The conceptual model of life cycle costing automation on green building energy efficient criteria

Abstract

Sustainability is nowadays prominent in Malaysia building industry. According to Green Building Index Sdn Bhd (Malaysia?s International Green Benchmark), more than 100 Million square feet Green Buildings were certified since 2009. However, building investors are facing the same perception as the initial cost on investment of the green concept especially on Energy Efficient (EE) approaches is very high. The uncertainties of Return on Investment (ROI) caused building industry players reluctant to incorporate the green concept in their project. Therefore, there is a need for further development of the decision making systems to support building industry in the application of their expertise, and also assist less-experienced decision makers to taking into account the continuous development of green technological expertise in energy efficient solutions. Hence, the application of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in the decision-making process represents the best method to increase sustainable building practice to meet the green building standard. This research aims to study the relationship of LCC and EE criteria of Green Building and to develop conceptual model of user requirements for LCC and EE criteria automation. Questionnaire and interview were conducted among green experts to verify the data and the conceptual model. The data from questionnaire were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) to obtain the mean and standard deviation values to identify the significant elements of LCC and EE criteria. The results show that there are significant relationships between LCC and EE criteria which can be used in order to develop the conceptual model of LCC automation on green building EE criteria.