The Ukrainian Green Building Council (UaGBC, Kyiv) plans to introduce international standards of "green" building in Ukraine and create a national green standard in the country, UaGBC Executive Director Stanyslav Shulha has said.
"We see as our goal the creation of a national 'green' standard - the creation of a system similar to LEED, DGNB or BREEAM," he said at a briefing in Kyiv last week.
Shulha said that the certification of real estate projects in line with the standards of "green" building is absolutely voluntary, and today there are around 10 systems of such standards in the world, among which are LEED in the United States, DGNB in Germany and BREEAM in Britain.
The UaGBC also plans to initiate amendments to Ukrainian law and
obtain support from the state in the introduction of green building
standards in Ukraine, he added.
A manager for development at Knauf Insulation Ukraine (Kyiv, the
division of Knauf Group), Hanna Dukhno, said, referring to research by
international companies, that the cost of construction projects realized
in line with green building standards usually grows by up to 12.5%,
although in some cases it falls by 0.4%.
Operating expenses during the exploitation of the facility built to
green standards drops by 20-30% later, and the value of the facility as
an asset grows. On particular, rent rates for space in “green” buildings
are up to 25% higher and their occupancy is 23% higher, she said.
The average buyback period of a green construction project is eight years, Dukhno said.
A representative of the German Sustainable Building Council (the
curator of UaGBC), Michael Dax, said that a pilot project on the
certification of property under DGNB is being realized in Kyiv.
Shulha, who is participating in the realization of the said project
as projects head at Delta ProjectConsult Ukraine (Kyiv, part of the
Delta Group), added that this concerns the building of a multifunctional
residential and office complex in the capital.
“The agreement [with the customer of the green certification] was
signed in January 2012… This is a multifunctional complex: offices,
retail and apartments. They [the customers] are building it using their
own money,” he said, not disclosing other details and the name of the
complex, as the project is at the pre-certification stage.
Shulha also expressed hope that in five years there will be around 30
green projects in Ukraine and state green construction projects will be
realized in the country.
At the end of the briefing, the UaGBC signed a memorandum of cooperation with the National Union of Architects of Ukraine.
The UaGBC was registered in 2012. Its goal is uniting representatives
of the construction, design, and energy areas, as well as ecologists
and lawyers operating in the green building sector.
The UaGBC is a member of the World Green Building Council and it is its only representative in Ukraine.
The co-founders of the UaGBC are Delta ProjectConsult Ukraine, Knauf
Insulation Ukraine, Beten International (Kyiv, the office of the
eponymous French company) and ArtBuild Hotel Group (Kyiv).
