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The aim of this paper is twofold: to delineate the results of the focus groups regarding volunteers and their needs; and to compare the results with pertinent literature regarding volunteerism to determine whether the motivating factors and needs of volunteers still need to be addressed by public health and other professional practitioners.

Focus groups were conducted with public health volunteers and content analysis was conducted to identity central themes.

Several important themes related to motivation and training emerged from the focus groups. These findings are supported by the sociological, psychological, management and administrative literature on volunteerism.

While qualitative, these findings emphasize factors of which public health and emergency management officials need to be cognizant as they prepare, plan and work with volunteers.

In order to retain volunteers' public health and emergency management, volunteer programs need to address the social, interpersonal, and educational desires of volunteers.

The perceptions, values, interests and motivation of public health volunteers were directly elicited in order to identify factors that facilitate volunteer participation in public health and emergency responses.

Sustainability in the built environment is rapidly gaining attention worldwide, although many developing countries have not accomplished much on the ground as many sustainability aspects still remain untreated. Despite their low greenhouse gas contributions to the globe, the high rate of construction activities that do not embrace sustainable practices in these countries pose challenges to the environment. Using the case of Tanzania, this study assesses the level of sustainability awareness among key stakeholders in the built environment.

The study uses a mixed-method research approach where primary data was collected using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with key informants comprising engineers, architects, property managers, property owners, property users and academicians from institutions of higher learning.

Results show that despite the potential for a sustainable built environment, there is a low level of awareness among key stakeholders. Whereas few architects, who were aware, admitted to have not incorporated sustainability aspects in their building design, other stakeholders did not have active roles in decision-making involving building construction projects. Compared to the rest, the awareness level of property users was the lowest. Lack of a specific policy or policy statement on sustainable building, high initial costs of sustainable building, few skilled professionals and lack of a broad choice of building materials are some of the factors accounting for the low level of sustainability adoption in the built environment.

The significance of this study lies within the objective of showing awareness levels of sustainability aspects among key built environment stakeholders and policymakers, which is important in devising strategies for promoting sustainable construction practices.