1 Green Building Index( GBI: 2009- Buildings & Townships)
2 Low Carbon Cities Framework & Assessment System( LCCF: 2011- Municipality / State level)
3 MOTAC’ s Green Hotel Assessment Tool( 2011- Hotels & Resorts)
4 Green Performance Assessment System
( GreenPass: 2012- Buildings) 5 Penarafan Hijau( pH: 2012- Buildings) 6 Green Real Estate( GreenRE: 2013-
Buildings & Townships) 7 Meterai Hijau Melaka( Melaka Green
Seal: 2014- Buildings) 8 Malaysia Green Highway Index( MyGHI: 2014
- Highways)
9 Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool( MyCREST: 2016- Buildings)
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Which country subscribes to the most number of GB tools and how many? Once again, Malaysia rules the roost with 12( for now). Apart from the local nine, Malaysia also subscribes to the following three foreign rating tools: 1. LEED USA( Buildings) 2. Green Globe USA( Buildings- Resorts) 3. Green Mark Singapore( Buildings) Meanwhile, in the pipeline is the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme( CEEQUAL 5) UK( Infrastructure).
Green Rating or Greenwashing or KPI 6 Tools
The first local rating tool( GBI) was developed by professionals( architects, engineers and quantity surveyors) at the urging of the industry players 7. In 2010, GBI assisted Indonesia to develop their own rating tool- Greenship, and since then, has extended assistance to Brunei, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc. In doing so, GBI has encouraged and helped each country to develop their own tool that serves to address their own climate and development strategies, instead of simply importing a foreign tool.
The success of GBI in addition to the support and recognition accorded by the Government inevitably led to the rise of‘ alternative’ rating tools. Of the currently known nine local tools, eight of them duplicate the building( and township) sector. Only one is for highway with none for other infrastructural developments or other unaddressed areas such as the pre-construction and demolition phases of the building life cycle. It is interesting to note that MyGHI( a non-duplicated tool for the highway sector) was developed with the participation of GBI.
With eight local GB tools, it is hardly surprising for end users to question the purpose of developing so many similar tools. However, any attempt to define these tools into the three aforementioned categories of green rating, greenwashing or KPI, without comprehensive analysis will not be fair or proper. Hence, it is best to leave it to the jury out there.. However, criticism for this proliferation of tools, if any, should not be levied solely on the tool developers but also on those users who seek to subscribe to green building ratings primarily for commercial reasons a. k. a. greenwashing.
Green Incentives
The launch of GBI in 2009 was very timely as it coincided with Malaysia’ s commitment to COP15 to reduce carbon emissions and the Government promptly announced green tax incentives together with various other green initiatives.
The following excerpts from the Prime
Minister’ s speech in Budget 2010 read:“ In promoting the construction of Green Buildings to expand the use of green technology, the Government launched the Green Building Index( GBI) on 21 May 2009. GBI is a green rating index on environmentally friendly buildings. Green buildings save utility costs and preserve the quality of the environment. To promote green technology, the Government proposes that First: Building owners obtaining GBI Certificates from 24 October 2009 until 31 December 2014 be given income tax exemption equivalent to the additional capital expenditure in obtaining such Certificates; and
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