How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score

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How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score

Reading Time: Approximately 7-8 minutes

How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score

Reading Time: Approximately 7-8 minutes

Key Takeaway: Are you a building owner, developer, or facility manager in Malaysia aiming for a higher green building certification, such as the Green Building Index (GBI) or MyCREST? You might be investing in various sustainable features, but perhaps you're unsure how to truly optimize your building's energy performance, which is a major scoring category. Many struggle to identify the most impactful energy-saving opportunities, leading to less than ideal scores and missed environmental benefits. This article will reveal How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score, demonstrating how this crucial first step provides a clear roadmap to enhanced energy efficiency, directly contributing to higher green ratings, lower operational costs, and compliance with the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024.

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Problem: Malaysian building owners and developers are increasingly recognizing the value of green building certifications like GBI and MyCREST for marketability, sustainability, and potential cost savings. However, achieving high scores in the crucial "Energy Efficiency" categories of these rating systems can be challenging. Many don't have a clear understanding of their building's energy consumption patterns or the most effective strategies to reduce it, leading to a trial-and-error approach or underperforming green initiatives. This often results in lower-than-desired certification scores and missed opportunities for significant operational savings, hindering their green building aspirations.

Agitate: Without a systematic approach to energy performance, buildings risk not only failing to achieve their desired GBI or MyCREST certification levels but also incurring unnecessary operational costs. The new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024 further emphasizes the need for energy efficiency, with potential penalties for non-compliance for large energy consumers and specific buildings. Guesswork in energy improvements wastes resources, delays certification, and fails to leverage the full financial and environmental benefits of a truly efficient building, leaving it vulnerable to rising energy prices and regulatory scrutiny.

Solve: This article explains How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score by providing the foundational data and actionable insights needed for strategic energy efficiency upgrades. We will detail how a comprehensive energy audit pinpoints exact areas of energy waste, quantifies potential savings, and directly contributes to points under the "Energy Efficiency" categories of both GBI and MyCREST. By leveraging a professional energy audit, building owners can make informed decisions, optimize their green building strategies, achieve higher certifications, reduce operating expenses, and ensure compliance with the EECA 2024, unlocking true long-term value.

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Summary

Want your building to be recognized as "green" and save energy? An Energy Audit is your secret weapon! This guide explains How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score.

• What's a Green Building Score? In Malaysia, Green Building Index (GBI) and MyCREST are like report cards that show how environmentally friendly your building is. Higher scores mean better performance.
• Why is Energy Important? Energy efficiency is a HUGE part of these green ratings. If your building uses less energy, it gets more points!
• What's an Energy Audit? It's like a detailed check-up for your building's energy use. Experts look at everything – lights, air conditioning, machines – to find out exactly where energy is being wasted.
• How does an Energy Audit help your score?
• Finds Hidden Waste: It uncovers where you're losing energy (and money!).
• Gives a Plan: It tells you exactly what to fix and how much you'll save.
• Proves Your Efforts: The audit report itself often earns you points.
• Helps you meet new laws: It supports compliance with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024.
• Key Idea: An energy audit gives you the clear information you need to make smart energy upgrades, leading to better green building scores and lower bills!

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1. The Drive for Green Buildings in Malaysia

In Malaysia, more and more building owners and developers want their buildings to be "green." Being green means your building is designed, built, and operated in a way that uses less energy, less water, and creates less waste. It's good for the environment, and it can also save a lot of money on running the building.

Two of the most important ways to show that a building is "green" in Malaysia are through certifications:

• Green Building Index (GBI): This is Malaysia's first and most widely recognized green building rating tool. It evaluates buildings based on six main categories: Energy Efficiency (EE), Indoor Environment Quality (EQ), Sustainable Site Planning & Management (SM), Materials & Resources (MR), Water Efficiency (WE), and Innovation (IN).
• MyCREST (Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool): This tool, developed by CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board), focuses on reducing carbon emissions and improving environmental sustainability throughout a building's entire life cycle (design, construction, operation & maintenance).

Both GBI and MyCREST give buildings points for different green features. The more points you get, the higher your "score" or "rating" (like Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum).

Why do buildings want these scores?

• Better Image: It shows the public and customers that you care about the environment.
• Higher Value: Green buildings can often be sold or rented for more money.
• Attract Tenants: Many modern businesses want to rent space in green buildings.
• Save Money: Green buildings are designed to use less energy and water, which means lower utility bills.
• Meet New Laws: With the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024 now in effect, all large energy users and certain buildings in Malaysia must become more energy efficient. Green certifications help meet these rules.

A very, very important part of both GBI and MyCREST is Energy Efficiency (EE). This category often gives the most points because reducing energy use has a huge impact on the environment and on running costs. So, if you want a high GBI or MyCREST score, you must focus on energy!

But how do you really know how much energy your building uses and where you can save it? That's where an energy audit comes in.

 

2. What Exactly is an Energy Audit?

Imagine your building is like a big house with many rooms and lots of appliances. If your electricity bill is high, and you want to lower it, you wouldn't just randomly unplug things. You'd want to find out which appliances are using the most electricity, when they are being used, and if they are running efficiently.

An energy audit is exactly that, but for an entire building. It's a detailed check-up of your building's energy use, performed by special experts, usually Registered Energy Auditors (REA) certified by the Energy Commission in Malaysia.

Here's what an energy audit usually involves:

• Collecting Data: The auditors look at your past electricity bills, water bills, and any other fuel bills (like natural gas). They also gather information about your building, such as its age, how it's built, its operating hours, and how many people work or live there.
• On-Site Inspection: They walk through your entire building, examining all the energy-using systems. This includes:
• Lighting: What kind of lights are used? Are they on when no one is around? Are there enough windows for natural light?
• Air Conditioning (AC) / HVAC Systems: What type of AC is used (chillers, split units)? How old are they? Are they regularly maintained? Are thermostats set properly?
• Motors and Pumps: For factories or commercial buildings, they look at motors used for production, pumps for water, and fans for ventilation. Are these efficient? Are they running all the time?
• Building Envelope: This means the walls, roof, and windows. Is the insulation good? Are there air leaks? Does the sun heat up the building too much through the windows?
• Other Equipment: This could be anything from computers in an office to ovens in a restaurant or specialized machinery in a factory.
• Using Special Tools: Auditors might use thermal cameras to find hot spots or cold spots, air flow meters to check ventilation, or power meters to measure how much electricity individual machines are using.
• Analyzing the Information: After collecting all this data, the auditors analyze it to:
• Figure out exactly where energy is being used (e.g., "40% of our electricity goes to AC, 20% to lighting, 15% to motors," etc.).
• Identify specific areas of waste (e.g., "these old lights use too much power," "that AC unit is too big for the room," "the roof insulation is poor").
• Calculate how much energy (and money!) can be saved by making changes.
• Providing Recommendations (Energy Conservation Measures - ECMs): The most important part of an energy audit is the report. This report will list clear, actionable steps you can take to save energy. For each recommendation, it will often include:
• What to do (e.g., "replace all T8 fluorescent lights with LED tubes").
• How much it will cost.
• How much energy and money you will save.
• How long it will take to get your money back from the savings (payback period).

In short, an energy audit gives you a precise roadmap to make your building more energy-efficient.

 

3. How an Energy Audit Directly Boosts Your GBI Score

The Green Building Index (GBI) places a very strong emphasis on energy efficiency. In fact, the "Energy Efficiency (EE)" category often has the highest number of points available, making it crucial for achieving a good overall GBI rating.

So, How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI Score directly relates to how you earn points in this EE category:

• EE1: Minimum Energy Performance (Points for Audit Report)
• GBI Requirement: Buildings need to show they meet certain minimum energy performance standards. This often means providing an Energy Audit Report prepared by a qualified professional (like a Registered Energy Auditor (REA)). The very act of conducting and submitting a professional energy audit often earns you initial points in this area.
• How an Audit Helps: The energy audit clearly documents your building's current energy use (the "baseline"). This is the starting point from which all improvements are measured. The audit report itself is a key piece of evidence for GBI certification.
• EE5: Advanced or Improved Energy Performance (Points for Actual Savings & Design)
• GBI Requirement: This is where you get significant points for demonstrating that your building's actual energy consumption is much lower than a standard building, or that you've implemented significant energy-saving measures. This is often shown through the Building Energy Intensity (BEI), which is how much energy your building uses per square meter.
• How an Audit Helps:
• Identifies High-Impact ECMs: The energy audit pinpoints the specific areas where you can get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of energy savings (e.g., "upgrading the chiller system will save 30% of your AC energy"). This allows you to prioritize upgrades that will most dramatically lower your BEI.
• Quantifies Savings: The audit provides precise calculations of expected energy savings from each proposed upgrade. This data is essential for the GBI assessment, as it helps prove the positive impact of your planned or completed improvements.
• Informs Design Decisions: For new buildings or major retrofits seeking GBI, the energy audit's findings can directly inform the design team on how to optimize the building envelope, select efficient equipment, and integrate renewable energy, leading to a much more efficient design from the start.
• EE6: Enhanced or Re-commissioning (Points for Ensuring Systems Work Right)
• GBI Requirement: This category awards points for ensuring that a building's energy-using systems are properly installed, tested, and fine-tuned to work efficiently.
• How an Audit Helps: An energy audit often uncovers systems that are not operating correctly (e.g., an AC unit that's short-cycling, or a pump running inefficiently). The audit's recommendations for corrective actions or re-commissioning directly address this GBI criterion.
• EE8: EE Monitoring & Improvement (Points for Tracking and Continuous Improvement)
• GBI Requirement: GBI encourages buildings to continuously monitor their energy performance and look for ongoing ways to improve.
• How an Audit Helps: An energy audit lays the groundwork for an effective energy monitoring system. It identifies where meters are needed, what data to collect, and how to track performance against targets. This data forms the basis for demonstrating continuous improvement for GBI points.
• EE3: Electrical Sub-metering (Points for Detailed Energy Measurement)
• GBI Requirement: GBI awards points for installing sub-meters to track energy use in different parts of the building (e.g., lighting, power, AC).
• How an Audit Helps: An energy audit will often recommend where to install these sub-meters to get the most valuable data. The auditor understands which loads are significant and need separate tracking for effective energy management, directly contributing to this point.

By providing a clear baseline, identifying specific energy-saving opportunities, quantifying potential savings, and offering a roadmap for monitoring and improvement, an energy audit serves as the fundamental tool for maximizing your building's score in the GBI's Energy Efficiency category.

 

4. How an Energy Audit Contributes to Your MyCREST Score

MyCREST (Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool) also heavily weights energy performance, particularly focusing on carbon emissions related to energy use. Like GBI, an energy audit is invaluable for boosting your MyCREST score.

MyCREST evaluates buildings across three main phases: Design, Construction, and Operation & Maintenance (O&M). An energy audit is most impactful in the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) phase for existing buildings, but its principles apply to the design stage as well.

Here's How an Energy Audit Can Improve Your Building's GBI or MyCREST Score specifically for MyCREST:

• EP (Energy Performance Impact) Category: This is the core category for energy in MyCREST, covering aspects like:
• Energy Consumption Reduction: MyCREST awards points for actual reduction in energy consumption and associated carbon emissions.
• Energy Benchmarking: Comparing your building's energy performance against similar buildings.
• Renewable Energy Generation: Using solar panels or other green energy sources.
• Energy Management System (EnMS): Implementing a structured system to manage energy.
• Energy Performance Monitoring: Continuously tracking energy use.
• How an Audit Helps:
• Baseline Establishment: The energy audit clearly establishes your current energy consumption baseline. MyCREST requires this baseline to measure any improvements you make.
• Identification of Carbon Reduction Opportunities: Since energy consumption directly leads to carbon emissions, the energy audit's recommendations for reducing energy consumption are also direct recommendations for reducing your carbon footprint, which is MyCREST's central focus.
• Quantification of Savings: The audit provides the data needed to calculate projected energy savings and, importantly, the corresponding carbon emission reductions. This quantifiable data is crucial for earning points in MyCREST's carbon-focused categories.
• Informing EnMS Implementation: An energy audit often serves as the first step in setting up an Energy Management System (EnMS), which is also encouraged by MyCREST (and now required by EECA 2024 for certain buildings). The audit helps identify key performance indicators (KPIs) for the EnMS.
• WM (Waste Management & Reduction) Category (Indirectly):
• MyCREST Requirement: This category looks at how well waste is managed, including waste from operations.
• How an Audit Helps: By improving energy efficiency, you might indirectly reduce waste related to energy production (e.g., less fuel burned at power plants) and also reduce waste from prematurely failed inefficient equipment. While not a direct link, overall resource efficiency is a MyCREST theme.
• FM (Sustainable Facility Management) Category:
• MyCREST Requirement: This category promotes sustainable practices in the ongoing operation and maintenance of the building.
• How an Audit Helps: The recommendations from an energy audit often include better maintenance practices for energy-consuming equipment (like regular AC servicing, motor lubrication). Following these recommendations means your facility management becomes more sustainable and energy-efficient, earning points here.
• IN (Sustainable & Carbon Initiatives) Category:
• MyCREST Requirement: This is a bonus category for innovative or exemplary sustainable initiatives.
• How an Audit Helps: If your energy audit uncovers a particularly unique or highly impactful energy-saving opportunity, and you implement it successfully, it could be considered an "innovation" that earns extra points. The detailed analysis from the audit provides the necessary documentation.

Just like with GBI, the energy audit provides the fundamental data, analysis, and recommendations necessary to strategically improve your building's energy performance and achieve higher scores within the MyCREST framework, especially in the critical Energy Performance Impact category.

 

5. Energy Audit and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024

It's crucial to understand that getting a green building certification isn't just about getting points anymore. In Malaysia, the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024, which became law on January 1, 2025, makes energy efficiency a legal requirement for certain types of buildings and large energy consumers.

How does an energy audit help with EECA 2024 compliance?

• Mandatory for Non-Compliance: If a building (especially larger office buildings with a Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 8,000 sqm or more) fails to meet the minimum energy intensity performance standards set by the Energy Commission, the EECA 2024 requires them to undergo an energy audit conducted by a Registered Energy Auditor (REA). The building then must prepare and implement an Energy Efficiency Improvement Plan based on the audit's findings. So, an energy audit is no longer just optional; it's a legal obligation if your building is underperforming.
• Guidance for Improvement Plan: The audit provides the detailed information needed to create a credible and effective Energy Efficiency Improvement Plan that can be submitted to the Energy Commission for approval.
• Baseline Data for Reporting: EECA 2024 also requires energy consumers (those using 21,600 GJ or more annually, about RM2.4 million in annual electricity bills) to collect and report their energy consumption data, often under the guidance of a Registered Energy Manager (REM). An energy audit helps establish an accurate baseline for this reporting.
• Identifying Opportunities for REMs: For "Energy Consumers" required to appoint an REM, the energy audit provides the REM with a detailed starting point to implement an Energy Management System (EnMS) and identify immediate energy-saving projects.

So, undertaking an energy audit not only helps you get green building points but also ensures your building is on the right track for compliance with national energy efficiency laws, avoiding potential penalties.

 

6. The Process: What to Expect During an Energy Audit

If you're considering an energy audit to improve your building's GBI or MyCREST score, here's a general idea of what the process involves:

1. Select a Qualified Auditor: Choose a reputable energy auditing firm with Registered Energy Auditors (REA) certified by the Energy Commission. Look for firms with experience in your specific building type (e.g., office, retail, hotel, factory).
2. Initial Meeting & Data Request: The auditors will meet with you to understand your building, its operations, and your energy concerns. They'll request past utility bills (12-24 months), building plans, equipment lists, and maintenance records.
3. Site Visit & Data Collection: The auditors will spend time at your building, performing detailed inspections of all energy-consuming systems. They might install temporary monitoring equipment to gather real-time data on electricity consumption, temperature, humidity, and air flow. They will also interview your facility staff.
4. Analysis & Calculations: Back at their office, the auditors will analyze all the collected data. They use specialized software and their expertise to identify energy waste, calculate potential savings for various upgrades (ECMs), and determine payback periods.
5. Audit Report & Recommendations: You'll receive a comprehensive report. This report will typically include:
• A summary of your current energy use and costs.
• Breakdown of energy consumption by different systems (e.g., lighting, AC, equipment).
• A list of recommended Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), prioritized by potential savings and cost-effectiveness.
• Estimated costs for implementing each ECM.
• Projected energy and cost savings for each ECM.
• Simple payback period for each ECM.
• Recommendations for ongoing energy management and monitoring.
6. Presentation & Discussion: The auditors will present their findings to you and your team, explaining the recommendations and answering any questions you have. This is your chance to understand the roadmap for improvement.
7. Implementation & Monitoring: You decide which recommendations to implement. After implementation, it's crucial to monitor the energy consumption to verify the actual savings, which directly helps in demonstrating performance for your GBI or MyCREST certification.

An energy audit is not just a document; it's a strategic tool that empowers you to make informed decisions about your building's energy future.

In conclusion, an energy audit is the strategic starting point for any building owner or manager in Malaysia aspiring to achieve higher green building certifications like GBI or MyCREST, or to ensure compliance with the crucial Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA) 2024. By providing a detailed analysis of your building's energy consumption, pinpointing precise areas of waste, and offering a clear roadmap of actionable recommendations, an energy audit directly contributes to the significant "Energy Efficiency" categories within these rating tools. It transforms guesswork into data-driven decisions, leading to not only improved certification scores and enhanced sustainability but also substantial, measurable reductions in your operational costs. Investing in a professional energy audit is investing in your building's long-term value, marketability, and environmental responsibility.

Are you ready to unlock your building's full energy-saving potential and boost its green building credentials? Don't leave your GBI or MyCREST score to chance. Our team of certified Registered Energy Auditors (REA) and energy experts is equipped to conduct thorough energy audits, identify optimal saving opportunities, and provide you with the detailed reports needed for both certification and compliance with EECA 2024. Take the definitive first step towards a greener, more cost-efficient building. WhatsApp or call us today at 0133006284 for a strategic discussion on how an energy audit can transform your building.