, it provides policymakers with prioritized intervention targets, including awareness campaigns targeting construction professionals, supply chain optimization strategies, and the development of standardized grading systems. Academically, it offers baseline data for future research on bamboo's evolving role in green construction. By addressing these barriers, the construction industry can better align with global sustainability objectives and underscore the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration to transform bamboo from a niche material into a mainstream construction solution.