S’pore ahead on green building agenda
Published on: Sunday, May 16, 2021
By: Amanda Yeo
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Singapore green building: Malaysia is seriously lagging behind.
According to the World Green Building Council, a “green” building is one in its design, construction or operation, reduces or eliminates negative impacts and can create a positive impact on our climate and natural environment.
It constructs based on green features and designs that enable reuse and recycling, and green materials such as solar energy.
In short, a green building refers to both structure and the application of processes that promote efficient use of energy, water and other resources while reducing building impact on human health and the environment during the building’s lifecycle – from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and demolition.
Any building can be a green building, whether it is a home, an office, a school, a hospital, a community centre, or any other structure.
With green buildings, individuals can enjoy good indoor environmental air quality and well-ventilated indoor spaces.
However, it is relatively challenging for Malaysia to have more green buildings in the current climate.
According to the Green Economy Tracker, over 90pc of Malaysia’s electricity comes from fossil fuels.
Malaysia is also well known as the world’s third largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and the second largest exporter of palm oil.
In addition, there is a lack of awareness about green buildings long before the Covid-19 pandemic.
People often consider the price, the condition of the property, the views it offers without considering whether the property is “green” or even energy-efficient. The majority of individuals also do not consider buying green buildings as they are too expensive for them to afford.
Even when the building is certified green, many individuals turn on the air-conditioner for hours without considering the adverse effects of climate change.
The pandemic has also put many construction projects on hold.
There are also design revisions due to affordability issues and a shift in market demand during the health crisis.
Moreover, many firms have been affected financially and cannot afford to make adjustments to their practices.
This includes downsizing, cutting operational cost, diverting operations to other parallel activities to generate additional income and paying attention to environmental sustainability.
Although Malaysia is seriously lagging behind in the green building-related agenda, it is applaudable that the current administration is committed to green recovery – advocating the sustainable development agenda in the Budget 2021 for the first time.
Following are some of the initiatives introduced by the government under Budget 2021:
- Cooperate with the UN to establish the Malaysia-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Trust Fund or MySDG Trust Fund. The fund will coordinate financing from various public and private sources systematically. Thus, various parties can contribute and be involved in efforts to ensure the SDG is achieved by 2030;
- Provide RM40 million over a period of five years to strengthen environmental quality monitoring enforcement activities including the establishment of 30 monitoring stations nationwide; and
- Increase the allocation under the Economic, Infrastructure and Welfare Development-Based Grants to all state governments from RM350 million in Budget 2020 to RM400 million.
Of this amount, RM70 million is allocated for the purpose of Ecological Fiscal Transfer Activities as an additional incentive to state governments to ensure the sustainability of the country’s biodiversity.
According to the mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan, the Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool (MyCREST) was adopted since 2016 to encourage more construction of green residential and commercial buildings.
The Public Works Department also had made it mandatory for all government building projects worth RM50 million and above to adopt MyCREST, in a bid to reduce carbon emissions in the construction industry. This marks a good start in advocating the green building agenda.
Furthermore, the Green Building Index (GBI), Malaysia’s first comprehensive rating system developed by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia, places a good foundation for Malaysia to have more green buildings throughout the country.
GBI examines based on six main criteria like energy efficiency, indoor environment quality, sustainable site planning and management, materials and resources, water efficiency and innovation.
Its purpose is to evaluate the environmental design and performance of Malaysian buildings. Therefore, to promote usage of green buildings, EMIR Research has several policy recommendations for the government to consider:
- Strong enforcement of rules and regulations is needed to ensure wider compliance with environmental standards;
- Encourage industrial players to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels by providing small grants – the way forward towards building a more sustainable green future;
- Attract impact investors by promoting and emphasising the uniqueness, strengths and opportunities of having green buildings in Malaysia;
- Organise advocacy campaigns with Malaysia Green Building Council to educate about the benefits of having green buildings. According to GBI’s published data, the incremental construction cost of going green (inclusive of material and technological costs) ranges from 0.7pc to 11pc besides registration and renewal fees. Although an initial costing is required, GBI-certified buildings could yield at least 30pc to 40pc energy savings for their dwellers, compared with the average baseline building. Higher energy savings could be achieved in buildings with higher levels of certification; and
- Give additional tax deductions to GBI-certified buildings, where building owners can enjoy income tax deductions equivalent to the additional capital expenditure needed to obtain the GBI certification.
The government can also modify the Singaporean government’s approach – developing specific targets to adopt green buildings.
For instance, Singapore launched its Green Building Masterplan by specifying targets like greening 80pc of its buildings by 2030 and 80pc of new buildings to be super low energy from 2030.
By highlighting the link between the environmental degradation and pandemic outbreak, more Malaysians will advocate the green building agenda and reimagine sustainable cities that are fit-for-purpose in the post-Covid-19 world.
- Amanda Yeo is research analyst at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.
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