Green Building Development in the Philippines

The trend emerging these days in building structures is the development of design
solutions that can be a sort of medicine to impending environmental illness. Researching about
these design solutions can take up a lot of time as many parameters are to be considered.
Some researchers started studying from building materials to design strategies and concepts.
Crawford, et al. (2011) concluded that the ranking of assemblies appears to provide an
appropriate approach for streamlining the selection of construction elements during the building
design process. The concept of Net Zero Energy Building was also a research solution
wherein Photovoltaire, micro-combined heat and power off-site windmill, share of a windmill
farm and purchase of green energy from one hundred percent renewable utility grid were the
discovered solutions (Marszal, et al., 2012). While most researchers focused on investigating
building materials as solutions, they likewise promote the concept of passive buildings. The said
concept was discovered to use significantly less heating energy and offer slightly better indoor
conditions (Mahdavi and Doppelbauen, 2010).

Several studies have focused on researches about design solutions as a remedy to the
growing problems of climate change. However, only few have started implementing such design
solutions, particularly green building in the Philippines. Some of those few are the developers of
high-end malls, condominiums and recreation centers. Undeniably, the use of green building as
a design solution has significant contributions to the field of architecture in the Philippines.

The Philippines is a tropical country. With the countrys current condition, it was not
spared from the tremendous effects of climate change and global warming. Significant increase
in temperature is being experienced in the Philippines, most especially in urban areas where
buildings have crowded the cities. Tony Arnel, the Chairman of the World Green Building
Council said, The building sector, which consumes as much as 40 percent of the worlds
energy, 12 percent of its water and contributes 40 percent of the waste sent to landfill, is a major
part of this problem. However, the building sector can be an even bigger part of the solution.
This is the reason why the concept of green building is introduced.

Many researchers prove that green building or the so-called sustainable architecture has
a significant contribution to the environment, particularly in the protection and preservation of
our natural resources. However, it is also interesting to know why until now, with all those
positive feedbacks, still few embrace the concept of green building in the Philippines. It is also
important to take note of green buildings feasibility when it comes to production cost and
availability and resources. Moreover, green buildings negative impacts, if there are any are not
highlighted in most researches. Some developers like DMCI have already started incorporating
sustainable architecture in some parts of their building designs to provide natural insulation and
heat reduction.

In early 2006, a group of environmental advocates and business leaders convened to
form the Philippine Green Building Council or the PHILGBC with the realization that an
organization is needed to promote greener buildings and coordinate efforts to sustainability.
PHILGBC is taking the lead in ensuring an ecologically and economically sustainable industry
with the development of a local rating green building rating system, aptly named Building for
Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE), and with its conference series, Building
Green, which is an avenue for showcasing sustainability and green technologies and practices
to the industry.

The Philippine Green Building Council is a national not-for-profit organization that
promotes the sharing of knowledge on green practices to the property industry to ensure a
sustainable environment. The Council is an alliance of building and construction industry
leaders from both the public and private sectors that shall be the non-partisan venue to develop
a nationally accepted and recognized green building rating standard. This alone proves that
there is already an improvement here in the Philippines but then again, why is it still not widely
accepted?
The purpose of this study is to carefully examine the development of green building here
in the Philippines. It also looks into the different factors as to why the concept of green building
is not yet widely accepted and/or implemented here in the Philippines. This will enable the
Philippine developers to be more knowledgeable about green building. It will show the pros and
cons of this concept. Also, after the presentation of the reasons why it is not widely accepted
here, certain recommendations will be made to further help the developers find solutions or
alternatives.

The study will focus on BERDE news and PHILGBC data. Since these two, charts or
records any improvement on green building, it is a good and reliable reference for data for the
research. The prediction is that, not even 20 buildings constructed or still constructing is utilizing
the concepts of green building here in the Philippines. The second hypothesis is that, the
number one reason why it is not being utilized in the Philippines is that developers cannot afford
the materials to be used or are not willing to provide the amount of money to buy the materials.
The last hypothesis is that there is a lack in materials that are directly accessible within the
country.













Group 6

Dela Cruz, James
Gallardo, Edward
Cortado, Joan
Lokenab, Irma
Tumbaga, Aimer
Umhao, Kline


References


Crawford, R.H., Czerniakowski, I. & Fuller R.J. (2011). A comprehensive model for streamlining
low-energy building design. Energy and Buildings, 43(7). 1748-1756.

Mahdavi, A., Dopplebauer, E.M. (2010). A performance comparison of passive and low-energy
Buildings. Energy and Buildings, 42(8). 1314-1319.

Marszal, A.J., Heiselberg, P., Jensen, R.L. & Norgaard, J. (2012). On-site or off-site renewable
energy supply options? Life cycle cost analysis of a Net Zero Energy Building in
Denmark.Renewable Energy,44. 154-165.

Philippine Green Building Council. Retrieved on May14, 2014 from
http://kmcmaggroup.com/about-us/company-overview/memberships/pgbc/

Samer M. (2013). Towards the implementation of the green building concept in agricultural
buildings: a literature review. Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 15(2). 25-26.