GREEN BUILDING OPINION
Does your green-rated building
Fawaaz Goolbar hold its performance over time?
A building can be green on paper and still underperform in real life. Long-term performance depends on how well it copes with changing conditions and daily operations, argues certified practitioner Fawaaz Goolbar.
Underperformance is a known issue in the green building ecosystem. Not because the design was wrong. But because real buildings are operated by real people, in conditions that no model fully predicted. This is one of the most important and least-discussed challenges in sustainable buildings today.
Researchers studied a commercial building in Abu Dhabi that was designed to comply with the local Estidama green building code. This code was introduced in 2010 as one of the first mandatory green building frameworks in the Middle East. The findings were published in the Energy Science and Engineering journal and are significant on two levels.
First, adopting Estidama’ s green building features reduced average energy demand by a remarkable 17 % compared to a conventional baseline.
Second, and more importantly for professionals working in operations, the variability of that energy demand was also significantly reduced. In other words, the building did not just perform better on average. It performed more consistently, even when schedules changed, occupancy shifted, or controls were not perfectly tuned.
This is what resilience looks like in a building context.
A second body of research from the University of Manchester( 2025) examined zero-energy building complexities and found that increased system complexity without adequate operations support can elevate energy performance risks, widening the gap between prediction and delivery.
Conclusions of the studies
These two findings, taken together, tell a clear story for design teams, facilities managers, and asset owners:
The goal is not just a high-performing building at handover, but one that holds its performance as conditions evolve.
Supporting the right outcome
Here are five design and operations principles that support that outcome:
Prioritise a robust building envelope first.
1
Passive measures reduce the sensitivity of the whole building to operational variations, from occupancy changes to system faults. Choose simple, fault-tolerant control
2 sequences over complex automated strategies that require expert maintenance in order to function correctly. Involve FM teams during design and
3 commissioning. The people who will operate the building every day are among the most valuable sources of insight into real-world risk. Document design intent clearly at handover,
4 not as a technical manual, but as a practical reference for those managing the asset over its life. Build in a structured post-occupancy
5 review at 12 and 24 months. Early performance data is the most actionable over a building’ s lifecycle.
Certifications such as Estidama, LEED, BREEAM, and EDGE all provide frameworks that strengthen the starting point. The resilience of that performance over time is built through the quality of the operational relationship with the building.
What is one design or commissioning practice that you have seen make a real difference to long-term building performance?
About the writer
Based in Mauritius and working across Africa and beyond, Goolbar has in excess of 10 years’ experience in construction and facilities. He has been involved in site engineering, structural design, building services, and property management, before sustainability became his main focus.
He has credentials across the main certification systems: IFC EDGE Expert and Auditor, LEED Green Associate, Fitwel Ambassador, EcoDistricts AP, Just Communities AP, and LCA Specialist.
Contact the writer: Email fawaaz. goolbar @ gmail. com or connect with him on LinkedIn at linkedin. com / in / fawaaz-goolbar
106 winter 2026 | www. tobuild. co. za