Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) made history recently, when its new headquarters became the first building in the State to achieve ‘Green Building’ status.
The nine-storey office building – designed originally as a Low- Energy Building – delivers low power consumption of 120kWh/m2 annually, with office facilities to accommodate 1,500 people, achieving a dramatic improvement with these figures alone.
The facade has double solar control glazing that lets in only visible light, and exterior shading for glare control and redirection of daylight into the building.
The lighting system is controlled according to daylight availability and occupation.
Making use of double-glazing, careful shading and energy efficient ‘chillers’ to reduce its energy consumption, SEB’s headquarters recently registered itself as the first building in Sarawak to achieve the Certified Green Building Index (GBI) rating.
“The first striking feature of this building is that there is a lot of natural light and open space,” said Mr Torstein Dale Sjotveit, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sarawak Energy at the inauguration of the building by Chief Minister YAB Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud on September 19 last year.
Working environments have a significant impact on employee productivity and this building offers better day lighting, outdoor views, and indoor air quality for occupants to enjoy. Moreover, occupant comfort and satisfaction reduces sick time, improves workplace occupancy rates and most importantly, improves productivity.
Green or sustainable buildings are those that are designed to save energy and resources, recycle materials, and minimize the emission of toxic substances throughout their life cycles.
In addition, the building promises to have more efficient energy consumption, taking all of these life cycle impacts into account with the goal of maximizing efficiency and minimising waste in every phase of construction.
Another feature of the building is the open concept employed in the design.
The building is designed to be well-ventilated; yielding a breezy and cool environment to work in.
Employees can now enjoy better air quality indoors, and an overall healthier and more comfortable working environment, while surrounding neighbourhoods will also see improved environmental performances because of this building.
Furthermore, this state-of-theart design takes the architectural design standards to a whole new level in Sarawak.
The interior design of SEB’s green building has an ellipsoidal plan form, with a high volume ellipsoidal central atrium.
Two glazed office volumes (north and south) are spanned between two ‘solid’ cladded volumes on the east and west wings, and a combination of ascending double roofs mark a dramatic ‘termination’ to the office building.
Another notable feature of the building in minimising the impact on the environment is the underground car park, which requires minimal lighting because two glass panels, located at the lobby, allows natural sunlight to shine through and thus help contribute towards energy savings.
Mirroring the human body, which changes and adapts automatically to its environment, this building can make better and better automatic decisions with converged solutions.
For example, lights will automatically switch on when a person enters a room; while the escalator is switched on when it senses a person is about to get on it.
There are a number of reasons as to why organisations should consider going green.
Other than causing less harm to the environment and utilizing resources in the most efficient manner, green buildings also offer significant operational savings and increased workplace productivity.
They also send out the message that an organisation is run efficiently, is responsible, and is committed to the future.
While green solutions have long been adopted by builders and property developers in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, it is still in its early stage here in Malaysia.
As such, Sarawak can be proud that a government-linked company such as SEB has chosen to go green with its new headquarters, and hopefully starting a trend towards more green buildings throughout the State.
