DEVELOPMENT OF RATING SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDING IN MALAYSIA

Existing environmental assessment methods attempt to measure improvements in the environmental performance of buildings relative to current typical practice or requirements. The assumption is that by continually improving the environmental performance of individual buildings, the collective reduction in resource use and ecological loadings by the building industry will be sufficient to fully address the environmental agenda. The choice of the term 'green building assessment' is seen as a useful term to convey this intent. Several environmental methodologies and methods for evaluating environmental performance of buildings are being currently developed. In a global scale It is worth mentioning SB (Sustainable Building) Tool, formerly known as GB Tool (Green Building Tool) which is an international project coordinated from Canada, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) a method developed in the USA with a world wide application and CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency), a method developed in Japan. In Europe, some of the most frequently used include BREEAM (Building Research Establish Environmental Assessment Method) in the UK and also it is worth mentioning the HQE (High Environmental Quality) developed in France during the last decade and the VERDE method developed recently in Spain (Maria Sinou 2006). In this paper several method will be discuss and will become main references for developing Sustainable building Tool for Malaysia.