S$70 million will be set aside for research and incentives for developers to build more environmentally-friendly buildings over the next five years.
And the government will take the lead.
From April 1 next year, all new public buildings and buildings more than 5,000 square metres that are undergoing retrofitting must have the Green Mark certification.
All these initiatives are part of the government’s Green Building Masterplan.
It has been nearly two years since the Green Mark scheme was launched in January 2005 to encourage developers to build more environmentally-friendly buildings.
So far 10 public buildings, and 24 private properties – one of which is The Exchange Beijing retrofitted by Singapore developers – have been awarded the Green Mark certification.
Dr John Keung, CEO, Building and Construction Authority, said, “A Green Mark building is an energy efficient building. So you can reap the benefit of energy savings year after year; if you’re talking about some higher tier Green Mark… 25 to 30 percent saving in energy costs.
“So based on our estimate so far, and given the cost of a Green Mark building today, you’d probably need seven to 10 years for a payback for your investment. But in the longer term, it’s actually cheaper to build a Green Mark building.”
From energy efficient features and water conservation measures, to improved indoor air quality and the use of recycled water, Green Mark buildings have shown that it pays to invest in environmentally-friendly designs and technology.
(Green Mark) Platinum award winner Tan Tock Seng Hospital, for example, saves S$400,000 a year on energy bills by going green.
Tan Tock Seng Hospital is among the four public buildings awarded the top honours of Green Mark Platinum.
The public sector will continue to take the lead.
Upcoming projects like Alexandra Hospital @ Yishun, the new People Association Headquarters and the Marina Barrage visitor centre will also be aiming for the Green Mark.
From next April, all new public buildings, including new HDB flats, must also be certified with at least the basic Green Mark.
To nudge private developers into building more green buildings, and to retrofit old ones, a S$20 million Green Mark Cash Grant Incentive Scheme has been set up by the BCA.
It will offer a grant of up to S$6 per square metre of built area to help defray additional costs of making buildings environmentally-friendly.
Dr Keung explained, “To get a Green Mark building design, the best way to do it is to get it right from Day One. You design the building to be energy efficient, and so on and so forth. So under this incentive scheme, we’re going to assess the building plan. When we’re satisfied that they can be awarded certain Green Mark certification – Gold, Gold Plus or Platinum level – we will give them the first instalment – 50 percent of the incentive under this scheme.
“Then after the building is completed, occupied, a year after T.O.P., we would do the check to make sure that they can achieve the 25 percent or 30 percent energy saving. And once we are satisfied, we’ll give them the second instalment.”
BCA estimates that some 120 to 150 buildings would benefit from the scheme.
Dr Keung said, “We have in the last two years managed to get 34 buildings to be Green Mark certified, and we hope that in the next few years, with this incentive scheme, we can get (200-300) buildings to come on board.”
In the longer term, we’d probably need hundreds, if not thousands of green mark buildings to come in to create that critical mass for Singapore… build up a bigger critical mass of green mark buildings and as a result with more buildings coming in for Green Mark, we can achieve better economies of scale.
And I guess when the green building technology, the cost of doing it comes down, there’ll be more buildings coming in for Green Mark, and it will be a few more steps closer to our vision to have a sustainable city. And when you have buildings that are environmentally more friendly, that’s the kind of benefits that we’re looking for in the long term.”
A S$50 million Research Fund will also be set up.
The first-of-its-kind dedicated R&D fund for construction and real estate sectors aims to promote green building technologies, energy efficiency and indoor environment quality over the next five years.
The first Request for Proposal for the Fund will open on January 5 next year and close on February 28, 2007.
It is open to all Singapore-based proposers, including tertiary institutions, public sector agencies, private companies and individuals.
Successful applicants can get funding assistance to cover 30 to 75 percent of the qualifying cost of the research project, capped at S$2 million per proposal.
But the biggest incentive for private developers to build green buildings has to be because consumers want it.
So a public education campaign will be launched early next year, on the long-term savings and benefits of environmentally-friendly buildings.
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 15 December 2006