Implementation of the green rating system for public sector buildings in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Green buildings are becoming the pioneering of sustainable development and gaining mainstream acceptance as an answer to growing global energy demands. Hence, governments worldwide take many key initiatives in implementing this concept. Rating systems encourage and promote green design. As many existing programs offer multiple levels of certification, the design/building community is encouraged to continually strive for new sustainable goals. This research attempts to identify the challenges faced by the Sri Lankan public sector in implementing green building concept. Accordingly, it has identified that the concept is still new to the public sector and considerable changes shall be made within the entire government procedures to run the green rating system to harness its potentials and implemented to a successful green building design. The research finds drawbacks in the knowledge of the green concepts within the stakeholders within a public sector building project. However, it is worth noting that the officers of the Sri Lanka Engineering Service, and Sri Lanka Architectural Service have the most comprehensive knowledge of the subject. Further, this research identifies that currently the green requirement is only for regulatory approvals. The proper implementation and execution of sustainable design concepts are not addressed to the project, making the whole system useless.