Property Hunter Magazine October Issue 2014 | Page 70

/// Contributor

Green-RE
From a practical point of view if you need to go from Kuala Lumpur to Seremban you may decide to use at least three different
routes which will all bring you to your destination with different times and costs. Green RE is precisely this, a Green index that offers
to the construction industry a different way of looking at all the multi-facetted components of a “Green Certification”. Departure
point and arrival destination are exactly the same and James has been emphasizing that neither Rehda nor him want to deny the
very good work done with the GBI by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia
(ACEM).

Dr. Daniele
Gambero

A basic comparison between GBI (M) and Green RE is showing how stringent are the two Green indexes and the reader may understand how cost-efficiency
is not necessarily linked to lower scoring.

CEO and co-founder of REI
Group of Companies
Dr. Daniele Gambero is the CEO of
strategic marketing consultancy firm
REI Group of Companies. He holds
an MBA from L. Bocconi University in
Milan-Italy, Master in Communication
from the University of Michigan Ann
Arbour MI – USA, Ph.D in Marketing
Strategies and Communication from
L. Bocconi University and University of
Michigan.
With his vast experience in strategic
marketing consultancies, investment
studies, researches, property market
reports and business valuation globally,
the REI Group of Companies helps
Malaysian developers with business
solutions relating to design, concept,
strategic marketing and pricing,
advertising and marketing and sale
procedures for their residential,
commercial and industrial projects
since 2007.
Dr. Gambero’s lectures attract large
crowds due to his lively presentation of
serious topics with deep insight into the
Malaysian Property market since 2011.

While the author makes reasonable
efforts to present information which
he believes to be reliable, the author
makes no representation that the
information or opinions contained in
this article is accurate and complete.
Readers are advised to seek specific
professional advice before acting on
the views.

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AWARD CLASSIFICATION COMPARISON BETWEEN GBI & GREEN RE %
0-49%
GBI

NO

GREEN RE

50%

55%

60%

NO

BCA GREEN MARK
AWARD TYPE

65%

CERTIFIED

66%

70%

75%

SILVER
BRONZE

76%

80%

85%

86%

90%

GOLD

91%

95%

100%

PLATINUM

SILVER

GOLD

PLATINUM

GREEN PREMIUM
COST % OF TCC

“Walking The Green Talk”

Green-RE Executive Director always likes to bring up, to clarify this concept, how the different
approach of Green RE on some of the features prescribed by GBI allows a more economic yet
Platinum
2% to 8%
practical and effective impact for the services offered to the residents. GBI award 1 point if the
developer is constructing within the project a BUS Stop area even though no busses are actually
Gold Plus
1% to 3%
passing by that area. In a multiple layer society as Malaysia is with the commixture of so different
Gold Plus
1% to 2%
cultures and habits, the need for a flexible Green tool is a must and for James, GBI can be classified
Certified
0.3% to 1%
as quite rigid. One of the key points that Rehda has kept in mind while designing the Green-RE is
TCC = Total Construction Cost
the effective impact of all the different components or, in other words, how to make the offer of
Green-RE certified building more attractive for the purchasers. It is a fact that Green is costing and the Singapore experience is giving a rough idea of how
much going green is actually impacting the cost/selling value of properties. The table below gives a good idea in term of numbers and is based on more than
350 certification done by Green Mark between 2005 and 2008.

Green Mark Sg – Green Building Index (M)

Why Going Green?

How Malaysian developers are moving
towards the Green and Eco-friendly concept

Almost 10 years ago and after deep analysis and
studies on similar systems in other countries
around the world, our neighbor Singapore
introduced the Green Mark for their construction
industry. A man with a deep experience in “Green
cost efficiency” and actual benefit evaluation
of the different categories of “green action/
credits”, has been engaged with Rehda (Real
Estate Housing Developer Association) as Green
consultant for their new Head Quarter in PJ.
Wisma Rehda’s construction was initiated in
2009, with occupation in early 2012. In early
2009, Malaysia was preparing the inception of its own GBI (Green Building Index) as a profession driven
initiative to lead the property industry towards more environment-friendly buildings. Rehda, which is
representing the largest part of this industry, responsibly decided to have Wisma Rehda designed and
constructed as a Green Building to set an example to achieve the GBI certification as it did.
During the construction of their new Head Quarter Rehda intent to implement Leed as their based greentool (Leed is the US Green Index) but decided not to, partially overlooking on all the practical differences
between equatorial climate Countries, as Malaysia is, and the four seasons ones as US is. Cultural and
life-styles habits should also have been looked at and considered when defining categories of action and
related scorings. Another weakness is the fact that our local tool has not been implemented as a costeffective and efficient tool and has not been undergoing periodic updates which, considering the high
moving speed of the Green industry and related technologies should be looked at on a minimal yearly
basis. Concerned with the rising of an overall construction related costs and consequently of the selling
values of residential properties, where the public was and is asking for more affordable per square feet
prices, Rehda decided to champion and propose possible amendments and improvements to the newly
launched GBI (M). While analyzing the GBI and by comparing it to the Green Mark, the development
industry realized that a Green Building Index System purposely designed for the Malaysian climate and the
South East Asian culture, instead of adopting one designed for a Country, as US is, where the temperature
differential during the 12 months goes from -20 Co up to 35 Co.

There is not a day in which newspaper are not talking about quality of air, pollution of rivers, CO2 emissions and so on. Going Green is a MUST for
responsible citizens and, hopefully in construction, will be implemented as compulsory by the Authorities soon. As a matter of fact in Singapore a developer
must make sure that their project will at least score a Green Mark certification before applying for a construction permit. The alternative is simply having the
permit application directly and
New Residential
New Non-Resdential
Existing Non-Resdential
instantaneously rejected.
CATEGORY
Building Maximum
Building Maximum
Building Maximum
Energy Efficiency

83

99

89

Water Efficiency

16

14

24

Enviromental Protection

40

32

39

Indoor Enviromental Quality

6

8

18

Other Green Features

7

7

10

Carbon Emmision of Development

4

TOTAL CREDITS OBTAINABLE

156

BCA GREEN MARK
AWARD TYPE

GREEN PREMIUM
PAYBACK PERIOD

Platinum

2 to 8 years

Gold Plus

2 to 6 years

Gold Plus

2 to 6 years

Certified

2 to 5 years

4

4

The citizens and businesses or
end users of the “development
project” should be the ones
requesting it but here in
Malaysia we still do not have
a clear idea of cost/pay-back
period/profit that going Green

Building will generate for our
pocket. The whole Green
Building scenario will look more promising if we can estimate how long it may take to recover the
inevitably higher cost of buying a green house or office and which are the areas where to request
a stronger green performance. The higher is the impact of credits the better at the end will be
the relief on the purchasers’ wallet and the payback period might not be as long as expected as
both electricity and water costs are on a continuous rise. Buyers for own use will enjoy after a
reasonable lap of time less expensive bills while investors will be able to justify higher rentals based
on user-friendly electricity and water bill offered by a Green Building living.
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