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Dave Ranasinghe, Director, Brandix Apparel Limited (second left) and Ahamed Ilthimas, Brandix Group Project Manager (extreme left) receive the Green Mark – Platinum award from Minister of Special Projects Dr. Sarath Amunugama.
The headquarters building of the Brandix Group has been awarded the Green Mark – Platinum certification by the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB), making it the first commercial building in Sri Lanka to receive this rating, developed by the Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore to assess Green buildings.
The milestone award, presented to Brandix by Special Projects Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, is the second won by the building within a month. In November, the Brandix head office received the Gold at the National Energy Efficiency Awards.
The Green Mark recognises achievements in four key environment related indicators and a general category. In the assessment for the Green Mark – Platinum conferred on Brandix, the building was rated on Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Sustainable Operations & Maintenance, Indoor Environment Quality and Other Green Features & Innovations.
The building received an overall score well above the 90 required to qualify for Platinum – the highest Green rating possible under the scheme.
“Our new headquarters building is a perfect representation of the Group’s deep-rooted commitment to sustainability,” Brandix Director Feroz Omar said. “The latest in technology was utilised to minimise its environmental footprint, and the two awards won in the space of a month are a fitting recognition of its status as a new benchmark for a Green office buildings in Sri Lanka.”
Commissioned on 1st March 2015, the eight-storey, 37,800 square foot Brandix HQ building has 29,783 square feet of air conditioned office space.
Purpose-designed by Architect Murad Ismail, the edifice accommodates approximately 200 people. The extensive use of double-glazed, Argon-filled, black tinted self-cleaning glass walls gives the structure improved thermal insulation and a high solar reflectance index, keeping its interiors cool. Daylight harvesting facilitated by a high window to wall ratio, the use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting controlled by a smart system that switches on and adjusts lux levels based on ambient light and occupancy, and a highly energy-efficient water-cooled, oil free magnetic bearing air conditioning system, all integrated into a series of sophisticated intelligent building management systems, enable significant savings in energy consumption.
One of the largest suppliers of apparel to top retail brands in the US and Europe, Brandix is an international award winner for eco-friendly manufacture and commitment to environmental best practice. The Group was recognised as Sri Lanka’s ‘Organisation Committed to Green’ by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL) in 2014.