Blog post -

How green building ratings can revolutionise wide-scale sustainable living

The global construction industry has experienced a shift in recent years, having embraced the necessity of factoring environmental circumstances into the development of modern building standards.

Key to this transformation has been the establishment and widespread adoption of trustworthy and transparent ratings and certification systems for green buildings. BREEAM (established in the UK in 1990), LEED (established in the US in 1998) and Green Star(established in Australia in 2003) are prime examples of green building ratings and indexes that have sprung up over the past two decades, and that have since grown in international influence.

A benchmark for Asia’s green building revolution

As one of the major market players in the home furnishings industry with a strong focus on energy efficiency, Panasonic has kept a close eye on how green rating indexes have played – and will continue to play – a critical role in the robust growth of green buildings in Asia.

A quick but not exhaustive list of the significant advantages of green building ratings systems include:

  • Production of standards and guidelines in order to advise and educate professionals in the built environment industry.
  • Having a third-party certification, which includes passing a rigorous commissioning process, ensures transparency, trustworthiness and consistency.
  • Offers compelling proof to all clients, competitors and the general public that a developer has achieved the environmental goals they committed to, and that the building is performing as it was designed.
  • Allows property developers to take advantage of government incentives and subsidies aimed at conserving resources.
  • Reduces the environmental impact as well as operating costs.
  • Being certified gives a company a marketing advantage as a responsible and forward-thinking industry player.

A 2014 BCI Asia survey, which received responses from 523 developers, architects, engineers and other contractors across Southeast Asia, reported that 46 per cent of respondents had received official green building certification for one or more of their construction projects. (Of those, about a third stated they had their ventures registered with Singapore-based “Green Mark”.)

Additionally, 79 per cent of respondents indicated they were “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to pursue certification in the future. The trend in adopting green rating systems, then, is very clearly here to stay.

Implementing a wide-scale ratings system

One of the key concerns when applying green building ratings and indexes is whether to adopt an already existing system, such as Japan’s CASBEE or Singapore’s BCA Green Mark, or to tailor a program that’s localised to a specific country.

Without a doubt, there are great advantages to conforming to an existing label with preset metrics, policies and a widely recognisable brand, especially for developing countries. Wholesale adoption of a system that works well in a developed country will represent huge savings on time and labour spent on research, development and marketing.

However, there are also significant advantages to developing a localised rating system that is designed for a specific region. Most importantly, a localised system will be able to take into consideration the conditions on the ground, such as differences in environmental factors, technical constraints and policy objectives in a particular area.

Kinya Yamada, PanaHome’s Leader in Planning & Management, offered his opinion: “Green rating tools are not one-size-fits-all. Different countries have vastly different climatic pressures and socio-political terrains, and thus inherently different limitations and objectives. You cannot apply metrics across borders and expect to achieve the same effect.”

He also pointed to Panasonic Japan’s Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town as an example of a concept that can be applied in eco-developed countries while adapting to localised green rating guides.

“Fujisawa SST’s primary focus is its infrastructure, which takes into account aspects such as energy efficiency, mobility and community, and develops processes which are based on actual lifestyles. A sustainable town that enables its residents to have a comfortable, eco-friendly yet secure lifestyle integrates realistic goals with a willingness to cooperate with what nature has given you. In this way, the Smart Town concept is able to target the dimensions of environmental, social as well as economic sustainability”, said Yamada.

When asked about the importance ensuring PanaHome developments abide by sustainability indexes, Yamada said that all of the PanaHome’s domestic detached houses are evaluated voluntarily by an official member of CASBEE. Three PanaHome models have also obtained the certification of "LCCM houses" that are recognised and evaluated by the Institute for Building Environment and Energy Conservation in Japan.

An achievable greener future

As technological breakthroughs, shifting economic needs and urban growth continues to define the future of the built environment in Asia, policymakers and industry players must come together to create new, feasible frameworks tailored for green building planning in specific regions.

Only then can companies, through careful navigation of technological risks, seize the opportunities to further expand the development of sustainable cities.

To read more news from Panasonic Homes & Living, follow us or visit us at our LinkedIn page.

Related links

Topics

  • Building, property

Categories

  • homes and living
  • technology
  • asia
  • panahome

Related content

  • Maximising the Value of Landed Properties: A Study of Tokyo Homes

    Like many megacities, space in Tokyo is at a premium. While the city accounts for a mere 0.6% of Japan’s total land area, it is home to 10.5% of the nation’s 127 million people. But, Panasonic’s housing subsidiary, PanaHome, is helping homeowners benefit even more from their property through its first seven-storey pre-fabricated house in Japan, the Vieuno 7.

  • The underpinnings of a successful smart city

    As smart cities are becoming more and more prevalent around the world, we also see an increasing number of new innovations in design and technology. However, it is often easy to simply associate ‘smart’ with buildings or cities that run in automation or with robotics and provide connection to data and services in order to improve services and eco-friendliness.

  • Building Foundations for Smarter Cities From the Ground Up

    With megacities in Asia developing at a breakneck pace, smarter sustainable developments are becoming readily necessary. Read how Panasonic is building the foundation and defining what smart cities should be through key developments in Japan.

  • Six Innovative Concepts Connecting Our Future Homes

    In Panasonic’s interpretation of the future, we see six ways in how technology can support the connection that we can share with our homes, the people in our lives and most of all simply make a busy working life just a little bit easier.

  • Where is Green Building Headed in SEA?

    As the world's population increases, more and more people in urbanised areas. Sustainable building is now entering the mainstream as a way to conserve natural resources, save costs in the long run and support population increase in major countries around the world. We take a look at where green building is headed in Southeast Asia.

  • Green Building and Sustainability Explained

    'Green building' and 'sustainability' are terms we hear frequently. Are the two terms synonymous or are there differences between them? How can an existing building be made more sustainable? What are developers doing to make their projects greener and more sustainable?

  • Evolution of Green Building Technologies in Asia [Infographic]

    In recent years, Asia has seen much advancement in eco-friendly and sustainable building technologies, from establishing government regulations to support green building, to the development of entire smart cities. Here's a top down look at how green building technologies have developed in Asia over the last decade.

  • The future of smart home living

    With technology becoming firmly embedded in our lives, how will the modern home of the year 2020 look? Panasonic unveils its vision for the ideal connected home of the future.

  • WFES 2016: The evolution of the solar industry

    Image Source: World Future Energy Summit 2014
    The World Future Energy Summit 2016 featured a number of thought leaders in the energy industry speaking about the future of solar energy. Here are some highlights.
    The World Future Energy Summit (WFES), hosted annually in Abu Dhabi during its Sustainability Week, was held this year over 18–21 January. The summit draws a wide audience ranging fro

  • 5 observations of Japanese smart city developments

    Smart cities are the way forward if we want to live in harmony with the environment. Fujisawa SST, a smart city project led by Panasonic, sets an example of the developments we can look forward to seeing in the future.

  • Changing the way we build green

    At the Panasonic Developers Forum held in September 2015, attendees heard from Mr. Tai Lee Siang, Group Managing Director for Singapore-based architecture consultancy ONG&ONG, and Vice Chairman of the World Green Building council. We speak to Mr. Tai about his thoughts about climate change, how space is being utilised by cities currently, as well as his vision of urban cities of the future.

  • How Japanese policymakers shape the future of sustainable living

    Asia’s growing urban population is placing the environment under heavy strain, but Japan is proving we can implement effective policies for a greener future.
    Over the last few decades, Asian economies have experienced a phenomenal rise to prominence on the global stage. Making way for socioeconomic growth, however, has incurred heavy costs: overexploitation of resources, degradation of the envi