Singapore’s third Green Building Masterplan launched

Monica Kotwani Channel NewsAsia 1 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Monday (Sep 1) launched the third Green Building Masterplan to guide Singapore’s green building journey over the next five to 10 years.

The masterplan, developed by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), was launched at the opening ceremony of the International Green Building Conference and the BEX Asia Expo. Both events are being held as part of the Singapore Green Building Week.

'TIMELY' FOCUS ON TENANTS

The masterplan will focus on tenants and occupiers which, together with building owners, will be able to tap on the S$50 million Green Mark Incentive Scheme to adopt more energy-efficient measures in their premises, Mr Khaw said.

The scheme will help to fund up to half of the retrofitting costs of energy-efficient improvements to buildings and premises – subject to a maximum of S$3 million for building owners and S$20,000 for occupants and tenants. This will help the stakeholders, since they have fewer resources to implement such improvements, the BCA said.

One developer said the masterplan's focus on tenants is a timely one. Mr Rod Leaver, CEO of Lend Lease, said: "There was a gap in creating green buildings. Unless you actually got tenants on board and got them to understand, and educated them on the importance of energy efficiency, you could take a very green building and take it into a grey building over the long term."

Mr Khaw noted that the first and second masterplans had previously focused on greening new buildings and existing buildings, but the third masterplan will take Singapore's greening efforts "beyond the building structures and hardware" and focus more on end-users, aiming to change behaviours and practices.

NEW INITIATIVES

New awards have also been introduced - the Green Mark Pearl and Pearl Prestige Awards - to recognise building owners and developers which have worked with their tenants to reduce energy consumption.

This could be through implementing a green clause in lease agreements and achieving Green Mark certification for at least half of the tenant spaces. The Green Mark is a rating system that assesses a building's environmental impact. The awards will be given out at the BCA Awards next year.

Lend Lease, which currently operates three malls, said all its tenants have signed leases which focus on saving energy and reducing electricity costs.

Dr John Keung, CEO of the Building and Construction Authority, said: "That is where the building owner and tenants have to work together. They have to look at those areas where they can do a lot more to achieve the kind of energy efficiency required. If you get the design right from day one, the payback period is quite short."

A S$52 million fund has also been set up for research in developing, testing and showcasing new solutions for green buildings in the tropics.

Mr Khaw said: "We need more opportunities to bring solutions from the lab to the real world - in actual buildings. We must make it easier and faster for these solutions to be adopted when we build or retrofit existing buildings."

Separately, new initiatives for the public sector will also be rolled out under the new masterplan. These include requiring existing public sector buildings with more than 5,000 square metres of gross floor area to be Green Mark certified.

BCA said about 400 public sector buildings, including community centres, schools, police stations and museums will, be affected by these requirements. Government events and functions would also need to be held at Green Mark-certified venues.

- CNA/cy/by


BCA to incentivise green practices
S$50 million incentive scheme to target SMEs
Siau Ming En Today Online 1 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE — Besides green buildings, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will also place greater emphasis on encouraging tenants and occupants to adopt green practices under the third Green Building Masterplan unveiled today (Sept 1).

S$50 million has also been set aside for a new Green Mark incentive scheme to encourage building owners and tenants with fewer resources to adopt energy efficiency improvements to their buildings and premises. In particular, this scheme will target building owners and tenants from small and medium enterprises.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Green Building Conference today, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan noted that the first and second masterplans had previously focused on greening new buildings and existing buildings respectively.

He added that the third masterplan will then take Singapore’s greening efforts “beyond the building structures and hardware” and focus more on end-users, aiming to change behaviors and practices.

BCA noted that besides improving the energy efficiency of buildings, it is also important to address how building occupants carry out their daily activities and operations within the buildings’ premises.

New awards — Green Mark Pearl and Pearl Prestige Awards — will recognise those that have performed well overall, which includes adopting green leases, achieving Green Mark certification for at least 50 per cent of tenant spaces, among other things.

Green leases are environmentally friendly leasing arrangements between landlords and tenants that can specify their commitments to, for instance, cut energy use.

Separately, new initiatives for the public sectors will also be rolled out under the new masterplan, which includes requiring office spaces to be leased from a high Green Mark-certified building upon lease renewal, among other things.

S$50m fund launched to make buildings ‘greener’
Siau Ming En Today Online 2 Sep 14;

To this end, the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) new incentive scheme will fund up to half of the retrofitting cost, totalling about S$3 million for owners of buildings and not more than S$20,000 for occupants and tenants.

In addition, new awards — the Green Mark Pearl and Pearl Prestige Awards — were also introduced to recognise buildings that have adopted green leases and where at least 50 per cent of tenant spaces have obtained a Green Mark certification.

Green leases are contracts that contain clauses on environmentally-friendly targets which building owners and tenants commit to achieve, for example, a specified reduction in energy consumption.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Singapore Green Building Week yesterday, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan noted that the new master plan will take Singapore’s greening efforts “beyond the building structures and hardware”.

He hopes the new incentive scheme will result in greater collaboration and engagement between government agencies, developers and building owners and tenants, who are the end-users. The BCA hopes at least 80 per cent of all buildings here will achieve a Green Mark certification by 2030.

The existing Green Mark rating system will also be reviewed to increase the focus on users, design considerations for the tropical climate and the indoor environmental quality, among others. More details on the new rating system will be revealed at the end of next year.

The need for building users to play their part in greening efforts was reflected in the findings of the inaugural BCA Building Energy Benchmarking Report released yesterday, which showed that tenant and occupant activities within a building account for up to 50 per cent of the total electricity consumption.

The report assesses green building efforts based on data gathered from the mandatory submission of energy consumption for commercial buildings.

CKE Manufacturing, an SME which manufactures oil and gas components, hopes to tap into the scheme as it plans to install integrated monitoring systems to monitor its energy consumption patterns.

Other financing schemes in the market require a minimum electricity bill. This makes it difficult for SMEs to qualify, said its enterprise development manager Kwan Li Feng. “With this BCA scheme, it should be able to cover a wider group of business owners of different sizes,” he added.

Developer Lend Lease, which operates 313@Somerset and several other malls, is one firm that has implemented green leases with regard to several of its tenants.

However, Mr Rod Leaver, its chief executive officer for Asia, noted that it could be a challenge for tenants if their leases were shorter than the payback period for retrofitting energy-efficient features.

Yesterday, Mr Khaw also announced that S$52 million will be set aside for the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster to develop and test new green building solutions that are applicable to the tropics.

Initiatives under the latest masterplan
Siau Ming En Today Online 2 Sep 14;

Office spaces are to be leased from a building of high Green Mark rating upon lease renewal.

Public sector offices need to be certified under the Green Mark for Office Interior scheme at the next lease or retrofit.

Government events and functions are to be held at Green Mark-certified venues.

The public sector should also promote the adoption of green leases.

More details of the new initiatives will be announced with the review of the Singapore Sustainable Blueprint at the end of this year.