COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Green Rating Tools in Malaysia- Are we spoilt for choice?
By Ir. Chen Thiam Leong
The emergence of the modern day green rating tool can be traced back to 1990 with the birth of the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method( BREEAM 1). The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design( LEED 2) came along in 1998 and with typical Yankee marketing prowess, has since captured the lion’ s share of the global market. As the green movement spread, various national tools tailored to green criteria addressed and suited their respective local climatic needs and local priorities began to emerge. Meanwhile, the success of green awareness and its associated business opportunities led to the proliferation of rating tools, sometimes( unfortunately) in conjunction with serving other interests.
In Malaysia, it would appear that the public is spoilt for choice when it comes to green rating tools, often to the extent of being overwhelmed and confused by lobbyists. This article will try to provide some insight into the ongoing market development and hopefully the savvy users can distinguish between the serious green rating tools, greenwashing tools, KPI tools and the rest.
An interesting way to lead this discourse is with the following questions:
1. What is the latest count on the number of Green Rating tools in the market?
2. How many of these are developed for sustainability and how many otherwise?
3. What is the progress of Malaysia’ s own Green Building Index( GBI) since its launch in May 2009?
Number of Green Rating Tools
The following statistics will serve to provide a quick overview on Green Rating Tools worldwide:
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How many countries are there in the world? 196
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How many countries have their own Green Build( GB 3) tool? There are easily more than 50 tools in use within the World Green Building Council( WGBC’ s 4) roll call of 77 member countries and 30 potential member countries.
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Which country has developed the most number of their own GB / Green tools and how many? Though a late starter, Malaysians are certainly prolific green tool developers with the latest count standing at nine, namely:
26 VOL 69 JANUARY-MARCH 2017