Singapore’s premier property developer City Developments Limited has earned the most awards at the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Awards 2015 held on Thursday.
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The property firm has surpassed its previous efforts in ‘greening’ buildings in Singapore with 36 awards, up from 30 in 2014, it said in a statement.
CDL said it has earned once again the Quality Excellence Award – Quality Champion (Platinum), making it the only developer in Singapore which has received the award for three consecutive years.
It also won the BCA’s inaugural Green Mark Pearl Award, where CDL became the sole winner in the top category, the Green Mark Pearl Prestige Award. It won the award for its initiatives at the City House building, its property in Singapore’s central business district.
The Pearl award is given by BCA for the first time to developers and building owners that actively engage tenants to use less energy through changes in behaviour and daily operations.
Two other buildings which also received a Green Mark Pearl Award include the Manulife Centre along Bras Basah Road and 7 & 9 Tampines Grande.
Dr John Keung, chief executive of BCA, commended CDL for the awards and its two decades of leadership in setting benchmarks for high quality and sustainable buildings. “Through innovative technologies, CDL has greatly raised productivity, safety excellence and workmanship. CDL has also pioneered effective engagement initiatives to transform mindsets, influence occupant behaviour and foster greater stakeholder collaboration,” noted Keung in a statement.
CDL said 80 per cent of its tenants in commercial buildings have signed an agreement to become part of the government’s ‘green lease’ programme - a scheme which engages landlords and tenants to collaborate in green building management - since the developer introduced it in September last year.
The firm’s tenants committed to monitor and reduce their energy consumption, and for these efforts, CDL offered 1 per cent rebate in their electricity bills for every 2 per cent energy savings every quarter.
At City House, apart from retrofitting the building with energy-efficient air-conditioning systems, CDL also introduced the ‘1⁰C Up’ programme, which urges tenants to raise their air-cons’s temperature to reduce energy usage. From these and other energy-saving schemes, City House, achieved an annual energy savings of about 1.9 million kWh, which amounts to about S$500,000 annually, the firm added.
The firm has also introduced a digital energy monitoring portal for tenants in partnership with utility firm Tuas Power, which provides real-time updates every 30 minutes of energy consumption, and allowing users to access this portal in their mobile devices to track their and manage their electricity usage.
Kwek Leng Joo, CDL’s deputy chairman, commented: “Beyond brick and mortar, the building sector as a whole must continually seek green innovations, sustainable engineering solutions and more efficient use of resources. With the collective effort of all stakeholders, the drive for sustainable development will be pushed a notch higher.”
