Office Tower Owned by QI Group Wins Award for its Green Practices

The QI Tower, owned by the QI Group, becomes the first Green Mark high rise existing office building in Malaysia to win the prestigious Green Mark award, given by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore in recognition of the building’s best practices in environmental design and performance.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (PRWEB) February 27, 2013
The 15-storey QI Tower has won the much-coveted Green Mark Gold award for Non-Residential Existing Building, conferred by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore.


The QI Tower thus becomes the first Green Mark high rise existing office building in Malaysia to receive this prestigious accolade in recognition of the building’s best practices in environmental design and performance. This is one of the highest levels of ranking for the BCA’s Green Mark scheme introduced in 2005.


“We are very pleased that QI Tower has stood out with its exemplary green achievement. Our support for environmental sustainability not only reaps cost savings but will also benefit our staff housed in the building.


“We decided to go green from the moment we purchased this building in 2009, ignited by the Green Building concept in Malaysia. This was followed by our certification process in late 2010, culminating with this accreditation,” said QI Group’s Executive Chairman, Vijay Eswaran.


The QI Tower belongs to the QI Group of Companies, a multinational conglomerate comprising a dynamic group of businesses with regional offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines and a wide range of subsidiary companies in nearly 30 countries.


The Group, founded by Vijay Eswaran, has six main business lines diversified into lifestyle & leisure, luxury & collectibles, training and education, property development and project management, logistics and an e-commerce based retail & direct sales business.


The BCA Green Mark for Non-Residential Existing Buildings rates a facility’s eco-friendliness based on criteria such as energy and water efficiency, building management, indoor environmental quality and innovation.


“We worked tirelessly for this accreditation as this building was not constructed with green in mind. The gradual renovation works which was in strict adherence to the green building concept, required meticulous planning and lengthy processes.


“Achieving the Gold standard means QI Tower has approximately 20% energy savings compared to a similar size building without energy saving features. It also recognizes that both the internal office area and the building itself have achieved highest sustainability rating for existing buildings from the BCA,” noted Mr Eswaran.


According to Mr Eswaran, the QI Tower has incorporated various green initiatives and attained a level of environmental friendliness befitting the BCA Green Mark Gold award.


“We hope to put in additional green features for environmental sustainability and increase the level of environmental friendliness significantly as our next target is to aim for the Green Mark Platinum accreditation,” added Mr Eswaran.


The next phase at QI Tower is the continuation of the sustainable and environmental features of Phase One. This would include achieving an improvement of about 20% more for the Energy Efficiency Index.


To clinch the highest tier of Green Mark Platinum Award, buildings must meet all pre-requisite requirements and obtain a score of 90 or higher in the scheme's assessment of performance in energy efficiency, water efficiency, environmental protection, indoor environmental quality and other green features and innovations.