This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 17, 2023 - July 23, 2023

Menara Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru (MBJB) is an impressive, well-designed building with many green features.

Its façade, which is adorned with Islamic-inspired motifs, features laminated Low-E glass with a U-value of 2.8 and shading coefficient (SC) value of 0.35. This acts as a sunshade for the building’s indoor space, MBJB mayor Datuk Mohd Noorazam Osman tells City & Country in a virtual interview. (U-value denotes the rating given to a window based on how much heat loss it allows.)

He adds that the cube structure of Menara MBJB faces 19° north, south, east and west to maximise daylight in the building. The 15-storey building with an atrium staircase consists of ballrooms, office spaces, meeting rooms, an auditorium, a surau and a rooftop garden, among others.

Located in Plentong, Johor Baru, it also features a recessed ground-floor envelope that offers protection from the sun and rain, plenty of vegetation to improve air quality, horizontal shading for effective protection against direct sunlight in low latitudes and a high-performance double skin in its exterior to improve thermal performance through protection from direct radiation. There is also a central courtyard that provides thermal comfort by removing hot air through solar-chimney principles.

“With the courtyard in place, it has helped improve the thermal performance of the building and also provides natural diffuse light to the inner-office spaces,” says Mohd Noorazam.

Menara MBJB received a Special Mention in the Below 10 Years — Specialised category in The Edge Malaysia Best Managed & Sustainable Property Awards 2023.

A Green Building Index (GBI)-certified building with a carbon score of 48% towards zero carbon, Menara MBJB boasts plenty of green features. These include an energy management system to monitor the temperature, relative humidity and digital water meter; motion sensors for lighting that cover over 25% of the building’s net lettable area as well as a daylight glare control system where translucent roller blinds have been installed for all office spaces.

Additionally, the building has a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation, with half of it used for landscape areas; and a pneumatic waste collection system that offers a more hygienic and lower carbon-emitting way of disposing waste.

To maintain these features and the building, Mohd Noorazam says the mandate has been delegated to two parties: maintenance company Lubuk Pertama Sdn Bhd and MBJB itself.

Lubuk Pertama is currently in charge of Menara MBJB’s maintenance works, cleaning, system management, complaint management, pest control, risk assessment and utility-saving efforts. MBJB oversees the building’s landscape and information technology devices and manages events held at the venue.

Mohd Noorazam says the primary maintenance strategy for the building is to follow its planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedule. “For servicing and monitoring, the maintenance company has a PPM schedule that is carried out according to the frequency of maintenance, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, every two years or when it is required.”

He adds that the management team also carries out corrective maintenance when necessary to avoid major repairs or damage. “These methods help mitigate the risks of unexpected failure in the building because scheduled maintenance can help identify issues and minimise repair expenses.”

As Lubuk Pertama’s contract is ending soon,  he says MBJB will be appointing Damansara Assets Sdn Bhd, the property services arm of Johor Corp, as its replacement. He explains that Damansara Assets was selected as it appears to fulfil MBJB’s expectations for the building and due to the former’s track record in facility management such as in hospitals, office buildings, malls and local markets.

High electricity consumption and charges were among the challenges Menara MBJB faced when the building was first opened, Mohd Noorazam says.

“We are working on acquiring a stabiliser. The unstable power surges have led to our high electricity consumption, which has also increased bills at the same time. With the stabiliser, we foresee it saving around 20% to 30% in electricity consumption and about 10% in costs,” he explains, adding that the stabiliser will cost about RM13,000 per month.

MBJB is also planning to change its air conditioning system to reduce electricity consumption. “We’re looking to change the system to variable refrigerant volume to reduce electricity usage and have better temperature control. We have a multipurpose hall on one of the levels, and when there is an event, we have to switch on the air-conditing for the whole floor because it’s centralised. We realised that this is not practical and so we decided to redesign our air-conditioning system.”

Other building upgrades include the installation of solar panels and more motion sensors, which he says will be implemented by this October. MBJB is also looking to change its building management system to a more efficient one.

Aside from that, he says the vacuum used in the pneumatic waste collection system of the building has become obsolete. The one currently in use is from a European country and lately, it has been difficult to obtain some parts from the continent, he adds.

“We are working with consultants on alternative solutions. We will most likely go with local companies to be safe.”

On why the city council decided to build a green building, Mohd Noorazam says, “As a local authority, MBJB needs to show [active initiative] that it is promoting the green agenda so we took the lead by creating our own green building. We hope to set a benchmark or be an inspiration for other local authorities to build green buildings or incorporate more green features into their projects.

“In fact, we’re also encouraging developers to incorporate more green into their projects and to have more community-based facilities. We currently have 212 buildings that come under MBJB’s management, so we plan to incorporate green features in those facilities too,” he shares.

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