Ken Holdings goes green in all future developments

Ken Holdings Bhd, winner of the inaugural The Edge-PAM Green Excellence Award 2010 for its Ken Bangsar development, wants to be a model of green building practices in the industry.

It had not expected the redevelopment of an unused office building into high-end highrise residences with green features to garner accolades.  Almost 70% of the building material of the original structure were reused or recyled

“We only wanted to show the industry the work and design we have done,”said its managing director Kenny Tan at the The Edge Property Excellence Awards TPDA) last Thusrday.

“When we built Ken Bangsar, we have a lot of ‘caring and sharing’ in mind. We are happy that our hard work has paid off. Our work has been recognised and this is most important,” he added.

Ken Holdings will be going green in all its future developments, said Tan. Its recently launched terraced homes development in Shah Alam, Ken Rimba Legian Residences, is the first landed development in the country to be awarded the Singapore BCA Green Mark Gold (provisional) award. Its commercial component, Ken Rimba Commercial Centre is also the first of its kind to be awarded the BCA Green Mark Certified (provisional) award.

The developer is looking to build an office tower, Ken TTDI, in Taman Tun Dr Ismail as well as a boutique hotel in Batu Feringghi, Penang next.  

Tan notes that the trend towards green buildings is in tandem with the government’s call to developers to engage in the adoption of green technology in his speech during the awards night.

“As Housing and Local Government Minister said, it is not enough to do it alone… it is everybody’s job. For us, even if we can’t save the whole earth, we can at least save energy, water and resources. We just start small. When the direction set is very clear, everyone else will follow,”

“We hope the government will continue to provide subsidies for green building development. Hopefully by doing that, people understand the importance of green buildings and how we can contribute to conserving the environment. Once the demand and supply balance out, the cost for green buildings will be reduced in the long run. I’m happy to see that every developer is moving to that direction,” Tan said.


This article appeared on the The Edge Property Excellence Awards 2010 page, The Edge Financial Daily, October 11, 2010.