by Brianna Crandall — September 25, 2015—The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of the pace-setting city-state Singapore shared key findings from the second BCA Building Energy Benchmarking Report (BEBR) and latest green initiatives rolled out by BCA, and launched a book of milestones from the first decade of the Green Mark sustainable building certification program, at the opening ceremony of the recent Singapore Green Building Week (SGBW) 2015.
According to city officials, Singapore is well on track to achieving its national target of greening 80% of its building stock; 10 years after the launch of Green Mark, the urbanized city has greened 29% of its built environment, making Singapore “one of the greenest cities globally.” Singapore is employing a whole-of-the-government effort to produce greener and healthier living environments in its goal to become “the world’s first Smart Nation.”
Building Energy Benchmarking Report 2015 (BEBR)
The BCA Building Energy Benchmarking Report 2015 (BEBR) provides data from 1,018 commercial buildings, offering a comparative study of their energy use based on two years’ worth of data. This will allow building owners, facilities managers and occupants to compare their buildings’ energy performance and take positive action to improve it.
The three key findings in the report are:
- Commercial buildings achieved better energy performance in 2014 compared to 2013, with retail buildings showing the most significant improvement.
- BCA Green Mark-certified commercial buildings continued to perform better than non-certified buildings.
- Tenants’ electricity consumption continued to be comparable to that of their building owners’, reaffirming the potential for tenants to play more active roles in improving the energy performance of their premises.
In the next benchmarking report, BCA will be including more building types, namely tertiary institutions and healthcare facilities. This will lead to a more comprehensive overview of the energy performance of buildings in Singapore. BCA will also continue to identify buildings with high potential for energy improvement and engage building owners on areas of improvement, as well as promote the business case for green buildings.
Green Mark certification: 10 years
BCA also launched a limited edition book commemorating the 10th anniversary of its Mark building energy rating system. Realising Singapore’s Green Building Dream: Towards a Future-Ready Built Environment features 50 significant projects, many which are first-of-their-kind, epitomizing key elements of sustainability, with an impressive range spanning a hospital, hotel, school, wildlife park, zero-energy building and carbon-neutral development.
One of the buildings featured in the book is the National Library at Victoria Street — the first new building at that time to be awarded BCA Green Mark Platinum in 2005. Since then, many other green buildings have dotted the city, including CapitaGreen by CapitaLand Limited, Singapore’s first building constructed using supercrete, a special grade 100 ultra-high-strength concrete that helps to cut down the amount of concrete required.
Three key observations over the decade:
- A strong business case has been established for existing buildings to undergo energy-efficient retrofitting works. A recent study of 83 retrofitted Green Mark existing buildings showed an average 42% improvement in chiller plant efficiency, translating to energy savings of about S$41 million savings annually or savings equivalent to powering 35,000 four-room HDB flats.
- Green Mark buildings have seen an average greenery replacement of more than two times the site area. Over the next decade, the Green Mark scheme will continue to promote greenery and support Singapore’s efforts to become “a City in a Garden.”
- Green Mark has also played a key role in propelling solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in Singapore. As at 2014, solar PV systems designed for and installed in Green Mark projects accounted for about half of Singapore’s grid-connected installed capacity of around 15 megawatt peak (MWp).
Building on the last decade’s progress, BCA will be placing more emphasis on engaging tenants and end-users of buildings to play their part in the green building journey, as mentioned in the BEBR report. The proactive owner-tenant collaboration demonstrated by City House is a pioneering example: 70% of its interior office spaces occupied by multiple tenants are certified to Green Mark Office Interiors standards, a first in Singapore for an office building. The Green Mark Platinum building received the inaugural Green Mark Pearl Prestige Award this year for its leadership in driving total building performance.
