Singapore’s Building and Construction Industry Looks Set for Tall Sustainable Changes

As part of Singapore Green Building Week, the inaugural International Green Building Conference (IGBC) was launched yesterday alongside building exhibition BEX Asia 2009, under the theme “Build Green, The Future is Now”.

Organised by Building Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA) and Reed Exhibitions, these 3-day events were launched by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Mr Teo Chee Hian, and comes shortly after the unveiling of BCA’s Zero-Energy Building.

In his speech, Mr Teo said, “First, while we continue to grow our economies, we need to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability,” and later added that “Countries should pursue opportunities where economic growth and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand. One good example is retrofitting existing buildings for better environmental sustainability. This can be a new growth area where investments in new technology and infrastructure will bring benefits such as the creation of “green jobs” and a reduction in energy footprint and long-term costs for the building owners and occupiers.”

He also said that green buildings are the way forward.

“Singapore will continue to promote the reduction of energy consumption through green buildings. We plan to “green” 80% of our buildings by 2030 to reduce energy intensity by more than 30%. New minimum standards of energy efficiency have been incorporated in the building codes for new buildings. Government and public buildings will also have to achieve higher green building standards.”

These are just some of the key targets set by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development (IMCSD), which BCA is targetting to meet with its newly-introduced 2nd Green Building Masterplan.

In attendance was almost 1000 delegates from 23 countries, including United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Sustainable Buildings & Climate Initiative (SBCI) Chief of Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch, from the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Mr Arab Hoballah, and Chairman of the Clinton Climate Initiative, Mr Ira Magaziner.

Also present in Singapore is BCA’s International Panel of Experts (IPE), who is here to review Singapore’s sustainability scorecard on its built environment. The discussions will be focussed on achieving the 2030 green building target.

Other exciting news includes the launch of Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), whose role is to advocate green building design, practices and technologies and drive environmental sustainability in the building and construction industry.