Taipei 101 was awarded the top honor Thursday by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the globally recognized green building ranking system of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), making the skyscraper the tallest energy conservation building in the world.
The Platinum LEED is the system’s highest level of certification and the top honor for green buildings. The top 10 Platinum LEED buildings includes the Bank of America Tower in New York.
Taipei 101’s certification has set three records: the tallest green building (508 meters); the largest green building (about 150,000 square meters); and the highest-use green building (90 tenants).
“The efforts made by Taipei 101 show that environmental protection will save more on costs and create earnings in the future,” said Harace Lin, president of the Taipei Financial Center Corp., which owns the building.
Lin said at an award ceremony that his company has spent NT$60 million (US$2.08 million) and over 10,000 man-hours over the past two years to acquire the LEED certification.
The building has achieved annual savings of 14.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to NT$36 million, or an 18 percent energy-saving, over three years.
The design specification for the CO2 (carbon dioxide)level in Taipei 101 is 600 parts per million (ppm), which is lower than the national standard of 1,000 ppm. Tenants of Taipei 101 are able to enjoy fresher air in the building because of the lower CO2 level, Lin added.
USGBC Chairman Mark MacCracken said it was difficult for Taipei 101 to acquire the Platinum LEED certification because the building is used by so many different companies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency building previously had the largest building area on record in terms of LEED Platinum certification.
Currently 40 percent of newly built skyscrapers have submitted green building certificate applications.
