KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s construction industry is set to get a new digital platform to measure carbon emissions and provide evidence of reductions as sustainability reporting becomes increasingly important to businesses.
Called CTRAX, the platform is being developed by CI Tech Sdn. Bhd. in collaboration with CIDB Holdings Sdn. Bhd. (CIDBH), with Google Cloud Malaysia providing the cloud infrastructure.
The platform will bring together emissions data from construction projects and supply chains, allowing companies to track carbon performance and build an evidence trail for independent verification.
CIDB Malaysia Deputy Chief Executive (Operations) Datuk Ts Dr Gerald Sundaraj said the initiative would help address the need for greater confidence in carbon data across the construction value chain.
“CTRAX is about building trust in carbon data. By connecting material traceability, emissions measurement and verification across the construction value chain, we can give industry players credible information to reduce emissions and improve efficiency,” he said.
CI Tech executive chairman Datuk Mohd Hisham Ab Halim said the platform was intended to help companies move beyond sustainability commitments and demonstrate measurable results.
“Malaysia’s construction industry is being asked to become more sustainable, more transparent and more competitive. CTRAX will help turn that ambition into measurable evidence – and measurable evidence into trust and value,” he said.
The launch marks the start of efforts to adapt CTRAX for the construction sector and bring it to market.
The platform’s underlying technology has already been developed and pilot-tested for traceability applications. The next phase will involve technical development, engagement with industry players and onboarding initial anchor users, with support from CIDBH.
The first construction-sector rollout is expected in about six months.
Google Cloud Malaysia will provide the cloud infrastructure, supporting the platform’s security, privacy and scalability.
Google Cloud Malaysia country manager Hana Raja said cloud technology and artificial intelligence would enable CTRAX to process complex carbon data and turn it into evidence for reporting and verification.
“By hosting CTRAX on Google Cloud, we are delivering the robust security, privacy and scalability required for critical carbon credit reporting,” she said.
Peterson Consulting is supporting carbon baselining and decarbonisation planning, while Control Union will provide independent assurance and verification capabilities.
The developers stressed that CTRAX will not replace independent verification or recognised carbon standards. Instead, it will organise the underlying data and evidence needed to support those processes.
The platform will also take a “decarbonisation first” approach, focusing on helping organisations understand and reduce their emissions.
Any carbon credits generated from independently verified reductions would therefore be a potential outcome rather than the platform’s main purpose.
The initiative comes as Malaysia works towards a lower-carbon economy and pursues net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
For the construction sector, the goal is to make carbon performance easier to measure and demonstrate, while giving companies better data to support procurement, sustainability reporting and business decisions.
Image (from left): Hana, Gerald, Mohd Azizi Ali, CEO of CIDB Holdings Sdn Bhd; Govinda Retnavelu, CEO of CI Tech Sdn Bhd; Mohd Hisham, and Raja Azmi Adam, Director, Strategic Pursuit, Google Cloud (Public Sector), Asean.
