@ green | March-April , 2021

Malaysia has well-documented track record of energy-efficient office buildings dating back 17 years

The building sector has the most significant potential for lowcost greenhouse gas emission savings .

BY Gregers Reimann

In a world where climate change has been identified as an existential threat to humanity requiring imminent action of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 , and where the building sector has been identified as the sector with the most considerable potential for cheap greenhouse gas emission savings , the conclusion is clear : Energy-efficient and green buildings should be the norm and not the exception .

Source : IPCC

During her keynote address at the Malaysian National Energy Awards 2019 , the ( former ) Minister of Energy , Science , Technology , Environment and Climate Change ( MESTECC ), Yeo Bee Yin , stated that “ energy efficiency is the lowest hanging fruit ”.

Yet , a concerted push for widespread adoption of energy efficiency in the building sector is still outstanding , with a meagre 0.4 per cent national greenhouse gas reduction attributed to green buildings in 2019 . The main reasons are a lack of comprehensive energy efficiency legislation , a lack of awareness , and not paying the actual energy cost .

Malaysia already has a well-documented track record of energy-efficient office buildings dating back 17 years .

The first successful case study was the Ministry of Energy ’ s headquarters , the so-called Low Energy Office ( LEO ) building , with came into operation in 2004 and achieved more than 50 per cent energy savings .

The energy comparison was made by obtaining the energy bills of the neighbouring eight office buildings , all built around the same time in the newly-established government capital of Putrajaya .

Equally important , the LEO building demonstrated that energy-efficient buildings are not expensive to build and have a reasonable payback time of five years .

By conducting two separate building tenders , one with and one without the energy-efficient design features , the LEO building demonstrated a construction cost increase of just five per cent to cut the energy consumption in half .

Today , those figures have dropped to about three per cent additional construction cost to achieve 50 per cent energy savings with a payback time of just three years .

This is consistent with the findings from Malaysia ’ s first green building certification body , Green Building Index ( GBI ). Figures were tabulated from its database of 500 green buildings ( 2009-19 ) and found that the additional construction cost of green buildings was found to be between 1.1-3.8 per cent for primary ( Certified ) to highly ( Gold ) certified structure , respectively .

GBI also found that for the highest level of green-certified buildings ( Platinum ), the additional construction cost figure was 5.1 per cent , but was based on insufficient data .

GBI found the fraction of the additional construction cost attributed to improving the energy efficiency is 44.5 per cent and 63.4 per cent for residential and nonresidential buildings , respectively . The operational savings of green-certified buildings are on average RM803,000 per year , or RM1.60 per square foot , with a return of investment of fewer than three years .

Once the other benefits from energyefficient and green buildings are factored in - improved indoor environment with pleasant daylighting and clean air to breathe that makes the building occupants healthier , less sick and more productive at work - the payback time drops to less than one year .

With such an excellent economic case , it is no wonder that countries worldwide are making energy-efficient and green buildings mandatory by law .

In the EU , for example , the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive ( EPBD ) requires all new buildings to be Nearly Zero Energy Buildings ( NZEB ) by Dec 31 , 2020 .

Moreover , mandatory energy labelling of buildings has already been a reality for more than 10 years . The EU directive requires that the sale or rent facilities shall include the advertisement ’ s building energy label .

The operational energy expenditure for buildings becomes visible and , therefore , also one of the decisive factors for sale and rental .

In South-East Asia , Singapore is leading the way for mandatory energy efficiency for the entire building stock with its newly

announced “ 80-80-80 in 2030 ” Masterplan , which requires :

• 80 per cent of whole building stock to be certified green by 2030

• 80 per cent of new buildings to be super low energy by 2030 , i . e . by achieving at least a 60 per cent improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2005 levels

• 80 per cent improvement in energy efficiency , namely for best-in-class green buildings to see an 80 per cent improvement in energy efficiency , compared to 2005 levels ( up from 60 per cent ) Malaysia has already taken an essential step towards the energy labelling of buildings . The Malaysian government should be lauded by taking the lead , namely by requiring the government building to undergo mandatory energy labelling .

The scheme is first being rolled out for office buildings , while more complex facilities , such as government hospitals , will follow . Moreover , the Green Building Index ( GBI ) has also begun to list the building energy intensity ( BEI ) figure separately on their certificate :

The energy label for office buildings ( left ) and the building energy efficiency ( BEI ) being displayed on the GBI green building certificate .

The Malaysian government ’ s effort to push for mandatory energy labelling for government buildings should be lauded and encouraged – and eventually legislated - on a national scale .

The Malaysian parliament is slated to review and hopefully approve the much-anticipated Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act ( EECA ) by Q3 2021 .