40% of new buildings in Malaysia are 'greener'

KUALA LUMPUR: About 40% of new buildings in Malaysia are adopting green building initiatives by planning and designing buildings that are more energy-efficient and with zero carbon emission.
Malaysian Green Building Confederation (GBC) honorary secretary, CK Tang said the awareness in adopting the initiatives, especially among developers and professionals, began since the existence of Green Buildings Index eight years ago.
"Green building is cheaper than conventional building as we can save up to 10% of energy consumption," he told Bernama after the "Achieving Energy Efficient, Zero-Emission Buildings for Sustainable and Pollution-Free Cities" sharing session at the Ninth World Urban Forum here today.
He said most of old buildings were not practising the green initiatives as they were equipped with air conditioners, desktops and lighting which led to more energy consumption.
Thus, he said changing the right equipment in the buildings, such as using laptop computers rather than desktop computers, would also help in reducing a lot of energy consumption because laptops produced less heat and required less air conditioner in the room.
Tan said the use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights in the buildings and houses also helped to reduce carbon emission production to 80%. — Bernama