Singapore’s green building movement is reaching out and beyond boundaries, with new initiatives targeting the youth, industry professionals, and tie-ups with Asean countries being unveiled on Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of the annual International Green Building Conference, SGBC president Tai Lee Siang noted that the local building industry has bought into the green building movement, but the “next battle is for the hearts and minds of the people – the average man-on-the-street”.
Echoing a similar ethos, guest-of-honour Ms Grace Fu, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, noted that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has driven local efforts to green existing buildings - last month, Singapore became the first in the world to legally require existing buildings to meet certain environment standards.
But the next thrust of its green building masterplan was to “rope in the participation of an important stakeholder – the user or the building occupant”, she said.
For example, BCA has already introduced new schemes such as the Green Mark for Office Interior, which targets the building’s occupants. It is an extension of BCA’s initial Green Mark scheme, launched in 2005, which rated buildings for its environmental standards. Today, there are almost 1,300 green building projects, representing about 17 per cent of buildings in Singapore.
Ms Fu, who is also Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Foreign Affairs, announced two new initiatives to further this effort.
The first is a new scheme on greening data centres. The second is a new ‘Concrete Usage Index’ - a guide to benchmark efficient concrete usage in building works, meant to encourage sustainable materials in construction.
Ms Fu noted that the conference theme this year - “Green Community. Green Action.” - aptly encapsulates the idea that “to realise our vision of ‘greening’ our city and built environment, it is not sufficient for the government and the industry to take action, but the community has a part to play as well”.
The BCA is organizing for the first time this year a series of green building exhibitions in various shopping malls under the theme “Together we build our green future” and this will be officially launched at Lot 1 Shoppers’ Mall at Choa Chu Kang on Thursday.
As part of the conference, the SGBC has also organized a new “Youth for Eco-Sustainability” or YES Programme, for the youths which features young building professionals sharing their stories and other activities such as getting the youth to take part in a green quiz or eco-pop song and dance competition.
This “younger and more vibrant twist” is part of efforts to target the young - the nation’s future “green” leaders and consumers, said SGBC’s Mr Tai.
Mr Tai also told the conference that global demand for green products and services has shot up over the recent years - the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that the global environmental market could reach US$836 billion by 2015 - and the bulk of the growth is happening in Asia.
Growth in the Asia and Pacific region is expected to triple by 2015, making it the fastest growing region for environmental goods and services in the world, he said.
Up to 100 million new green jobs worldwide, or 2 per cent of the future global workforce, could be created by 2030, according to the Asia Business Council (ABC).
“All this presents great business opportunities for Singapore as well as everyone in the green value chain, from green manufacturers to the green professionals,” he said.
To capitalize on such opportunities, SGBC is forming alliances with their counterparts abroad. They signed a third MOU on Wednesday with the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC) - following similar agreements with the China Green Building Council (CGBC) in March and with Green Building Council of Indonesia (GBCI) in April.
Given the strong demand and to further expand and promote the green building movement, SGBC has also decided to expand its current Certification Scheme for Green Products to also cover Green Services, said Mr Tai. This will commit building consultants to high environmental standards, he added.
The first phase of the certification will involve architectural firms, mechanical and electrical, and energy consultants. The next phase will extend to other services such as facility management, quantity surveyors and other services associated with buildings. SGBC’s target is to certify up to 30 firms by 2013.
Organised by the SGBC, the conference, now in its fourth year, is part of the annual Singapore Green Building Week. The week also features Bex Asia, a regional building expo focusing on eco-friendly products and solutions.
Some 10,000 experts and participants from more than 20 countries are expected to convene at Marina Bay Sands for the conference and expo to discuss green building issues.
Eco-Business.com’s coverage of the International Green Building Conference 2012 is brought to you by City Developments Limited.
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