Growing a green economy is tough
Rapid growth, foreigner influx make it hard to 'green' most buildings, says council head
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 30 Jul 10;
EVERY year, Singapore adds about 8.4 million sq m of new building space to cater to a hot economy and the influx of foreigners.
As such, the demands posed by rapid urbanisation mean it is a challenge to grow the economy in a more sustainable way, said Singapore Green Building Council president Lee Chuan Seng.
He was speaking yesterday at the National Sustainability Conference, which brought together policymakers, academics and members of the industry.
All new buildings since 2008 have had to observe minimum energy consumption standards.
Despite this, just 8 per cent of all buildings here have been 'greened' since an energy efficiency rating was introduced in 2005.
This means that achieving the Government's target of greening eight in 10 buildings here over the next 10 years is a real challenge, said Mr Lee.
He added that this was made worse by rapid economic growth of around 6 per cent a year, while as many as a million people have been added to the population in the last five years.
Around 450 buildings in Singapore are part of the Green Mark scheme, a building rating system launched in 2005 by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). The rating is awarded based on factors like efficiency in electricity and water use and the building's indoor environmental quality.
The Government is considering a law to make it mandatory for all buildings, including older ones, to be greened here. But Mr Lee, who chairs the BCA's Green Mark Advisory Committee, said more data on the profile of buildings would be needed.
This would mean collating a database of the energy consumption of all buildings before targets can be set to bring down their consumption, he said.
In her keynote speech at the conference yesterday, Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Environment And Water Resources) Amy Khor gave an update on the take-up rate of government schemes that subsidise the cost of energy audits. The $10 million Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme, which co-funds the cost to building owners in engaging a consultant to help improve energy use, has had 177 approved applicants whose projects stand to reap about $53 million in annual cost savings.
