Industrial facilities are under-represented in Malaysian green certification. The usual explanation is that they are a harder problem: process requirements constrain what ventilation and conditioning strategies are available, and a factory cannot be reshaped around a comfort target the way an office can.
AFI Brake Manufacturing is a four-storey automotive brake facility in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, with workers’ accommodation and a utility level, totalling 9,404 m². It was assessed under GreenRE Industrial Facilities v1.0 in September 2025 and approved that November at 91.50 of 116 points, GreenRE Gold.
The envelope took everything available
25 of 25 points for building envelope design and thermal parameters. The credit covers orientation, treatment of west-facing openings, solar shading and wall thermal properties. On an industrial building in Terengganu the west elevation is the whole problem, and it was addressed rather than tolerated.
Natural ventilation through the building layout scored 9.41 of 10, with common-area ventilation 5 of 5 and car park ventilation 2 of 2. That is a strong result on a building type where process ventilation requirements often force a mechanical answer everywhere.
Daylight simulation took 3 of 3 and common-area daylighting another 3 of 3. Artificial lighting took the full 10 of 10.
Generation, and where it fell short
On-site energy generation scored 15 of 16. That is the single largest contributor after the envelope, and the opposite of the position a tall building is in: a low-rise factory has roof area in proportion to the floor area it serves, so generation is a real lever rather than a gesture.
Not everything landed. Energy-efficient practices and features took 1 of 10, sustainable products 4 of 8, and environmental management 4 of 10. Those are documentation and procurement credits, and they are the ones most often left on the table because nobody owns them early enough.
Why this matters for the sector
The points here came from passive design decisions, orientation, shading and airflow paths, which a manufacturing building can accommodate as readily as an office. What it cannot accommodate is a late change to the envelope.
If you are developing industrial space and have assumed certification is not realistic for your building type, this scorecard is worth reading. The hard credits were the ones this project won.
