Official Release of LOTUS New Construction V3

Vietnam Green Building Council is delighted to announce the release of LOTUS New Construction Version 3  (LOTUS NC V3).

LOTUS NC V3 is superseding both LOTUS Non-Residential V2.0 (LOTUS NR V2.0), which was released in June 2015, and LOTUS Multi-family Residential Pilot (LOTUS MFR Pilot), which was released in October 2015.

For the next 6 months (until 17 of October 2019), projects can still decide to register under LOTUS NR V2.0 or LOTUS MFR Pilot, but, after this date, all projects will have to follow LOTUS NC V3.

Also, all the projects that are already registered under LOTUS NR V2.0 or LOTUS MFR Pilot and that still haven’t provided any submission for Provisional or Full Certification stage can decide to follow LOTUS NC V3.

Description of LOTUS NC

LOTUS NC is a new LOTUS Rating System that has been built by merging LOTUS NR and LOTUS MFR in one single system.

It applies to all types of new building constructions and major building refurbishments at the exception of single-family houses and buildings with a Gross Floor Area (GFA) lower than 2,500 m2, these types of buildings should be assessed respectively against LOTUS Homes and LOTUS Small Buildings.

The Technical Manual and the Summary of changes are available for download on the website at this address: http://vgbc.vn/en/resources/

Changes compared to LOTUS NR V2.0 and LOTUS MFR Pilot

Not only LOTUS NC V3 is the result of merging LOTUS NR V2.0 and LOTUS MFR Pilot, but also many changes have been brought to improve the rating system:

• the number of prerequisites has been reduced to keep only the most relevant prerequisites
• credits have been reorganized in new categories (e.g. Materials & Resources and Site & Environment)
• special project situations (core & shell, mixed-use, etc.) are now considered
• updates following new standards, codes and regulations have been made (e.g. compliance with QCVN 09:2017/BXD)
• new credits have been added (e.g. credit H-3 Biophilic Design), while some credits have been removed (e.g. Man-5 Green Management)
• new strategies have been added to existing credits (e.g. Strategy C: Cooling Tower Water Efficiency in credit W-4 Sustainable Water Solutions)
• requirements of some credits have been refined (e.g. thresholds in credit MR-3 Non-baked materials have been increased to 80% and 100% for 1 and 2 points)
• some mistakes have been fixed (e.g. Figure H.2 and Table H.4 of credit H-5 External Views have been revised)
• explanations have been clarified where needed (e.g. clearer definition of quality views in credit H-5 External Views)