The Trinidad and Tobago Green Building Council (TTGBC) has presented Caribbean real estate development firm RGM with an award in recognition of the country’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified Green Building at Savannah East, Port-of-Spain.
The council’s president Devanand Ragbir presented RGM’s Senior Manager, Facilities Services, Ronald Ayoung with the award and a gift of renewable energy certificates (RECs) for 100 MWh of power.
Savannah East, which was completed last year, has been certified Silver under the LEED green building rating system developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
TTGBC vice president of Marketing and Communications Chad Lue Choy said, “This represents a significant milestone in T&T’s path to sustainability.”
He noted, “It is a very concrete testament that sustainable green building strategies can be applied in an economically feasible manner in T&T. It also represents a certain degree of validation for the TTGBC.”
Lue Choy added, “Lastly, the Savannah East building puts T&T on the list of countries that have demonstrated an international commitment to the creation of a healthy and sustainable built environment.”
The building boasts a number of green features including achieving energy efficiencies or savings of 23 per cent over that of conventional buildings.
This was achieved through the design and implementation of various lighting strategies, building management system controls, an energy efficient variant refrigerant flow air conditioning system, insulated building envelope and renewable energy generation systems.
At present, more than five per cent of the building’s overall energy needs are generated through rooftop solar systems.
The photovoltaic system installed to promote clean and sustainable energy generation, produces about 20 kW of power and is the largest system installed in T&T to date.
The gift that came with the TTGBC award has its own environmental significance.
Lue Choy said: “We wanted to present them with something that was both meaningful as well as carried a low carbon impact. We specifically chose this over more traditional forms of recognition like plaques and trophies.”
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency: “A renewable energy certificate is a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the environmental, social and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.”
RECs are issued when one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource.
The TTGBC has been a strong voice of advocacy of sustainable design in this country.
According to its website: “Our mission is to transform the way T&T’s buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.”
Established in 2010, the TTGBC held its most recent AGM in September last year at the Marriott Courtyard where they elected Devanand Ragbir as President;, Alyssa Kurbanali as Secretary; Mali Quamina as VP, Public Relations; David Fojo as VP, Advocacy; Chad Lue Choy as VP, Marketing and Communications; Colin Cockburn as VP, Research and Development; and Mandilee Newton as Treasurer.