Capitol TwinPeaks awarded Green Certification in construction at Green Building Awards

Receiving the esteemed Green certification, from left: Eng. Upeksha Virajini – Green Consultant (BSEc), Eng. Shiromal Fernando – Green Consultant (BSEc), Eng. Nilanga Lakmal – Manager Engineering, Capitol Developers with S. Raghupathy – Chair of the World Green Building Council, Asia Pacific Network, Eng. D.L. Amarasinghe – Project Director, Capitol Developers and Prof. Ranjith Dissanatake – Chairman, Green Building Council of Sri Lanka

Capitol TwinPeaks, the flagship residential venture of the Sanken Group, located at the up-and-coming, high-end investment location – the Beira Lakefront in Colombo 2 – was awarded the Green Certification by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka, on 14 December at The Earl’s Regency, Kandy. 

The project which offers twin interlocking skyscrapers at 50 storeys each, connected by South Asia’s highest skybridge, features 438 varying apartment units. Under the purview of Sanken Construction Ltd., the project adheres to strict sustainability construction guidelines. The condominium project is expected to reduce its carbon footprint by up to 18% compared to studies by Kumanayake, Luo, 2018 on Colombo construction and building carbon footprint/ emissions.  

The Capitol TwinPeaks project, located adjacent to the coveted Beira Lakefront

The annual award ceremony which is attended by industry leaders, award recipients across all industries and opinion-leaders in sustainability, acts as a mechanism to educate, reward and transform the Sri Lankan construction industry with green building practices, encouraging them to adopt sustainability as the means by which our environment thrives, economy prospers and society grows.

Sanken Construction Capitol TwinPeaks Project Director D. L. Amarasinghe speaking on their recent win said: “We are honoured to have received this award in sustainability and hope it will help pave the way for more environmentally conscious construction and condominiums. Capitol TwinPeaks is the perfect example of how a sustainably built skyscraper can still represent the best of modern world conveniences and architectural form, whilst providing increased investment value. In fact studies have shown that a building’s value increases by 3-5% when it is green. This contributes largely in today’s market climate.”

A member of the World Green Building Forum, The Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL) is Sri Lanka’s leading authority on implementing green concepts building practices. Established in 2009 via a joint effort by the professional institutions of architects, engineers, structural engineers, town planners, quantity surveyors, university academics, construction industry leaders, environmentalists and business leaders – GBCSL is a consensus-based, not for profit organisation with diverse and integrated representation from all sectors.

Besides the drastic improvement in ROI of an investment, whilst also reducing daily expenses, the concept of sustainable housing or green house or eco housing practiced by Capitol TwinPeaks is one of the possible solutions which may aid in reducing a nation’s overall carbon footprint. 

It is estimated that in developed nations apartment buildings contribute to 40% of CO2 emissions (Environmental Energy Study Institute, 2018). With the energy demands of buildings so large, designing and constructing energy efficient properties can lead to large and vital reductions in energy consumption - contributing to Sri Lanka’s COP21 climate change and sustainability goals.