How far are we from the Green Mark?

Greening Malaysia: Ir Looi Hip Peu, president of the Malaysia Green Building Confederation (MGBC) is an advocate of green buildings in Malaysia. Having given a presentation at the IGBC 2012 conference co-organised in conjunction with Build Eco Xpo (BEX) Asia in Singapore, he said Malaysia is one of the fastest growing countries in terms of greening its buildings.

He anticipates local authorities will be significant drivers of the promotion of green buildings, adding that some authorities are now making the GBI certification mandatory.

Ir Looi Hip Peu, president, MGBC

How is Malaysia progressing in terms of greening its buildings?

As of February 2013, Malaysia achieved a total certified green space of 45,763,830 sq ft. The first 32.3 million sq ft certified green space was reached within three years in 2012. The next 32.3 million sq ft is expected to be achieved in the next one year, reaching a total of 64.6 million sq ft certified green space by October 2013.

We are therefore poised to achieve this target. The Green Building movement represented by MGBC saw its membership grow from about 20 in 2009 to 380 members currently, of which 90 comprise industry partners. This makes it one of the largest Green Building Councils in this region.

How has Malaysia taken off in terms of green buildings as compared to Singapore‘s growth of its green building movement ?

In Singapore, the Green Mark certification is mandatory for all new projects. This legislation means existing buildings will have to be retrofitted to achieve the Green Mark certification.

The incorporation of green building”standards is a worldwide trend. Many states in the US like California now include elements of green building in their building approval. In the UK, many local councils (Borough of London, Dover District Council, Brighton, Hove, etc.) include mandatory energy performance of buildings and thermal standards for the building envelope.

In Malaysia, the revision to the Uniform Building By Laws (Malaysia) or UBBL (of which Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia members were involved since 2010) has been approved and is currently waiting to be gazetted by the individual states.

The revisions include mandatory thermal performance of the building envelope and roof areas as well as rainwater harvesting that have already been gazetted in three states - Perak, Selangor and Johor.

Are we doing enough to counteract the carbon footprint? What more can be done in terms of concrete steps taken by developers?

What we have done is only the first step. Green buildings are only part of the issue.

Other issues require ac tive participation by government planners. For example, transportation is a major source of carbon emission of up to 40 per cent. Unfortunately, our public transportation planning is not up to mark. Developers are mostly driven by marketing trends.

Currently “green” is seen to be purely a marketing play. Developers who aspire to “world-class” (and who usually have large foreign portfolios) are major embracers of the green initiative. However, legislation may now be enacted to “encourage” lower-tier developers to start engaging in the green movement.

Future trends toward accelerating the green initiative include the carbon benchmarking system, eco-labels (MGBC is currently working with SIRIM or Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia on this) and mandatory requirements for green features.

Hopefully, the government can get moving on a national green transportation masterplan.

This already has some support on the ground as many municipalities are mulling affordable public transportation systems.

 Global benchmark: Mahesh Ramanujam, chief operating officer of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and president of the Green Building Certification Institute gave a global perspective on energy efficiency, sustainability and green buildings at Carrier Malaysia’s first Sustainability Lecture Series held in KL recently. This follows the launch of the lecture series in Brazil and the Middle East since 2011.

Maintaining that the sustainable development of a nation requires collaboration between the government, private sector and the people, he said that his dream is to see “every building in the world” become a green building for everyone in this generation to enjoy.

Commending Malaysia on its 20th position in the world in terms of total LEED certified space, he said this global standard for green buildings developed by the USGBC consists of rating systems for design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighbourhoods.

“The biggest challenge for Malaysia is in educating and creating awareness on sustainable development. Professionals, building owners and even bankers need to realise that constructing a green building is not an additional expense but an investment into the future.

Mahesh Ramanujam, COO, USGBC

“A green building will reduce both the overall operating costs and carbon footprint. In the long term, the value of the building will increase so there needs to be a transformation of mindsets towards sustainability,” he said, adding that sustainable development is not a choice but a necessity.

How far is Malaysia from the green mark from a global perspective?

The global green building market is being driven, rapidly, by the business case. 61 per cent of firms globally will be doing 60 per cent or more green projects by 2015. New commercial construction is driving future green growth — 63 per cent have planned green projects by 2015 (higher in Brazil, Singapore, UAE and Australia).

The top triggers for green building(s) are client and market demands. These triggers have remained consistently high over the past four years.

In Malaysia, there are over 26 million sq ft of green buildings that have been developed over the past three years. Malaysia currently has 15 LEED certified buildings and 281 listed GBI buildings. That is impressive and based on current global trends, the rate will only increase.

Malaysia is on track. The Prime Minister has contended in the 10th Malaysia Plan that Malaysia’s wealth of natural resources, including oil, gas and water, can only be protected through adequate economic valuation.

The plan also calls for the introduction of a feed-in tariff to help finance renewable energy projects, the development of financial incentives for green technology investments and green building construction, implementation of eco-tourism practices and the creation of public-private partnerships for endangered species conservation.

Additionally, Malaysia’s government income tax deduction incentive for GBI-certified buildings is bound to have an impact on the number of green buildings we see in Malaysia in the near future. The Malaysian government is clearly committed to public policies that support the green building movement.

Comment on the progress of the green movement in Malaysia.

Although in the past Malaysia has been known as a “Tiger Cub,” following in the footsteps of Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Malaysia’s recent high economic growth rate has some economists arguing that it could be a “fifth Asian Tiger” in the years to come.

Yet throughout this growth, Malaysia has perfected the art of living simply to survive the scarce times from the past. Applying this knowledge during today’s booming growth grants Malaysia the opportunity to help set the standard for sustainable growth.

What about the global green movement?

The green building movement, LEED in particular, has become the language of sustainability leaders. LEED also beautifully reflects what we are doing to make this world a better place for all. There’s been a rapid increase in Green Building Councils around the world.

40 per cent of the square footage of LEED projects in the last two years have come from outside the US . Thanks to the efforts of the Green Building movement in the past 10 to 15 years, the green building industry is now a trillion dollar industry.

How important is it to address sustainability?

It is a global imperative. As cities have become spectacular in size, they have also become enormous generators of greenhouse gas emissions. Larger cities have a ravenous appetite for energy, consuming two-thirds of the world’s energy and creating over 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions. The financial effects of climate change caused by these emissions can be just as devastating as the physical ones. Unexpected expenditures from storms, flooding, snow removal and drought can lead to major disruptions in business operations and city budgets.

These challenges represent opportunities to transform our cities into the safe, healthy, inclusive, smart, economically productive, efficient, equitable, sustainable, responsive and resilient place(s) we need them to be.

We are continuing to focus not just on buildings, but entire building portfolios, rating systems, performance benchmarks as well as building automation for energy and water use. It is important to note that sustainability is not just better buildings or good design, it’s simply about not taking any more than we need, and to make sure there is enough to go around.

Read more: LANDSCAPE: How far are we from the green mark? - RED - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/red/landscape-how-far-are-we-from-the-green-mark-1.239169#ixzz2OlIl7Mr5