On 21 August 2009, a low carbon office of AIT-UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) was inaugurated by Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Undersecretary General of the United Nations. The new low carbon office located in AIT’s Outreach Building is expected to witness a 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption and an annual decrease of 50 tonnes of Carbon dioxide emissions.

Inaugurating the low carbon office by Dr Achim Steiner

Inaugurating the office, Dr Achim Steiner complimented AIT-UNEP RRC.AP for taking the lead in creating a low carbon office. While congratulating AIT-UNEP RRC.AP, Dr Steiner remarked that “The future has arrived”. He said that such initiatives should be emulated by others and that it was very good precedent for others to follow. Dr Steiner added Sustainable United Nations (SUN) has been established by UNEP to support UN and other organizations to achieve climate neutrality and overall sustainability.

AIT President Said Irandoust said “the low carbon office of AIT-UNEP RRC.AP is truly in line with AIT’s commitment to Sustainable development in the context of climate change. It is befitting that the low carbon office is housed in the AIT campus at a time when the AIT is celebrating its Golden Jubilee celebrations of AIT as well as 20 years of partnership with UNEP”. He added that the concept would be replicated at other buildings in the AIT.

According to Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, Director of AIT-UNEP RRC.AP, “A major reduction in energy consumption will follow  air sealing of the office, new office layout, installation of the new air-conditioning system, an energy recovery heat exchangers and Carbon dioxide sensors”.

A reduction of 50 tonnes of CO2 emissions is a result of a lesser cooling load and the introduction of new energy efficient air-conditioning system. An additional annual saving of 10 tonnes of CO2 would emerge from other measures to reduce the cooling load. These measures would lead to a total saving of 60 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Heat exchangers allow the recovery of the cooling in the exhaust air, by transferring it to the incoming warmer fresh air and thus saving energy. The indoor air quality would improve with the installation of the new air-conditioning system and through the new office layout, which provides for better air circulation since air entering the office will be filtered, sterilized and formaldehyde-removed. A CO2 sensor has been integrated in the air-conditioning which will automatically alert when CO2 concentration exceeds a preset value.

Reaching the stage of low carbon office is a result of three steps which began with monitoring and evaluation of pre-retrofit conditions; energy audit and indoor air quality study; monitoring of air-conditioning and thermal comfort parameters, electricity, lighting, sound and indoor air quality; and installation of monitoring system devices. This was followed by measures to conserve energy and improving indoor air quality. The third step involves offsetting and regular monitoring after the retrofit; and support of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission reduction initiatives elsewhere to “offset” the GHG emissions that could not be reduced.

Marco Silvestri, Consultant, Emerging Issues at AIT-UNEP RRC.AP stated that the entire process of conversion into a low carbon office has been video documented. The different implementation stages and the results of the retrofitting have been documented for future dissemination and replication across the Asia Pacific region.