SUSTAINABILITY and environment-friendly are some of the watchwords nowadays as people are becoming increasingly aware of the need to protect the environment and along with it, one’s health as they are intertwined. Several organizations or institutions have emerged to promote these two attributes. One of them is the Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC), which established the Berde (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) program.

What is Berde?

Established in 2009 with the support of the Department of Energy, the Berde program was created as “an appropriate response to the Philippine building industry’s need to proactively address the negative impacts of climate change. The program was established to develop the Philippines’ own national voluntary green building rating system to facilitate green building projects in the country, inspire confidence in the industry and build trust in the industry,” according to the PHILGBC website.

It is “a tool to assess, measure, monitor and certify the performance of green building projects above and beyond existing national and local building, and environmental laws, regulations and mandatory standards,” it continued.

“Berde is developed through a consensus-based decisionmaking process that involves the various materially affected stakeholders in the building industry. Stakeholders are consulted throughout the development process,” said Chester de la Cruz, a senior staff at the PHILGBC National Secretariat.

Berde vs LEED

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a widely recognized rating system in the world established by the US Green Building Council. In terms of purpose and function, both LEED and Berde are the same in the sense they are tools to assess, measure, monitor and certify the performance of green building projects.

However, they differ in the sense that every country’s experiences and conditions are different as factors like climate and environmental priorities, technology level, laws, and standards and regulations are taken into account.

“It was through a series of discussions with the different industry stakeholder groups that Berde came to be. In 2007, stakeholders of the Philippine building and construction industry decided to develop the Philippines’ own green building rating system,” said de la Cruz.

“What’s a plus with Berde is that aside from looking into resource efficiency and conservation, we also look into management, green procurement, health and well-being, waste management and other socioeconomic inputs contributing to green buildings including green jobs, heritage conservation, among others,” he added.

How to be Berde certified?

The PHILGBC is tasked with certifying construction projects for Berde certification. It builds trust and confidence in the system by managing and addressing conflicts of interests between the project, the project team and the assessment team assigned for the project.

These projects may undergo a certification process under each of the assessment stage depending on the project type and the project’s life cycle. This may range from a new construction project (about to be built) to improving an existing project (already built).

Certified buildings are rated with stars depending on the outcome of the assessment. The lowest is 1 Star (good practice) and the highest is 5 Star (world class).

Berde is for whom?

Berde is for all building professionals as it recommends the best practices. Berde provides various Green Building Rating Schemes for use in designing, constructing and operating projects in a resource-efficient, economically viable and socially responsible manner.

Since its inception, Berde has been practiced and several buildings in the Philippines were built according to its standards. The following are some buildings in Metro Manila that have Berde certification — Mastercard Manila Office at Ayala Tower One Exchange Plaza, Ayala Avenue, Ayala Triangle, Makati. (Berde 1 Star), Mandani Bay Suites Tower 1 and Tower 2 of HTLand Inc. in Mandaue City, Cebu (Berde 5 Stars), and the Six/Neo at the Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, which has also completed certification for both new construction and operations, achieving a 4-Star rating under Berde GBRS New Construction version 1, and a 5-Star rating for Green Building Certification for its operations.

The above-mentioned buildings have the common features that earned them Berde certification — highly efficient façade consisting of a sunshade envelope and full glass wall of double glazed low-emissivity glass; green roof skypark, green walls, condensate water harvesting, VRV inverter air-conditioning, water-saving fixtures, water-less urinals, low-flush toilets, charging stations for e-vehicles, LED lights in common areas, solid waste management facilities and renewable energy sources.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority Building in Quezon City is the first government building to undergo a Berde certification (Berde 3 Star). Among the features it has are accessible vegetated open spaces, green screen on the west side, 50 percent of the parking area is under shade, constructed wetlands for effluent water treatment, reed bed and polishing pond with bubble diffusers, rainwater collection tank, naturally ventilated space, preferred parking provision for fuel efficient vehicle, external views and natural daylight, and materials recovery facility.

The Berde standard is unique as it is designed with the Philippine setting in mind but still aims for the highest standard in design and construction.