LCBC: Low-Carbon Compliance for Every Kuala Lumpur Building

Low-carbon compliance for every Kuala Lumpur building

DBKL (Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur City Hall) requires every building submission in Kuala Lumpur to meet a low-carbon standard. The Low Carbon Building Checklist (LCBC) web portal is how that requirement is checked. The low-carbon framework and assessment tool were developed by IEN Consultants, the project was funded by C40 Cities, and Cobler built the web portal and the engineering behind it.

The Cobler, IEN, and C40 Cities teams at DBKL.

The portal is used at the three approval stages every Kuala Lumpur building already goes through: KM (planning permission), BP (building plan) and CCC (completion and compliance). At each stage:

1. The project team enters the building's design data.
2. The portal runs an automated energy simulation to calculate the building's operational carbon. It also calculates the embodied carbon from materials and the transport-related emissions.
3. The result shows immediately whether the design complies.
4. If the design exceeds the carbon limit, the team changes it (for example better glazing, shading or a more efficient cooling system) and runs the assessment again, until the building meets the standard.

This change in workflow is the main point. Low-carbon performance is fixed at the earliest design stage, when changes cost least, rather than found to be lacking too late. The initiative is part of Kuala Lumpur's Net Zero Carbon Emissions Buildings Roadmap. It is projected to avoid around 250,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year by 2030, comparable to taking tens of thousands of cars off the road. More on the launch is shared here on LinkedIn.

With DBKL's Encik Nik, C40 Cities, and Neapoli.

For Cobler, the work meant turning a public policy into software that thousands of buildings can pass through. It has to be secure and reliable, and simple enough for an architect to use without training. The same approach runs through our energy and operations platform and our building automation work: the data and the workflow do most of the work, so people do not have to.

To talk about a platform for your own sustainability or compliance programme, get in touch, or see more of our work.