Clearpoint Residencies becomes highest-rated green building in Sri Lanka

From left: Maga Engineering Director Finance and Planning Mega Kularatne, and Maga Assistant General Manager and Clearpoint Residencies Project Manager Saman Mahawatte receiving the award from Green Building Council of Sri Lanka Chairman Prof. Ranjith Dissanayake. Chief Guest of the event Prof. Ajith De Alwis of Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Moratuwa is also seen  

Clearpoint Residences, Rajagiriya, has been awarded with the Platinum Rating Certification under the GREEN Rating System for Built Environment, at the Annual Green Building Awards Ceremony 2018 held at Earls Regency Hotel, Kandy last week. 

This prestigious awards ceremony was organised by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka with the prime objective of promoting cost effective high performance environmentally friendly green buildings incorporated with extremely efficient energy and water saving mechanisms and measures taken to ensure healthy and comfortable indoor environment. Furthermore, this awards scheme recognises the developers who aspire to implement such green building practices as a value addition to both their product and to the real estate industry as a whole. 

The Sri Lanka Green Rating System for existing buildings is a set of performance standards used to certify the operations and maintenance of all forms of commercial or institutional buildings and residential buildings of all sizes, both public and private. Platinum is the highest rating a green building can earn under the GREEN Rating System. As per this rating system, Clearpoint Residencies is one of the highest-rated green buildings in Sri Lanka.

Regarded as the ‘tallest vertical garden in the world’, Clearpoint Residences is a joint venture between Milroy Perera Associates and Maga Engineering. The brainchild of renowned architect Milroy Perera, the residential apartment tower is a fully-fledged green building which accommodates 171 apartments across 47 floors. It’s most unique feature, the planted terraces encircling the building, gives the building its character while providing many practical benefits.

The formation of a green cover provides a natural cooling system for the entire building, resulting not only in a fresher, more relaxing atmosphere, but also less energy consumption on air-conditioning. This blanket of trees endows the building with an innate sound-proofing system. It also provides shade and acts as a buffer against radiated heat. Clearpoint Residencies is also the first high-rise building in Sri Lanka to contain a fully-fledged rainwater harvesting system, automated drip irrigation system, grey-water recycling system and solid waste disposal system, in addition to solar panels that can power all its common areas. This one-of-a-kind condominium also promotes clean energy amongst its residents by having an electric charging station within the premises. 

Commenting on this significant achievement, Maga Engineering Chairman and Managing Director M.G. Kularatne said, “Clearpoint Residencies has been recognised on many occasions for being an exceptional building with its unique sustainability features. Of equal importance was the way we managed the construction with utmost concern for the environmental nerve points in the surroundings. This Platinum Green Rating will further add value to the property and benefit the residents who have already occupied their apartments at Clearpoint Residencies. I would like to convey my grateful appreciation of the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka for their pioneering efforts to implement the Sri Lanka Green Rating System and create much needed impetus amongst Sri Lanka’s developers and builders to embrace sustainability ideals.’’ 

Arosha Perera, Director of Milroy Perera Associates and Lead Architect for Clearpoint Residencies added, “It is an honour for Clearpoint Residencies to secure the Platinum Green Rating by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka. This platinum rating is testimony to our holistic efforts to realise a unique and fully-fledged green building which has set a benchmark not only in Sri Lanka but in the world. Through this holistic approach, we have been able to design and construct a building possessing sustainability, technology, spaciousness and most notably cost-efficiencies, using a team comprising of solely local designers and contractors.”

A Green Environmental Rating System applicable to Sri Lanka has been formulated as a ‘home-grown system’ with all norms acceptable to leading rating systems, after conducting research projects and workshops by an Expert Committee appointed by the GBCSL, with the assistance of national and international experts. The Expert Committee has studied the experiences of green building initiatives of India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, which are the rapidly growing economies in our region. The GBCSL commissioned a panel of Certified Assessors to validate the documentation for all claimed credits and assure that they conform to the compliance requirements as outlined in the ratings document.