Aiming to lead Asia in smart and sustainable building solutions, Singapore’s Green Building Masterplan has the goal of making 80% of all buildings eco-friendly by 2030. As at end 2022, close to 55% have been greened. Home to some of the world’s most energy-efficient buildings, Singapore is leveraging technology across HVAC, lighting, passive architectural modalities, onsite renewable solutions, etc., with stringent government oversight and mandatory environmental sustainability standards.
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Singapore: Transforming the built environment
By mandating energy efficiency standards, promoting best practices, and incentivising adoption of green technologies, Singapore’s Green Building Masterplan is accelerating built environment sustainability in line with its ‘80-80-80 by 2030’ goal.
Singapore rolled out its original Green Building Masterplan in 2006 following the launch of the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Green Mark scheme in 2005. Subsequently updated in 2009, 2014 and 2020, the goal remains to green at least 80% of all buildings by 2030.
The plan’s fourth edition, also referred to as ‘80-80-80 in 2030’, was developed by BCA along with the Singapore Green Building Council and industry stakeholders; and updated to reflect engagement with more than 500 local stakeholders.
It calls for 80% of Singapore’s buildings to be Green Mark certified; 80% to be classified as Super Low Energy (buildings that achieve the equivalent of 60% energy savings against 2005 standards); and 80% energy efficiency improvement for best-in-class buildings (versus current 65% improvement against 2005 levels) by 2030.
The challenge
Singapore’s built environment currently accounts for over 20% of national carbon emissions. Its buildings consume one-third of the nation’s total electricity with embodied carbon responsible for up to 40% of emissions over the lifetime of a building. Energy consumption is similarly high, led by the industrial and commerce sectors.
A 2023-released Going Green from the Inside Out report, jointly produced by the Singapore Green Building Council and Schneider Electric, noted that ‘drastic action’ is needed to accelerate the greening of the urban environment in line with the country’s 2030 goal.
The response
Under its Green Building Masterplan, between 2008 and 2022 the government and relevant authorities have instigated successive initiatives and programmes to encourage, incentivise and mandate for green building development and retrofitting.
BCA has spearheaded building control (environmental sustainability) regulatory evolution to future-proof building stock. This included raising the mandatory environmental sustainability standards for new buildings, as well as existing assets undergoing major retrofitting. These include increases in the minimum energy performance requirements and introduction of mandatory sustainable construction practices designed to help lower building carbon footprint.
Established in 2014, the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) is an integrated research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programme that aims to accelerate the development and deployment of promising energy efficient technologies in Singapore’s buildings.
Introduced in 2018, the Super Low Energy (SLE) Building programme was created to encourage companies to look beyond existing Green Mark Platinum standards across their brick-and-mortar estate. Stakeholder consultation also led to the development of a Super Low Energy (SLE) Technology Roadmap that identifies potential technological opportunity and offers strategic planning support.
The Green Mark scheme was updated in 2021 to align with UN Sustainability Development Goals to raise energy performance standards and place additional emphasis on other critical outcomes, such as reducing embodied carbon across a building's lifecycle, and building for maintainability.
The authority also raised the higher minimum energy performance requirements for buildings undergoing major retrofitting from 25% to 40%. From 2022, retrofitted buildings have to be 40% more energy-efficient versus 2005 post-renovation levels post-renovation.
At the same time, BCA introduced a S$63 million Green Mark incentive scheme for existing buildings, aimed at accelerating building energy performance to meet the 2030 goal. The scheme, which runs from mid-2022 until Q1 2027 provides grant support to building owners seeking to improve asset energy performance, in particular for buildings meeting SLE or zero-energy standards.
Other key programmes include the GreenGov.SG initiative, whereby the government has committed to mainstream SLE in the public sector built environment with existing buildings that have undergone a major retrofit required to meet Green Mark Platinum SLE standards, where feasible.
This has also cascaded into the residential sector with BCA developing a Green Mark SLE standard for residential buildings; awarded to best-in-class energy performing residential buildings that achieve at least 60% improvement in energy efficiency over 2005 levels. A further two standards have also been introduced recognising Zero Energy (ZE) SLE buildings and Positive Energy (PE) SLE buildings, with the latter supplying 115% of all energy consumption from onsite renewable sources.
And, in 2022, a GBIC 2.0 programme was rolled out with the aim of building on the success of the current GBIC through intensified local and global R&D collaboration; ‘out of lab’ GBIC prototyping; GBIC Demonstration; and stakeholder access to the BIC SLEB Smart Hub central resource centre, which promises ‘one-stop digital services to enable SLE buildings’.
The programme targets building owners and developers - and their value chains - to co-create and accelerate solutions and commercialisation through industry partnerships. Current research areas include development of alternative cooling technologies, data driven smart building solutions and next generation building ventilation.
Taking SLE even further, and into the developer and building owner space, a five-year programme was launched in 2021 designed to incentivise adoption, with developers and owners awarded up to 3% of additional gross floor space (GFA) on the original masterplan in return for delivering on stipulated information technology management outcomes and achieving Green Mark Platinum SLE standards.
From 2022 for existing buildings undergoing major retrofitting, will have to be 40 percent more energy-efficient than the 2005 levels, which has increased from 25 percent under current regulation. That additional 15% Improvement has to come from building operations as both the renewable energy sourcing and design retrofit options would have been explored to a certain extent.
Highlights
As at FY 2022, close to 55% of Singapore’s buildings have been greened with BCA reporting that best-in-class buildings are currently achieving a >70% improvement in energy efficiency against 2005 levels.
To date, out of around 4,000 Green Mark certified buildings and under-development projects, 73 buildings have been awarded Platinum Super Low Energy status; with 24 achieving Platinum Zero Energy status; and seven recognised as Platinum Positive Energy buildings.
*By floor area
Sources:
Building and Construction Authority, Singapore Green Building Council, Schneider Electric, Centre for Climate Research Singapore