Page 151 - GreenRE_Sustainable Real Estate Book

Zero Carbon Buildings

to Define Real Estate Performance

By: CK Tang
What are Zero Carbon Buildings (ZCB)? offset rates are likely to rise driven by demand dynamics in due to wear and tear over the 25-year period. While this is

Zero Carbon Buildings (ZCB) is a concept that involves the the voluntary market, moderation in use helps, since carbon generally budgeted for at costs similar to the EE retrofitting
development of super energy-efficient buildings that are offset operates on a principle where the more carbon costs, the question is whether the building owner will opt
integrated with renewable energy applications. This concept emissions we generate, the more we are required to pay. to enjoy the dividends of achieving ZCB, which reduces the
is actively promoted by countries committed to energy and 2 Renewable Energy overall cost of building maintenance, or spend it replacing
carbon reduction, including Malaysia. like for like maintaining the high equipment operational
Another route to ZCB is through Renewable Energy (RE). costs.
3 Steps to attain Zero Carbon Building status Although there are many types of RE, the easiest way is solar

It’s neither impossible nor too expensive to achieve ZCB. photovoltaic (PV) in a building. The cost-benefit of PV range Maximising returns with smart retrofit decisions
There are 3 obvious pathways to this illustrious title that can from a 25% rate of return at the higher end of the spectrum When the time arises for building maintenance or change-out
be easily emulated: when installed on a rooftop, but it could bottom-out at 1.5% of equipment, leveraging the maintenance budget to choose
when PV on a vertical façade is exported to TNB at marginal the EE route ensures better Returns on Investment (ROI).
1 Carbon Offset pricing. However, even a rate of return of 0% from PV, tops

Carbon offset presents one of the easiest pathway to paying for carbon offset to achieve ZCB, making a winning A ZCB requires us to capture every opportunity in EE.
achieving Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) status by paying case for RE installation. Improvement to passive, active, and cooling systems must
someone else to counter our carbon emissions. Currently, the be made. Passive measures of building insulation, shading,
price of carbon offset in Asia is approximately US$10 per ton 3 Energy Efficiency glazing improvement, and airtightness will reduce cooling
load in a building. Active measures of high efficiency
of CO emissions (tCO e). When combined with the electricity The third pathway to achieve ZCB is through Energy
2 2 equipment, lighting, heat recovery, fresh air monitoring and
carbon factor in Malaysia, this translates to around 3.5 cents Efficiency (EE). In existing buildings, the budget required
per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity consumption. for EE implementation is approximately 1/3 of the cost control, etc. will also reduce cooling load. Done right, ZCB
Consequently, carbon offset represents only a fraction of of constructing a new building, arising from retrofitting can reduce cooling load by 50% or more. Then the magic
our electricity bill. For instance, many commercial buildings exercises for operational efficiency which is viewed as a hefty happens when this reduction is amplified by the pump and
in Malaysia pay a tariff of 35.5 cents per kWh. By utilising investment. On a granular level, taking into consideration the fan affinity law, so the 50% reduction could bring down
carbon offset to achieve ZCB, we would only experience 2050 Zero Carbon target, all mechanical and electrical (M&E) power consumption by 12.5%.
a 10% increase in our electricity bill. Mindful that carbon equipment in buildings will need to be replaced at least once

SUSTAINABLE REAL ESTATE | Our 10-Year Journey 140