Professor Koen Steemers, PLEA President

Dr Stephen Wittkopf, Chairman PLEA 2007

Professor Heng Chye Kiang, Dean School of Design and Environment, NUS,

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Good morning.

I am very pleased to be here today at the first PLEA conference to be hosted in South East Asia. With a focus on sustainable architecture and urban design, the annual PLEA international conference provides an ideal forum to raise awareness and sustain interest in green, low energy architecture among industry practitioners.

2. Environmental sustainability is an issue that is receiving increasing attention from cities and governments around the world. Singapore, as a small city-state, is aware that its development is very much contingent on environmental sustainability. It is also a key competitive edge as increasingly, people are demanding for a higher quality living environment.

Energy Efficiency for a Sustainable Built Environment

3. As an urban city-state set in a tropical climate, air-conditioning forms a major part of electricity demand in Singapore. Buildings here consume up to 31% of total end-use electricity, second after the industry sector. Households take up another 18% of electricity consumption. Thus, a key to the development of a sustainable built environment is to maximise energy efficiency in buildings.

4. Improving the energy efficiency of the built environment involves the appreciation and consideration of the various factors that impact the building’s energy consumption. Often, it is most cost-effective to incorporate energy efficiency measures at the design stage of a facility. This is where incorporation of passive and low energy architecture is essential. For example, proper design of a building layout can utilise prevailing wind and sunlight conditions to achieve adequate natural cross ventilation and maximise natural lighting, thus reducing the reliance on mechanical ventilation and electrical lighting. Highly efficient air-conditioning and lighting systems could also be used to maximise energy efficiency.

Whole-of-Government Approach for Energy Efficiency

5. Energy efficient buildings make financial sense because energy costs are often the largest component of a building’s operating cost. However, energy efficiency measures may not be implemented due to lack of information and other factors. To drive energy efficiency improvement across all sectors in Singapore, we have taken a Whole-of Government approach.

6. The inter-agency Energy Efficiency Programme Office or E2PO has developed a comprehensive national plan on energy efficiency, known as Energy Efficient Singapore or E2Singapore. E2Singapore covers various programmes to promote energy efficiency across all sectors.

Initiatives for Energy Efficient Buildings for a Sustainable Built Environment

7. To develop a sustainable built environment, we have adopted three main thrusts: First, we have put in place schemes to encourage the development of energy efficient buildings, both for new and existing buildings. Second, we are actively promoting public education and awareness of energy efficient buildings. Third, we are driving initiatives to steer research and test bedding of new technologies to improve energy efficiency of buildings. Let me elaborate.

BCA Green Mark Scheme
8. One of the key schemes driving the development of environmentally sustainable buildings is the Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark Scheme. The Green Mark Scheme goes beyond energy efficiency and is a comprehensive certification framework for assessing building performance and environmental friendliness. The Green Mark framework requires designers to make a conscious effort to build in passive and low energy architecture right at the start from the design stage. This is particularly important as properly designed energy efficient features can make significant cost savings over the life cycle of the building.

9. The take-up rate for the Green Mark scheme has been very encouraging, with over 60 buildings certified to date, just 2 years after the scheme was launched. More projects are in the pipeline for assessment. A building at the basic green mark certified level would have achieved at least 10% energy efficiency compared to non-certified building. This increases to at least 30% for buildings that have attained the highest Green Mark Platinum certification.

10. As a sign of our commitment to drive energy efficiency and sustainability, from next year, all new buildings and existing buildings undergoing major retrofitting work will be required to meet the minimum Green Mark certified standard.

Green Mark Incentive Scheme
11. To encourage developers to strive for excellence and achieve higher level Green Mark certifications, a $20 million Green Mark Incentive Scheme was launched a year ago. Developers will be given cash grants upon achieving Green Mark certifications beyond the basic certified level.

12. This scheme has yielded encouraging results. This year, City Square Mall by City Developments became the first private sector development to achieve the pinnacle Green Mark Platinum certification. Public buildings which have won the Platinum award include the National Library building and more recently, the Housing and Development Board’s Eco-Precinct at Punggol.

EnergySmart Buildings Labeling Scheme
13. For existing buildings, the EnergySmart label, developed by the Energy Sustainability Unit (ESU) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), is a benchmarking scheme to promote the active management of energy use in a building. Buildings that achieve energy efficiency equal to or better than the top 25 percent of the benchmark and meet good indoor air quality standards are accorded the EnergySmart Building Label.

Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme (EASe)
14. As a complement to the EnergySmart labeling scheme, the NEA also introduced the $10 million Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme, or EASe, to encourage companies and existing building owners identify potential improvements in energy efficiency by defraying the costs of energy audits. Each dollar spent on an energy audit can recover potentially between $5 to $10 savings in annual energy costs. I am pleased to hear that SingPost’s headquarters at Paya Lebar will save some $1.2 million a year after an energy audit and retrofit of its air-conditioning plant.

Public and Consumers Education
15. Consumers lead the demand for energy efficient buildings. To sustain all our efforts to promote the development of a sustainable built environment, BCA is driving a comprehensive outreach programme to educate the public on the benefits of green buildings, in terms of potential cost savings through energy efficiency and environmental sustainability through lowered greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption. For example, BCA launched a website last year to provide information about the Green Mark scheme and benefits to homeowners. BCA also organises roadshows on green buildings at grassroots and community events to raise awareness among residents. With more consumers aware of the benefits of green buildings, we will see a greater demand for high standard energy efficient buildings in Singapore.

R&D for Energy Efficient Buildings
16. Going forward, we also intend to raise the industry’s capabilities to competently design and apply green building technologies for energy efficient and environmentally sustainable buildings through R&D. In this regard, the Ministry of National Development or MND has launched a $50 million research fund for the Built Environment earlier this year. This fund aims to nurture industry’s capabilities by co-funding applied research projects that will enhance the quality of our built environment, including applied research into green building technologies.

17. To complement the MND Research Fund, the Clean Energy Research and Test-bedding Programme (CERT) funded by EDB and led by Singapore Polytechnic and the National University of Singapore supports test-bedding research projects in the application of clean energy involving the buildings and facilities of various government agencies.

18. A flagship project under the MND Research Fund and the CERT Programme, the Zero Energy Building or ZEB, at BCA Academy is the result of the collaboration between BCA, NUS and several private consultants. The ZEB will be our first net zero energy building and features a high-performance building envelope that minimises thermal heat transfer into the building and maximises natural daylight, helping to improve energy efficiency by about 60%. The ZEB will also harvest solar energy, a clean energy source, through photovoltaics or high performance solar panels installed on the building façade. Once completed, the ZEB will serve as a test bed for new technologies as well as for industry training, research and education.

19. As we develop our knowledge and expertise in environmental sustainability and energy research, it is important for us to continually learn from international and regional experts in the field. Conferences such as this, with the free exchange of ideas between academe and industry practitioners, provide a useful platform for new innovations for a sustainable built environment to emerge.

Conclusion

20. I have shared with you some of Singapore’s strategies in creating a sustainable built environment. These strategies form part of a wider Whole-of-Government effort and commitment to achieve a high quality living environment, making Singapore an endearing home and a distinctive global city. As building practitioners, you can make a difference in the development of a sustainable built environment by considering environmentally efficient designs right from the start. But efforts by the government and industry practitioners like you can only be effective if the end users are also conscious of their role in sustainable built environment. They must be partners in this whole movement to ensure the environment we build today will indeed be sustainable for generations to come. I hope that all of you will have a fruitful time at this conference. To our foreign delegates, I wish you a pleasant stay in Singapore.

Thank you.

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