Push for Greener buildings and new support scheme through industry alliances
4 March 2021 — The Ministry of National Development announced several key initiatives during its Committee of Supply debate today. These initiatives will further accelerate the transformation of the built environment (BE) sector and position it to emerge stronger and more resilient post-COVID-19.
Singapore Green Building Masterplan: 80-80-80 in 2030
The Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP) is an action plan that sets out Singapore’s environmental sustainability ambitions for the Built Environment. It is part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
Since January 2020, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) have engaged over 5,000 stakeholders to co-create the next edition of the SGBMP.
Titled Build Our Green Future Together, the 4th edition of the SGBMP seeks to foster a leading Green BE sector, which can lower its carbon footprint and provide a healthy, liveable and sustainable Built Environment for all.
Photo courtesy of Singapore Green Plan 2030
The SGBMP targets are as follows:
a) Stepping up the pace to green 80 per cent (%) of our buildings by 2030
The earlier editions of the Green Building Masterplan had set a target of greening 80% of Singapore’s buildings (by gross floor area, GFA) by 2030. As of end 2020, 43% of Singapore’s buildings have been greened.
To step up the greening of buildings, BCA will identify all buildings in the building energy performance data that it publishes, starting with commercial buildings in the second half of 2021. Owners of existing buildings will be able to benchmark their buildings’ energy performance against similar building types and take the necessary steps to improve energy performance.
In order to future-proof Singapore’s building stock, BCA will also raise the minimum energy performance requirements for new buildings and existing buildings that undergo major retrofit, to be 50% and 40% more energy efficient compared to 2005 levels respectively. (The current requirements are for new and existing buildings to be 30% and 25% more energy efficient respectively, compared to 2005 levels.)
This is comparable to the current Green Mark Platinum standards. BCA will also be reviewing the Green Mark scheme to raise the standards accordingly.
b) 80% of new developments by GFA to be Super Low Energy (SLE) buildings from 2030
Since 2006, the public sector has been taking the lead on environmental sustainability by requiring new public sector buildings to attain Green Mark certification, including Green Mark Platinum for new buildings with air-conditioned area exceeding 5,000 square metres.
Under the GreenGov.SG initiative, the Government will take the lead in bringing SLE buildings into the mainstream. BCA will also be exploring further measures to drive adoption of SLE buildings in the private sector. (Public Sector Taking the Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) has been renamed as GreenGov.SG.)
c) Achieving 80% improvement in energy efficiency for best-in-class Green buildings by 2030
Today, best-in-class buildings are able to achieve more than 65% improvement in energy efficiency over 2005 levels.
BCA aims to raise this figure to 80% by 2030 through the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) programme. Established in 2014, GBIC supports the development and deployment of Green building solutions with high potential to be widely adopted. GBIC has supported more than 60 innovative technologies to date, and BCA is looking into enhancing funding support for the programme.
