Malaysian Institute of Architects president Saifuddin Ahmad said a 256 applications for Green Building Index (GBI) certification had been submitted since the index was introduced, with 54 projects provisionally certified and four fully certified. GBI is Malaysia’s green building rating developed specifically for the tropical climate.
The index, developed by the Malaysian Institute of Architects and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia, incorporates the latest internationally-recognised best practices in environmental design and performance.
Saifuddin said the institute had noticed the increasing trend of companies developing green buildings after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the government was offering owners of new or upgraded buildings with GBI certification a 100 per cent tax exemption for the additional expenditure incurred to get the certification.
“There was a marked increase in submissions and this is definitely a healthy trend.
“Hopefully, companies will still continue the trend to develop green buildings after 2014 when the tax incentives are discontinued.”
Saifuddin said “provisionally certified” meant that the project had been certified for their Design Assessment, before construction began. After construction is completed, a Completion and Verification Assessment (CVA) will be done within 12 months or when the building is 50 per cent occupied, whichever was earlier, he said.
“The final GBI certificate will be issued after completing the CVA assessment and the building’s classification will be based on the points.”
Projects that gained 76 to 85 points will obtain “Gold” classification, 66 to 75 points get “Silver” and 50 to 65 points will get “Certified”.
Saifuddin said the highest number of green building-certified submissions came under the category of “non-residential new construction”.
The other categories were industrial new construction, industrial existing buildings, non-residential existing buildings, residential new construction and townships.
There were three steps to obtain GBI certification — application and registration; design assessment; and completion and verification assessment, with each stage taking about six to eight weeks each.
