by Brianna Crandall — October 19, 2012—In conjunction with the Singapore Green Building Week held October 8-12, Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) announced new Green Mark environmental rating programs to cover data centers, supermarkets and retail, as well as a new valuation guideline for green buildings.
Under the established BCA Green Mark assessment system, the new programs assess their respective buildings based on five key criteria: energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable construction and management, indoor environment quality and other green features. Points are awarded for incorporating environmentally friendly features that are better than normal practice. Based on the combined scoring, the buildings are awarded Green Mark Platinum, GoldPLUS, Gold or Certified status.
Developed in partnership with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), the BCA-IDA Green Mark for Data Centres program covers both independent data centers and those that are part of a larger building. The Green Mark for Data Centres pilot project awarded its first Green Mark ratings to Credit Suisse Regional Data Centre (Platinum), Equinix SG2 Data Centre (GoldPLUS), and Singapore Tourism Board Data Centre (Gold).
The BCA Green Mark for Supermarkets program was developed to promote and recognize environmentally friendly and sustainable practices and features in supermarket operations. For example, refrigeration accounts for up to 50 percent of the total energy consumed in a supermarket, but pilot studies show that 10 percent or more of its total energy consumption can be reduced with the right design from the start or switching to more energy-saving equipment and features along the way. Under the new program, four supermarkets were awarded Green Mark ratings: three FairPrice Finest stores were awarded Platinum, GoldPLUS and Gold, and Cold Storage’s outlet at Jelita achieved the Certified rating.
The BCA Green Mark for Retail program was developed to recognize the efforts of individual retail tenants for their sustainability efforts. The key criteria are developed to guide and encourage tenants to fit out their shops in a sustainable manner that reduces the operating costs, energy consumption and cooling load while maintaining the required aesthetics. It also provides recognition of the retailers’ commitment to reduce their environmental impact. The program’s first three recipients are J’s Hair Studio (GoldPLUS), Dressaday (Certified), and Royal Silver (Certified).
BCA’s new SISV Valuation Guideline on Green Buildings will help valuers be more aware and account for energy-efficient features when valuing properties. Published by the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV), the guideline will be incorporated in SISV’s newly revised edition of Valuation Standards and Practice Guidelines, expected to be launched in November.
Although the methods of valuation will still remain the same, valuers will have to consider the income and cost implications of green buildings, which will likely result in higher property values depending on the nature and extent of green building features. This is in line with findings from a 2011 joint study by BCA and the National University of Singapore (NUS) in collaboration with six real estate consultancy firms that reflected an increase in asset values due to significant savings in operating expenses for retrofitted commercial properties.
