An analysis of the consciousness, initiatives and challenges of sustainable development at Seremban City Council

Abstract

The concept of sustainable development has been in existence since the 1980s. Since adopting Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in 2015 by the United Nations, Malaysia has taken initiatives to implement this agenda. Local governments are regarded as one of their most crucial implementation partners in implementing Sustainable Development Goals. However, after half a decade of implementing Sustainable Development Goals in a local setting, there are still uncertainties over its comprehension, interpretation, and apprehensions. This research sought to analyse the consciousness, initiatives and challenges of sustainable development at Seremban City Council. The research’s objectives are identifying the sustainability consciousness factors among Seremban City Council employees, assessing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals initiatives and identifying the challenges of executing the Sustainable Development Goals initiatives at the Seremban City Council. This research employed a mixed-method approach to achieve its research objective. A total of 291 Seremban City Council employees were randomly selected to analyse the sustainability consciousness through exploratory factor analysis. The use of exploratory factor analysis was justified as there was a lack of theoretical underpinnings of sustainability consciousness. Additionally, five prominent employees were selected to analyse the challenges of implementing Sustainable Development Goals initiatives at Seremban City Council via thematic analysis, while the sustainable development initiatives were analysed through content analysis. The initiatives were identified from official documents from 2017 to 2019. Two instruments were developed to collect data; the first instrument was a self-administered questionnaire adopted from previous studies, and the second was an interview for the semi-structured interview. The findings indicated three principal sustainability consciousness components; the knowledge and attitude toward sustainable development, the socio-economic behaviour toward sustainable development and the environmental behaviour toward sustainable development. The findings also indicated that 104 sustainable development initiatives were implemented at Seremban City Council, of which 46 were conducted by the Planning Development Department. Also, the Seremban City Council place the most significant concern on Target 11.7 of the SDG11. Finally, this research would assert that Seremban City Council faced four main challenges; sustainability consciousness, project management, financial and governance challenges in implementing these initiatives. These results demonstrate the accomplishment of this research’s aim and objectives.