A BRITISH politician once remarked that a wind turbine should be put on top of an airport building not because it could produce much power, but because it would make the building look 'green'.
The incident, says the Malaysian ecologist and architect Ken Yeang, is typical of 'greenwashing', where eco-friendly gadgets are there for the cachet they bring rather than the environmental good they do.
Dr Yeang, 61, who has spent most of his 35-year career pinning down what exactly it takes to create ecologically sensitive buildings, reckons he knows only a couple of dozen designers worldwide who are clued-up on the subject.
A general lack of understanding means he comes across misconceptions 'all the time'.
Dr Yeang, who will be in Singapore later this month for a sustainability conference organised by lifestyle company The Annix Group, thinks building owners and architects like to flash figures on energy consumption and recycling rates to prove that their buildings are environmentally friendly.
'The belief is that if you stuff a building with enough eco-technology, gadgets and low-energy or zero-energy systems, you have a green building,' he says.
'The second misperception is that if your building is rated or accredited with a high score, for example Singapore's Green Mark Platinum rating, it is automatically a green building.'
.../
Source: PropertyGuru, 2009-09-09, Link
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment