Green Building

By Ahmad Firdaus bin Ahmad Fuad
Environmental Analysis Group, Malaysia


Green Buildings are eco friendly, reduce operating costs, increase marketability of the building and enhance the owners’ corporate image as they also increase productivity of the occupants and reduce potential liability resulting from poor indoor air quality problem.

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.

Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

• Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
• Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
• Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

Studies of people working in green buildings have reported productivity gains of 16%, including reduction in absenteeism and improved quality of work. Essentially, Green Building designs incorporate positive environmental, economic and social elements that benefit all building stake holders, including owners, occupants and the general public.

Green Buildings, sometimes referred to as “Sustainable Buildings” or “Environmental Buildings”, are designed to enhance energy efficiency, promote renewal energy, reduce air-conditioning costs and improve indoor environment quality (both temperature and relative humidity), and in the process, enabling owners to reap financial incentives under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism.

While some countries in the region like India, Singapore and Australia have developed their own Green Building Councils and Rating Standards derived from the LEED in the US, Malaysia is still in the process of forming a Green Building Council, while even countries like Vietnam have taken a lead.

Malaysia needs to hasten the process to catch up with the world as many countries have gone even further.

Many countries have developed their own standards of energy efficiency for buildings. Above some examples of building environmental assessment tools currently in use:

• Australia: Nabers / Green Star

• Brazil: AQUA / LEED Brasil

• Canada: LEED Canada / Green Globes

• China: GBAS

• Finland: PromisE

• France: HQE

• Germany: DGNB

• Hong Kong: HKBEEM

• India: LEED India/ TerriGriha

• Italy: Protocollo Itaca

• Mexico: LEED Mexico

• Netherlands: BREEAM Netherlands

• New Zealand: Green Star NZ

• Portugal: Lider A

• Singapore: Green Mark

• South Africa: Green Star SA

• Spain: VERDE

• United States: LEED/Green Globes

• United Kingdom: BREEAM

Biodiversity Heat Maps

The Biodivertido blog has produced an excellent heat map of biodiversity data. The heat map comes with a slider so that it is possible to adjust the transparency of the heat map overlay. It is also possible to adjust the quality of the rendering of the heat map.

Link

Alhamdulillah Syukur

If you think you're unhappy look at them

If you think your salary is low, how about her?
If you think you don't have many friends
If you feel like giving up, think of this man...

If you complain about your transport system, how about them?

If your society is unfair to you, how about her?

If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?

Enjoy life how it is and as it comes Things are worse for others and is a lot better for us

There are many things in your life that will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart....pursue those...

Are you still complaining?

Observe around you and be thankful for all that you have in this transitory lifetime...

We ar fortunate, we have much more than we need to be content.

Let's not try to feed this endless cycle of consumerism and immorality in which this modern and advanced society forgets the other two thirds of our brothers and sisters.

Let us complain less and give more.

Amazing Flood in Penang, Malaysia

Panduan Penjimatan Tenaga Bagi Mengatasi Kenaikan Kos Hidup Akibat Kenaikan Harga Minyak

Sebagai panduan untuk jimatkan bil letrik ( tariff baru lagi mahal nanti)

Berikut adalah caranya

Kecekapan Tenaga (Energy Efficiency)

- set suhu air cond pada suhu antara 25-27 Celcius, jgn sejuk sgt
- klau tutup TV untuk tempoh yang lama, jgn just off pki remote, terus off kat plug.
- komputer pun sama gak, off kat plug, klau off kat CPU, electric still pki.
- jgn guna lampu mentol, pki compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)
- penggunaan Daylight di siang hari, so krg pki lampu, so pki le langsir yg transparent.
- penggunaan LCD monitor lebih menjimatkan berbanding CRT

Ada banyak lagi cara, nnt lain kali kite bincang lagi.

Lampu Fluorescent ( T5 and T8)

Umum sedia tahu bhw lampu fluorescent jenis T5 lebih menjimatkan berbanding jenis T8.
Tetapi penggunaan T5 masih amat kurang terutamanya penggunaan di rumah kerana kurangnya kesedaran serta pengetahuan terhadap 'Cekap Tenaga'.

Sebagai panduan, lampu t5 hanya menggunakan tenaga sebanyak 28W dengan efikasi sebanyak 104 lumen / Watt berbanding t8 yang menggunakan tenaga sebanyak 36W dengan efikasi sebanyak 68 lumen / Watt. Dengan ini penggunaan lampu T5 bukan sahaja menjimatkan tenaga tetapi juga menjimatkan kos lampu kerana menggunakan kurang lampu berbanding T8.

Lampu T5 juga tahan lebih lama iaitu sebanyak 24000 jam penggunaan berbanding T8 hanya 5000 jam penggunaan.

Kos permulaan bagi penggunaan T5 adalah lebih tinggi tetapi untuk jangka masa panjang ianya amat menjimatkan. Payback period bagi penggunaan T5 adalah antara 2- 3 tahun bergantung kepada penggunaan.

Biodegradable Computer

Imagine this: you buy a new computer monitor, take your old one and just bury it in the garden. 3 years later the monitor has biodegraded and your prized tomatoes are growing better than ever. The world's first 100% biodegradable computer components have arrived from MicroPro, a company based in Dublin, Ireland who produces eco-friendly computers, keyboards, mice and flat-panel monitors. The company, established in 1992, has just 17 engineers but has made a big impact with their innovative designs.

The product is named iameco, and is the brainchild of MicroPro's Managing Director, Paul Maher.