Abstract
Abstract Municipal net-zero initiatives in Malaysia are constrained by fragmented environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, uneven green-technology uptake, and weak performance measurement and coordination across municipal, regulatory, and knowledge actors. This matters because municipalities need an integrated, policy-aligned tool to prioritise interventions, coordinate stakeholders, and track progress toward net-zero targets. This study designs the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard for Net Zero Municipalities (SBSC-NZM) by integrating perspectives from Northern Malaysian municipal officers, Department of Environment (DOE) regulators, and sustainability academicians with Malaysian national and ASEAN policy frameworks. Using a qualitative exploratory design, data were triangulated for 18 semi-structured interviews with seven national and ASEAN policy documents. Thematic analysis of interviews and policy documents identified five cross-cutting themes: ESG institutionalisation, energy transition as a strategic backbone, uneven green-technology adoption, financial and capacity constraints, and underutilised community engagement which were synthesised and mapped into BSC perspectives to construct the SBSC-NZM Strategy Map. In this study, the Strategy Map is a causal logic model that shows how capabilities and governance processes translate into stakeholder outcomes and net-zero results. The SBSC-NZM links intended outcomes, key performance indicators (KPIs), data source, targets, and actionable initiatives across five perspectives: Learning & Growth, Internal Processes, Citizen/Society, Financial/Resources, and Net-Zero Outcomes. Overall, the SBSC-NZM offers Malaysian municipal leaders and regulators an operational scorecard to plan, monitor, and evaluate net-zero actions, and advances SBSC scholarship by operationalising multi-stakeholder municipal net-zero governance in an emerging-economy context.