DEVELOPMENT OF BUILDING ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR EVALUATION OF PURPOSE BUILT OFFICES LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT: BENCHMARKING AND ASSESSMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Malaysia has undergone rapid economic, social and environmental change over the last fifty years. Today, the progress is still
continuing and to ensure that it is going in the right direction, the 9"1 Malaysia Plan (2006 - 2010) has outlined its Thrust 4 as "to
improve the standard and sustainability of quality of life" among all Malaysians. The construction industry has a great impact not
only to the Malaysian socio-economic landscape but also to the environment. Since 1990s, it has steadily generated about 5 -
10% of the total national Gross Domestic Product. However the global construction industry is also responsible for contributing
35 - 45% of CO2 emissions throughout the world. Studies conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme in early 2007
indicate that by 2020, major parts of CO2 emissions will come from the developing countries.
Sustainable Development is indeed a strategic necessity for the buildings and construction sector. This paper aims to address
issues pertaining to sustainability in our built environment, that is the sustainable development (ecology) and its relations to
sustainable growth (economic). The conceptual framework here is to assess environmental performance of existing building
stocks in particular purpose built offices (PBOs) in major cities throughout Malaysia.
Since 1990's many built-environment related institutional body or NGOs around the world has been developing various
assessment tools to evaluate various kind of buildings in a framework of Sustainable and Green Building agenda. Among the
leading building assessment tools are currently used in United States (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design - LEED),
Canada (Green Building Tool - GBTool), Japan (Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency -
CASBEE) and Australia (GreenStar).
For Malaysia to stimulate market demand for high-performance buildings, provide 'branding', and transform the skills and
knowledge of the sector as a whole, green building assessment tool and rating system is deemed necessary. This paper
introduces Building Environmental Efficiency as Sustainable Tool for Assessment and Rating Initiative (BEESTARI), a research
work that is currently in progress. With the mantra of "adopt and adapt", the four abovementioned building assessment tools is
used as a point of reference to modify and develop Malaysia very own Building Assessment Tool. However, this paper focuses
and analyse issues pertaining to the environmental considerations that are essential in determining the most suitable framework
for the Malaysian case.
BEESTARI has a potential to act as an action checklist and quality rating tool that can be used by pertinent stakeholders
throughout all four phases of a building life cycle. It is also hoped that the utilization of BEESTARI under the proposed Malaysia
Green Building Council's leadership as part of the Malaysia Green Building Initiative is an innovative way for Malaysian
construction industry to move forward in a sustainable manner. It is believed that BEESTARI would be able to set a benchmark
for pertinent stakeholders in the building and construction sector to produce more buildings that are environmentally responsible,
profitable and healthy places to live and work. It is hoped that PBOs stakeholders will instill a sense of urgency in holistic building
process practices that will improve building performance by meeting specified standards to reduce the negative impact of
buildings not only to the occupants but also to the environment where in the long run will be able to improve the overall Life
Cycle Management of PBOs.