The Application of the Green Building Index (GBI) on ...

The Application of the Green Building Index (GBI) on Sustainable Site Planning and Management for Residential New Construction: Prospects and Future Benefits NORHANIS DIYANA NIZARUDIN¹, MOHD. RAMZI MOHD. HUSSAIN² & IZAWATI TUKIMAN³ Department of Landscape Architecture, Kulliyyah of Architecture & Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia, P.O. Box 10, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email: [email protected]¹, [email protected]², [email protected]³ Abstract The Green Building Index (GBI) rating system is developed and wholly-owned subsidiary of Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) that helps to assess the environmental performance of the buildings. This paper aims to review its application background particularly for residential new construction projects. This paper discussed the structure of this rating system which includes the six criteria of the GBI assessment. In addition to that, sustainable site planning and management criterion is taken out as a predominant focus to be further evaluated. Key words: The GBI, green rating systems, sustainable site planning and management

1. Introduction Malaysia nowadays has gone through lots of development phases especially in the urban area. After the new century commenced, there were technologies for urban area development have been introduced in Malaysia especially the green technology.

Under this technology, the idea of green building is introduced as a way of transforming the building market and transfiguring the common way of thinking about design, inhabit and operate buildings (USGBC News, 2005). According to the Green Building Index (GBI) fact sheet, “A green building focuses on enhancing the efficiency of resource use – energy, water, and materials – while reducing building impact on human health and the environment during the building‟s lifecycle, through better sitting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal”. By all means, the green building aims to develop high performance buildings without causing any harm to the living things and environment. Therefore, the global demand on the green building is increasing from time to time due to its advantage in producing lower development risks (Ting Kien Hwa, 2009). Concerning the idea of green building, an organisation known as the Green Building Index (GBI) organisation under the subsidiary of the Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Certified Engineers of (ACEM) has introduced the GBI as the local green building rating system to the public. According to Cole (2001), “Green building rating systems are in fact environmental assessment methods applied for buildings that have emerged as a widely adopted way to evaluate the performance of building across a broad range of environmental considerations” (Tuan-Viet Do, 2008). Therefore, the GBI has become the first step in promoting sustainability in the built environment and raising awareness among professionals of the field as well as the public about environmental issues and our responsibility to the future generations. Besides, it is also in line with the teaching of Islam which asked us to protect and preserve the environment. As mentioned by Sheikh Khalifa Ezzat (2008), Islam is the greatest religion and it is a way of life. Islam teaches human beings to respect the environment by conserving it for several reasons as follows: a) The environment is Allah's creation. The creation of this earth and all its natural resources are a sign of His wisdom, mercy, power and His other attributes and therefore serves to develop human awareness and understanding of this creator. (Surah Ar-Ra`d: 2 - 4); b) Muslims should protect and preserve the environment because it is the ign that they protect another Allah's creatures which pray to Him and praise Him. Human kind might not be able to understand how these creatures praise Allah but human kind must believe in it. As Allah says, “The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: There is not a thing but celebrates His praise, and yet ye understand not how they declare His Glory!” (Surah Al-Israa‟: 44); and

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c) The environment contains Allah's creatures which the Muslim scholars consider to also deserve protection. The GBI rating system provides an opportunity for the architects, designers, and developers to have sustainable buildings that can offer energy savings, water savings, healthier indoor environment, better connectivity to public transport, carbon footprint reduction as well as to suit the locality, climate, and culture (Chin Mui Yoon, 2009). As stated in the GBI fact sheet, the GBI is developed specifically for the Malaysian-tropical climate, environmental and developmental context and it is created to: a) define green buildings by establishing a common language and standard of measurement; b) promote an integrated, whole-building design that provides a better environment for all; c) recognise and reward environmental leadership; d) transform the built environment to reduce its negative environmental impact; and e) ensure new buildings remain relevant in the future and existing buildings are refurbished and upgraded to improve the overall quality of our building stock. However, as a new product in the market of built environment, the application of the GBI is still under observation to gradually see how it works in rating and choosing the best „green building‟. The application of the GBI has increased which reflects its potential to be one of the accredited and recognised green rating systems like Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) which have been used in the United Kingdom, Green Building Challenge Assessment Framework (GBTool) which is originated from Canada and have been used by three countries - Republic of Korea, Italy and Brazil as well as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) which have been used by the United States. There are more examples of global scale green rating systems such as Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE), a system developed in Japan, High Environmental Quality (HQE) developed in France, GREEN MARK developed in the neighbouring country, Singapore as well as VERDE system developed recently in Spain (Gowri, 2004; Tuan-Viet Do, 2008; Zuhairuse Md Darus, et.al., 2009). As a future accredited green rating system which will be recognized domestically and internationally, the GBI may expand its application and concept not only for the prospect of architectural buildings and its indoor quality but also

may go beyond to the other prospects of built environment such as landscape architecture for outdoor spaces design, planning and so on. By making the above mentioned worldwide green rating systems as references, the application of the GBI can be further reviewed and evaluated (Zuhairuse Md Darus, et.al, 2009).

2. The Application Background of the GBI As aforementioned, the GBI is a green rating system for buildings developed by PAM and ACEM. It was introduced in 2009 by Hon. Senator Penny Wong, a Malaysian who is now Australia‟s Water and Climate Change Minister (Chin Mui Yoon, 2009). As a result from being too dependent on the foreign green benchmarking system over the years, the GBI is emerged to help in evaluating the environmental design and performance of Malaysian buildings.

2.1 The GBI Assessment Criteria There are several stages before any buildings can be certified as green building. The GBI has its own work flow which involves three stages; application and registration, design assessment (DA) as well as completion and verification assessment (CVA). The GBI certification process begins with an assessment of the building design done by an eligible certifier appointed by Green Building Index Sdn. Bhd. After being assessed, a provisional certification will be issued, followed by the final certification when the completed building has been verified according to the design. However, the certification is only valid for only three years and if the owner of the building desires to maintain its certification, the building can be reassessed. Points are given for performance above benchmarks and current industry practice. Depending on the points or scores achieved, the buildings will be awarded one of four types of ratings: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. According to the GBI website (http: //www.greenbuildingindex.org), the assessment of the buildings under the GBI rating system is based on six main criteria as follows: 1) Energy Efficiency (EE) - improve energy consumption by optimising building orientation, minimizing solar heat gain through the building envelope, harvesting natural lighting, adopting the best practices in building services including use of renewable energy, and ensuring proper testing, commissioning and regular maintenance.

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2) Indoor Environment Quality (EQ) - achieve good quality performance in indoor air quality, acoustics, visual and thermal comfort. These will involve the use of low volatile organic compound materials, application of quality air filtration, proper control of air temperature, movement and humidity. 3) Sustainable Site Planning & Management (SM) - selecting appropriate sites with planned access to public transportation, community services, open spaces and landscaping. Avoiding and conserving environmentally sensitive areas through the redevelopment of existing sites and brown fields. Implementing proper construction management, storm water management and reducing the strain on existing infrastructure capacity. 4) Materials & Resources (MR) - promote the use of environment-friendly materials sourced from sustainable sources and recycling. Implement proper construction waste management with storage, collection and re-use of recyclables and construction formwork and waste. 5) Water Efficiency (WE) - rainwater harvesting, water recycling and watersaving fittings. 6) Innovation (IN) - innovative design and initiatives that meet the objectives of the GBI. For each of the criteria, the maximum score points have been determined for them. Under the energy efficiency criteria, the maximum score points that can be awarded to the buildings is 23 points. Then, followed by the indoor environmental quality by 11 points, the sustainable site planning and management by 39 points, the material and resources by 9 points, the water efficiency by 12 points and lastly the innovation by 6 points which makes the total score points is 100 points. It can be seen that the sustainable site planning and management holds the highest maximum score points. Most probably, this criterion has greater impact to the building design as compared to the rest. The details of the assessment criteria will be explained in „areas of assessment‟ (refer to 2.2).

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2.2 Areas of Assessment Below are the details of the assessment criteria as mentioned in the above paragraph. The details include the area of assessment and the breakdown of the cumulative points (refer Table 1-6).

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(ii) public transportation access, (iii) community services and connectivity as well as (iv) open spaces, landscape and heat island effect. As for the second requirement, site construction and management, there are five sub requirements that need to be fulfilled which are (i) construction system and site management, (ii) storm water management, (iii) re-development of existing sites and brown field sites, (iv) avoiding environmentally sensitive areas and also (v) building user manual. For each sub requirements as mentioned above, there are several details that contribute to the point‟s achievement. Below are the contents of each sub requirements that need to be achieved: A)

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Site planning and transport 1) Site selection and planning - proposed development is appropriate for the site and complies with the Local Plan or Structure Plan for the area. The proposed building must comply with the following requirements: a) The Structure Plan for the area; b) The Local Plan where available; and c) Infrastructure requirement is available for the area. 2) Public transportation access - encourage the selection of sites close to transport hubs and the planning of new housing areas to encourage the use of public transport. This is to reduce the current and future heavy dependence on private transport, which is the greatest contributor to Green House Gas (GHG) emission. Points are awarded according to proximity of the development to public transport hubs and quality of the access to the transport hub. For new housing areas, the provision of transport hubs for the housing concerned with proper shelter, amenities, shuttle facilities and parking facilities are encouraged (refer to Table 7-9).  

3. Sustainable Site Planning and Management According to the Green Building Assessment Criteria for New Residential Construction (NRC), under the sustainable site planning and management, there are two major requirements that will be assessed which are site planning and transport and also site construction and management. For site planning and transport category, there four sub requirements that need to be fulfilled by the buildings that are going to be certified. The sub requirements are as follows; (i) site selection and planning,

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   4) Open spaces, landscape and heat island effect – development should have smaller footprints and more landscaping, thereby reducing the well known effects of heat islands around hardscaped areas, provision of landscape with indigenous plants to 10% of total development area as well as provision of additional similar landscaping of every extra 5%: 1 point up to a maximum of 3 points. B)

   3) Community services and connectivity - encourage the selection of sites close to basic community amenities and the planning of new residential areas to encourage the provision of local amenities. This is to reduce the current and future heavy use of private transport after working hours, which is the greatest contributor to GHG emission. Points are awarded according to proximity of the development to community amenities. Points are awarded according to the subsection categories. Below are the list of the community amenities required in the design (refer Table 10):

Site construction and management 1) Construction system and site management – a) Encourage IBS and reduce on-site construction. b) Reduce material wastage and construction wastage to landfill sites. c) Reduce the polluting effects of construction and from workers during construction. d) Reduce pollution from construction activities by controlling pollution from waste and rubbish from workers. Create and implement a Site Amenities Plan for all construction workers associated with the project. The plan shall describe the measures implemented to accomplish the following objectives:  Proper accommodation for construction workers at the site or at temporary rented accommodation nearby.  Prevent pollution of storm sewer or receiving stream by having proper septic tank.

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Prevent polluting the surrounding area from open burning and proper disposal of domestic waste. Provide adequate health and hygiene facilities for workers on site.

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2) Construction system and site management – a) Manage surface water runoff from developments. b) Reduce the pollution and storm water loading of the river systems from the development. c) Reduce flood risk. Retain rainwater for recycling and appropriate use. d) Complies with MASMA minimum requirements e) Exceeds MASMA requirements by 30%: entitled to 2 additional points prorated for lower values. 3) Re-development of existing sites and brown field sites – a) Discourage development in environmentally sensitive areas. Encourage re-development of existing sites. Reward rehabilitation of Brownfield site and development in the rehabilitated sites. b) Re-development of existing sites or refurbishment of existing building. c) Rehabilitation of brown field sites. 4) Avoiding environmentally sensitive areas – a) Avoid development of inappropriate sites and reduce the environmental impact from the location of a building on a site. b) Do not develop buildings, hardscape, roads or parking areas on portions of sites that meet any one of the following criteria:  Prime agriculture land as defined by the Town and Country Planning Act;  Land that is specifically identified as habitat for any species threatened or endangered lists;  Within 30 meters of any wetlands as defined by the Structure Plan of the area. c) OR within setback distances from wetlands prescribed in state or local regulations, as defined by local or state rule or law, whichever is more stringent:  Previously undeveloped land that is within 15 meters of a water body, defined as seas, lakes, rivers, streams and

tributaries which support or could support fish, recreation or industrial use; Land which prior to acquisition for the project was public parkland, unless land of equal or greater value as parkland is accepted in trade by the public landowner; Land which is classified as Class IV (steeper than 30 degrees).

5) Building user manual – a) Document green building design features and strategies for user information and guide to sustain performance during occupancy. b) Provide a Building User Manual which documents passive and active features that should not be downgraded.

4. Conclusion The Green Building Index (GBI) is conceived to be able to aid architects, designers, builders, government bodies, building owners, developers and end users to understand the impact of design towards the environment. It also helps to provide choice and solution in producing a better design with full consideration to the environment in the future. Indirectly, this idea is inspiring the needs of respecting our nature as inculcated by the Islamic teaching regarding the rights and relationship between man and environment. .

5. References [1] Chin Mui Yoon, Health Check for Malaysian Architecture, Starmag, The Star, 2009 [2] Cole, R. J., A Building Environmental Assessment Method for British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2001. [3] Cresswell, J.W., Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2005. [4] Gowri, K., Green Building Rating System: An Overview. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Journal, 2004. [5] Green Building is Global, United States Green Building Council News, 2005.

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[6] Green Building Index (GBI) Fact Sheet. Available at: