Movements to Sustainability Implementation: Indonesia GBCI-Greenship , USGBC LEED and Green Globes

Many countries have tried to have their own green building standard which of course will bring the sustainability movements predictable.  I got my brand new knowledge when the time took course called High Performance Green Building in the University of Florida.  The course mainly explores and compares especially US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system (further information about LEED can be seen at this website) and Green Globe certification system.  Green Globes was initially developed in Canada.  However, recently this rating system has been becoming collaborative works from both US and Canada. (Further information about Green Globes, please see this website).   

Picture 1 USGBC-LEED 

The final product of the course was the implementation of both certification systems into a case study for the existing building in the University of Florida (UF) campus.   It was a teamwork project.   Although it was a simulation, the experience of conducting certification process was challenging.  It was started with the interview with some users up to a rigorous decision making process for renovating the existing building case study.  The target was to gain a Silver rating for LEED and three globes for Green Globes.  It was achievable target!  Our team got 75 points out of 110 (we used LEED-NC for this purpose) and 790 out of 1000 achievable points for Green Globes.

                At the first time, we had a hard time to give the suggestion about the renovation.  I worked with my team to target the rating, i.e. Gold for LEED rating and three globes for Green Globes rating.  However, the final question of the simulation should be addressed to the real implementation which will of course collide with the “capital investment”.  We took a model of using photovoltaics system to the roofing system, and the result of the life-cycle cost was amazing, yet it was high cost-intensive project to implement.  We planned to do some retrofits in the Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems that we assessed to be urgently required based on our interview.  In results, the total cost was huge.  Hence, despite the possible saving over the building entire life, the question remains has no answer.  Who will fund this project?  In the short few years—from the facts that UF has owned 50 green buildings inside the campus—I am sure most buildings in UF campus will become green buildings.   According to UF Green Building Program, the campus currently has own 1 Platinum, 16 Gold, 3 Silver, 8 Certified and 2 registered projects as well as 20 buildings registered under newer system LEED version 3. (Further information for UF Green Building Projects, please see this website).  This amazing achievement has shown the commitment to the sustainability of the University of Florida.

              In 2009, the year that I was firstly aware about sustainability, Indonesia developed a new certification system for Green Building named Greenship, under Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) and already registered as one member of World Green Building Council (WGBC).  I am sure this will lead to the Indonesian societies to be more sustainable in their infrastructure development programs.  For more additional information about the rating system, please access this website.  I think later it will be interesting to compare GBCI rating system to the existing green building rating system in the US.

Picture 2 Indonesia GBCI-Greenship

NB:  Green Act: 14.4 miles  = 0.475 gallons oil

        Cumulative 30.0 miles  = 0.990 gallons oil