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While green buildings — houses, skyscrapers, shopping centers — are touted as a win-win solution for developers and the environment, both saving money and preserving power and water, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Just ask the Jakarta administration, which since last year has been trying to come up with a better formula to regulate and set standards for green buildings.

“This is one of the most complicated regulations ever, because we need to measure carefully all the consequences once this regulation takes effect,” said Pandita, head of planning and structure implementation at the Jakarta Building and Monitoring Agency (P2B). “We are still struggling with lots of things, starting from whether the regulation should be applied to all kinds of buildings, whether there will be incentives or disincentives.” Above all, he said, the regulation, which should be completed this year, must not be a burden for city dwellers.

Last year, the administration launched a pilot project to renovate Blok G of City Hall, which should be finished this year, and will construct a new provincial legislature building in Central Jakarta, also this year.

Initially, the green-building regulation will target city government offices, as well new building licenses, Pandita said. “It is a lot easier to do it on new buildings than on existing ones, as they’ll just need to comply with environmentally friendly requirements. If they pass, then we will be able to issue the permit.”

He said the Jakarta Building and Monitoring Agency usually issued 10,000 to 12,000 new licenses a year, mostly for residential housing.

While the Jakarta administration will draft and enforce the green-building regulations, the Green Building Council of Indonesia, a Jakarta-based nonprofit organization, will be tasked with issuing green-building certification.

The council was established in 2008 by 50 architecture and interior-design professionals to promote environmentally friendly homes and other buildings in the country. Bintang A Nugroho, director of public affairs at the council, said the certification, known as Greenship, was voluntary and would include higher standards than the coming city regulation.

There are five requirements for certification as a green building: smart land use, conserving energy and water, saving materials, reducing toxic chemicals and creating better air quality.

“This is not to be confused with the government’s licensing, which will be mandatory. We are dealing with the status of the building,” Bintang said, adding that the council also wants to establish a market for green-building materials.

Suzy Hutomo, chief executive officer of Body Shop Indonesia, said her company was conducting an audit so it could reduce energy use at its stores. She said the green-building regulations would need to have an educational component.

“Certainly, regulations will help if it they are well enforced, but I think that it will be an uphill battle,” Suzy said.

“If it is not accompanied by education, it will lead to more corruption to get around the standards, as it costs about 10 or 15 percent more to construct [green buildings].”