BLC Headquarter Building receives Bronze ARZ rating
February 21, 2012
Your Excellency, Minister of Environment
Mr. Nehme, Mr. Jacobs,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Lebanon Green Building Council is excited to announce that BLC Headquarters Building of 3900 m2- Adlieh Square in Beirut is the first ARZ rated building, meeting a credible score in green building and performance measures and is awarded the ARZ Bronze Certificate.
Before going further, let me brief you on the activities of LGBC, ARZ Rating system and about the future of built environment in Lebanon specially when seeing institutions and corporations are heading towards undertaking the CSR and other green initiatives.
As you may know, Lebanon is not very different from other developing or even developed countries, in facing shortages, depletion and degradations in environmental resources, and qualities, share holder of global contribution to global warming, natural resources consumption, land occupation and transformation and human health impacts, and is continuously seeking sustainable means for conserving such resources. Sustainability issues over here in Lebanon are evident when facing crisis of energy and electricity supply, water, production of pollutants, the most recent (Red Beirut River).
So how are we going to manage and abate such negative impacts?
Many sectors began recently to recognize the impacts of their activities on availability of resources by tracing the three components: environment, Social and economic, to seek avenues to mitigate significantly the negative impacts, and to improve the positive attributes. The commercial building owners in particular, has recently begun to acknowledge their responsibilities not only for the environment, but also for social impacts, resulting in a shift in how buildings are designed, built, and most importantly , how operating or performing. This shift in attitude has been driven in large part by a growing market demand for environmentally sound and energy efficient products and services. A central issue in striving towards reduced impacts is the need for an applicable and meaningful yardstick for measuring environmental and energy performance.
Evidence continues to stack up in the form of updated studies that green practices are conserving energy, using water efficiently, reducing long-term operating and occupancy costs, improving occupant health and boosting employee productivity – though not all those variables are fully understood or measureable as yet.
In banking language, It is found out, on average, a capital investment increase of 2% – 6% compared to a conventional building was amortized by more than ten times this sum in savings over the lifetime of the building. Reports of tangible business benefits such as increased ROI, occupancy and rent from green projects are becoming more consistent and measurable over time.
Less visible benefits of green building are also garnering interest. For instance, one can establish a link between indoor environmental quality on the one hand and higher productivity and better health on the other hand. Increased worker performance alone could amount to up to billions Lebanese pounds in efficiency gains. Hundreds billions Lebanese pounds could be saved thanks to fewer occurrence of asthma, allergies and sick building syndrome.
Concern for the sociol, economic and environmental impacts of buildings around the country has led to the founding of the organization LGBC. The Lebanon Green building Council was chartered, in 2008 by 10 founding members, today of 100 members (corporate and individual). A non- to – profit organization whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient, healthier and environmentally sustainable building practices by promoting practical green building approaches and to to work on improving the Lebanese built environment through the development of technical standards and adopting Building rating systems. LGBC had joined the World Green Building Council, WGBC and is an active member in the MENA Region of WGBC. LGBC is now recognized by many international forums as a participant in many UN agencies, EU, and other International Associate societies.
Worldwide, a variety of assessment programs have been developed around environmental and energy impacts of buildings.
LGBC, in turn, has developed the ARZ Green Building Rating System, in 2011 a trademarked system that is considered the standard of excellence for energy-efficient, environmentally sound buildings in Lebanon. ARZ certification, is a green building guidance and assessment program offering an effective, affordable way to advance the overall environmental performance and sustainability of commercial buildings.
The ARZ BRS for commercial existing buildings was developed, in cooperation and with the generous support of the International Finance Corporation Consultants. Thousands of hours were volunteered by LGBC members and board members and the support of the international IFC consultants that resulted in the ARZ BRS, a program that provides Lebanese yardstick for measuring the environmental, social and energy performance of buildings.
ARZ is a made in Lebanon preeminent rating system, developed after deliberate consultations with the various stake holders of the built environment taking into consideration the life style, culture, local available resources and the “innovative Lebanese means” for making up for the shortages or unavailability of the resources. The ARZ assessment takes into consideration everything of seven key elements: energy performance, air conditioning systems, electrical system, Building envelope, materials, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality, Operation & Management and Water conservation.
The value of ARZ BRS is gaining recognition in the marketplace. Benchmarking energy efficiency and social and environmental benefits remains a challenge, the consensus in the industry is that it will create widespread awareness campaign for uncovering the real value of sustainable practices.
The board of trustees of ARZ comprising of the stakeholders: namely Order of Engineers, Municipality of Beirut, LCEC, IRI, Ministry of Environment, LIBNOR, Directorate of Town Planning and NGO Terre, and in the presence of IFC Director is convening tomorrow Wed. to kick off the ARZ BRS guiding principles, monitoring and performance tasks and its code of ethics.
It will be a great accomplishment for Lebanon and a testament to the drive, commitment and leadership of our local building industry.
The Lebanon Green Building Council is pleased to award the first ARZ BR to BLC. This is a success story on many levels. Because BLC took the initiative to require ARZ Rating certification on its headquarters building, BLC has realized so much benefit from the program that they are now working toward having all of their new construction built this way and existing branches to undergo similar assessment.
“It is fitting that this premier financial institution, BLC, receives an ARZ designation. Going for the BRONZE has special meaning for BLC which has the honor of being the first building awarded an ARZ certification.
Here at Lebanon Green Building Council we hope that this BLC building will serve as an example and model for future buildings in Lebanon and probably around the region and we are excited to see BLC takes a part in leading this new process of green rating buildings.
Together, let us work on converting our building to healthier, more efficient buildings that serve our Country.It’s going to take time before appraisers recognize the value we see from our data, those who can read the data, and BLC among them, will reap the economic, social and environmental gains, is’nt an opportunity for all stakeholders to voluntarily fulfill their social, economic, environmental and ethical responsibilities !!!
In my name and the name of the Board members of LGBC and ARZ Executive officer, we are very pleased to hand Mr. Nehme the trophy of the Bronze ARZ in recognition of BLC Green achievements.
Dr. Samir R. Traboulsi, PhD., P.Eng.
Lebanon Green Building Council, President
