Momentum Builds for LGBC’s Lebanon Green Building Rating System
February 24, 2011
Lebanon Green Building Council, LGBC together with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, recently completed two days of stakeholder consultations as the organizations prepare to unveil the first made-in-Lebanon green building rating system—known as ARZ—to promote the efficient use of energy and water in the country’s commercial buildings.
Representatives from Lebanon’s banking, construction, property management, engineering and government sectors came together in Beirut to explore not only the environmental and reputational benefits of “greening” existing properties, but also the technical means to do so and the development of creative financing incentives to make it viable.
“The strong turnout these last two days demonstrates the interest of various stakeholders to develop a rating system that is applicable to Lebanon,” said LGBC president, Dr. Samir Traboulsi “Given the need for reducing voluntarily the energy consumption as well as the water consumption, the need for providing an environmental healthy enclosures, developing ARZ Green Building Rating System by which wasted resources can be measured is the first step in the process.”
Lebanon is entirely dependent on imported fuel and its power production facilities currently meet only 70 percent of the country’s growing electricity needs. Because of this, most buildings pay twice for power; once to buy electricity from the national grid, and again to keep a backup generator running to guard against regular blackouts, which equates to both costly and wasted energy.
Potential green building initiatives range from the simple, like covering a building’s glass surfaces in tinted film to prevent the interior from overheating and requiring excess air conditioning, to the complex, like rebuilding a structure’s walls with thermal insulation to ensure energy put to cooling the building is not wasted.
The introduction of the ARZ rating system is just one among other projects of LGBC, which aims to demonstrate to building owners and financial institutions the strong business case for retrofitting the country’s existing building stock.
