Build 'more with less'
Govt may mandate greener building standards.
THE building sector was urged by Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan on Wednesday to 'build more with less' and adopt greener construction practices.
Education will be the first strategy to engage the industry to adopt practices such as reducing natural material usage, using recycled materials and efficient waste management systems.
If this doesn't work, the government will consider legislating the use of green materials and recycling practices in construction, said Mr Mah.
This will 'give a bigger push to our goal of a more sustainable built environment', he said.
'Let's try this for a couple of years, see if there's progress. If the industry responds... we can do away with mandatory standards," he said.
'However if the industry doesn't respond, things don't move as fast as we would like to, or the situation becomes more critical... mandatory standards or legislations is the fastest way of getting things done.'
Mr Mah was speaking at the opening of property developer City Development's office development 11 Tampines Concourse.
The project, which also won a Green Mark award for building performance, etched a new milestone in Singapore's building industry as being the first to be carbon neutral.
This means that the carbon footprint, or carbon emissions produced by the building in its construction phase and its operations, has been offset by carbon credits, neutralising the building's environmental footprint. These credits are generated by projects such as in renewable energy our resource conservation.
CDL has offset some 6,750 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and will be offsetting 1,500 tonnes annually during the lifetime of this transitional office site, which has a lease of 15 years.
CDL said it cost the company two to five per cent of its total building cost to include the building's green features and to offset its carbon impact.
Commending CDL for its efforts, Mr Mah said: 'This is the first, voluntary effort on the part of the private sector and I think it's something that should be encouraged.'
He noted that the industry is the third largest contributor to Singapore's carbon emissions, after the manufacturing and transport sectors.
"To reduce the carbon emission levels of buildings, we will need to optimise the energy usage of the buildings and reducing the use of carbon intensive materials, such as concrete," said Mr Mah.
'The key stakeholders of the built environment: the developers, designers and builders, play an important role in promoting resource and energy-efficient buildings, to contribute to the sustainability of our environment.'
