With an abundance of activities targeting the people, public, and private (3P) sectors, general awareness about green buildings in Singapore has grown tremendously over the past two months.
The interest is especially notable on BCA’s Green Buildings Facebook page, which has garnered more than 1,600 fans since it was launched in December last year, in line with the first leg of BCA’s Green Building Exhibition.
This growing appeal can be credited to BCA’s quarterly green building exhibition, which had its second leg at Suntec City from 10 to 13 March. The event was kicked off by the Mayor of the Central Singapore District, Mr Zainudin Nordin, and BCA CEO, Dr John Keung. BCA green building mascots, Greco and Beco, were also introduced to the public.
BCA’s first Green Building Challenge
The exhibition also saw the launch of an “Amazing Race” style event, dubbed the Green Building Challenge, which received healthy participation from local junior colleges and Millennia Institute students.
The challenge had 13 teams from different schools race across Singapore for three hours, visiting various green buildings such as BCA’s Zero Energy Building, City Square Mall and One George Street, in search for green building features and overcoming fun challenges.
The top two winning teams from Dunman High School received awards from Mr Lee Chuan Seng, President of the Singapore Green Building Council. Raffles Institution and NUS High School took third and fourth place respectively.
Sparking interest in green retrofitting
To further engage local tertiary students, the inaugural “BCA-CDL Green Sparks Competition 2010” was also organised to boost the awareness of best green building practices and solutions.
The competition involves the crafting of a retrofitting proposal for Fuji Xerox Towers, aimed at reducing the building’s energy consumption and lowering its carbon footprint. Proposals submitted should also help the retrofitted building qualify for BCA Green Mark Platinum.
More than 120 students from five tertiary institutions attended the site briefing on 1 April at Fuji Xerox. They have till 25 June 2010 to submit their proposals. Finalists will be required to present their projects to a panel of judges comprising industry experts from the public and private sectors.
Facebook campaign amplifies green building fan buzz
Complementing these offline activities, the competition to win an iPhone 3GS heated up online with the “Help Beco to Outgrow Greco” Facebook contest. The competition received an overwhelming 4,190 entries within a month from 5 March 2010.
The social media campaign saw a spike in the level of interaction with fans, who made 242 comments and 41 posts in the same period on the “BCA Green Buildings” Facebook page.
Green building fans on the page asked questions about green building features and BCA’s Green Mark scheme, while discussing other environmental issues and the latest contest scores.
Homeowners were especially interested to find out how they could make their homes cooler given the recent soaring temperatures, and also practise eco-friendly habits such as recycling household waste.
The winner of the recent Facebook contest, university student David Gan Zheren, achieved a score of 1,069. The results were announced on 19 April.
To watch the amazing video of our Facebook contest winner in action, and to enjoy more fun green building activities and trivia, go to www.facebook.com/bcagreen.
The next Green Building Exhibition will be held at the HDB Hub from 1 to 3 July 2010.