Open AccessBenefits of greening existing buildings
Author(s) -
M. Motiar Rahman
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/615/1/012033
Subject(s) - greening , retrofitting , occupancy , business , environmental economics , electricity , green building , consumption (sociology) , efficient energy use , greenhouse gas , sample (material) , architectural engineering , engineering , economics , political science , ecology , social science , chemistry , electrical engineering , structural engineering , chromatography , sociology , law , biology
‘Greening existing buildings’ is an approach to apply the principles of green building to old and existing buildings with environment responsive and energy efficient ‘green features’ or devices, e.g. through retrofitting, as and when required. It allows considerable reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. However, the practice is not getting momentum, especially in Brunei. A study was therefore undertaken to generate and/or gauge the awareness of ‘greening existing buildings’, through identifying and assessing the key benefits of greening existing buildings. This paper presents the outcomes of 68 responses from an ongoing questionnaire survey of mainly clients and consultants. 15 benefits were identified, with “reduced energy/electricity consumption” topping the list, and “increase in building occupancy/usage rates” at the bottom. All the 15 benefits were found to be significantly important, both in the total sample, as well as in the groups of clients and consultants, and people with or without experience of green building. The two-way grouping also revealed that the above paired groups significantly showed their importance of different benefits in the same way. The outcomes are therefore considered as a general consensus of the respondents on the benefits of greening, despite some disagreements on the relative rankings of individual benefit by different groups of respondents. The outcomes are largely similar to elsewhere, and show a general awareness of the respondents to the overall benefits of greening existing buildings. Such outcomes are expected to inspire the clients to undertake more greening projects to demonstrate proven benefits. This is expected to help wider use of greening existing buildings in Brunei and elsewhere and thereby implement sustainable development.