Petaling Jaya, 24 June 2023 - In conjunction with REHDA Malaysia’ Annual Delegates’ Conference (ADC), GreenRE and Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) officiated their Joint Certification Framework.

The launch was carried out by GreenRE’s Chairman Datuk Seri FD Iskandar and CEO of CREAM Ir M Ramuseren, witnessed by REHDA President Datuk NK Tong, Mr. Ruslan Aiman- Manager, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Division of CIDB, Ts Syed Hazni Abd Gani - Manager, Centre for Quality Assurance and Certification (CQAC) and Ts. Dr. Hj. Mohd Khairolden Ghani - Manager for Construction Industry Consultancy.

Background Information

In April 2021, GreenRE and CREAM signed a Memorandum of Understanding to synergize efforts toward promoting sustainable development in the property development and construction sector.

GreenRE and MyCrest offer a prescriptive and performance-based approach to green building certification covering common major pillars including energy efficiency, water efficiency, construction, sustainable materials, indoor environment quality and carbon impact assessment. Both schemes cover the full life cycle of a building from design and construction through to operations, maintenance and end of life.

GreenRE and MyCrest are amongst several other local and internationally developed certification / rating schemes in Malaysia. Nonetheless, despite the availability of such schemes, as of 2022 less than 1 % of the building stock in the country are green certified.

To improve standardization, enhance collaboration between the public and private sector and increase the uptake of green buildings in Malaysia a technical task force was convened in March 2022 to formulate a joint certification framework between GreenRE and MyCREST. Seven meetings were held and culminated on the 10^th of August 2022.

A 1^st stage joint certification framework was approved pending implementation on shortlisted pilot projects. Pilot projects are currently ongoing positively and the scheme will be officially available in the market starting July 2023.

Thus, both parties have come to an agreement as follows:

• GreenRE will act as the lead certifier for private sector projects through the GreenRE NRB v4.0 rating tool (to be launched) and CREAM will act as the lead certifier for government sector projects through MyCREST v2.0 Design and Construction rating tool.
• Joint certification will aim to achieve a similar carbon reduction score for rated projects. All pre-requisites covering high-impact areas to reduce embodied and operational carbon will be mutually adopted.
• Joint certification will be awarded such that a Platinum GreenRE equates to a MyCREST 5-Star rating, Gold a 4-star rating, Silver a 3-star rating and Bronze a 2 or 1-star rating.
• 1st stage joint certification will be applicable for new non-residential building projects only (i.e retail, shopping centres, hotels, office and commercial buildings). Other categories (i.e existing non-residential, residential, industrial and healthcare) will be developed in subsequent stages.

GreenRE was formed by Malaysia's Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (REHDA) in 2003 to promote sustainability in the Malaysian property sector. We do this in 3 main ways, green building certification & rating, green building training & awareness programs, and research & development. We are fully recognized by MOSTI, KPKT, and NRECC and projects certified to GreenRE are eligible for tax incentives on offer by MIDA. To date, we have certified more than 350 million sq ft of projects in Malaysia. Our corporate brochure is attached, download HERE.

For media inquiries, please contact our Marketing Manager, Ms.Juanita Lourdes at juanita@greenre.org  / 0162935822.