AsianScientist (Sep. 23, 2015) – Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has launched a new environmental sustainability scheme and research initiative. Called Green Mark 2015 and Skylab respectively, these programs were announced by Mr. Choi Shing Kwok, permanent secretary at Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, at the opening ceremony of Singapore Green Building Week 2015.
Green Mark 2015 was developed through a collaborative framework involving more than 100 industry specialists and experts, and 12 taskforces led by BCA. The collaboration was complemented by extensive consultation with industry bodies and academia.
Green Mark 2015 has been structured into four main sections: climatic response, building energy response, resource stewardship and smart and healthy building.
Key benefits for building occupants and users include a stronger emphasis on indoor environmental quality in relation to enhanced health and well-being, and buildings that are equipped with smart controls and analytics to assist in the management and optimization of building resources.
The revamped scheme will enable projects to analyse its energy effectiveness in both the optimization of energy efficiency as well as energy consumption. Greater recognition for renewable energy will be considered. This will accelerate solar photovoltaic adoption by further encouraging the use of renewable energy through solar feasibility studies and solar ready roof design. The scheme is launched for piloting and will be fine-tuned before full implementation.
Dr. John Keung, Chief Executive Officer of BCA, commented, “Green Mark 2015 will play a more prominent role in driving and communicating sustainability outcomes in Singapore, as buildings consume more than 30 percent of the total electricity. It will recognize the leadership of building owners who drive improvements to the overall environmental credentials of projects.”
Choi also unveiled the details of the BCA SkyLab—the world’s first high-rise rotatable laboratory for the tropics with state-of-the-art facilities for testing and development of innovative energy-efficient building technologies.
Developed in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, the SkyLab complements BCA’s existing Zero Energy Building (ZEB) to develop green building research and development efforts in Singapore. SkyLab is expected to be completed with a pipeline of technologies to start test-bedding by the first half of next year.
BCA also released the Building Energy Benchmarking Report (BEBR) 2015 for the second year. The report provides a comparative study which covers commercial buildings and consists of two years’ data.
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.
“With our green building policies and energy performance monitoring strategy firmly in place, we hope to see steady and sustained improvement year on year. I am confident Singapore is well on track to achieve our national target to green 80 percent of our building stock, and contribute to the achievement of Singapore’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution,” Keung said.
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Source: Building and Construction Authority.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
