CTCI REI´s Expertise in Green Buildings

Compared to many things, buildings have longer life cycles, often spanning 40 to 50 years before demolishment. The way of building them will greatly affect how energy-intensive buildings become. Given the urgency to cut energy consumption and the likely carbon emissions that come from energy consumption to cope with climate change, making buildings greener becomes an imperative. 

CTCI Resources Engineering Inc. (CTCI REI), an affiliate of CTCI Group, has been actively promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction in office buildings, underground parking lots, various factories, and MRT stations for over 20 years. CTCI REI is an award-winning company that specializes in designing and constructing officially certified green buildings. Since 2000, the company has adopted full life cycle thinking in all building designs. 

Green buildings in Taiwan primarily follow the green building standard released by Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior. There has been a shift from passive to active approach in defining “green building”: In the past, green buildings were buildings that “consume minimal natural resources and generate minimal waste.” Today, green buildings are ones that are “eco-friendly, energy-saving, waste-saving, and healthy.” Nine major indicators of green building include: greenery level, soil water content, water resource, energy saving, CO2 emissions reduction, waste reduction, sewage and garbage improvement, biodiversity, and indoor environment. 

To design a green building, an engineering company takes into account the nature of building base as well as the needs of the owner, then identifies which green building indicator is worth pursuing and the most beneficial. Afterwards, the engineering company takes a lifecycle approach in the design process and looks for the most cost-effective, easy-to-maintain solutions to meet such indicators. Solutions include selecting suitable building materials, equipment and construction methods, or adopting quantifiable green building evaluation method that complies with laws and regulations. Table 1 is an overview of CTCI REI’s specific design methods that match each indicator’s requirement.

Table 1: Green building indicators and specific design methods

Thanks to CTCI REI´s expertise and experience in green design, more than 30 buildings have successfully obtained green building labels. These buildings include offices, factories, parking lots, and MRT stations (see Table 2). In total, they help save 7,464,272 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power 24,635 households per month in Taiwan. They also help reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 3,972,402 kg CO2e, or equivalent to 1.02 Daan Forest Park´s absorption of CO2. Moreover, they help save 352,391m³ of water consumed annually in Taiwan.

One notable example is the detailed design and supervision project for six stations of Taoyuan Airport MRT. In absence of sound regulations and “green” stations in Taiwan to draw experience from, CTCI REI took great deal of effort to overcome all difficulties to help these six stations become the first in Taiwan to be certified as green buildings.

Another example worthy of mention is the engineering, procurement, and construction project for CTCI´s Second Headquarters building. In view of the ever-increasing demand to cut carbon emissions in all high-tech factories and offices owned by foreign or multi-national companies, CTCI REI has decided to follow global trend and adopted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) evaluation system, which is certified by the United States Green Building Council, in building design. CTCI Second Headquarters is not only known as a LEED Gold Label building, but also a Diamond Level green building by Taiwan’s own green standards. The building helps save about 20% of electricity, is sustainable and eco-friendly.

CTCI REI will continue to commit to designing and constructing more buildings that meet the needs of the circumstance and offer healthy, comfortable, and eco-friendly benefits, helping the world become low-carbon and sustainable.

Table 2: Notable green building projects undertaken by CTCI REI