Singapore’s building regulator is
seeking more funds to support landlords who upgrade systems used
to power and cool structures, which account for a third of the
nation’s electricity consumption.
The Building and Construction Authority wants more money
after exhausting S$100 million ($78 million) allotted in 2009 to
help property owners make their developments more
environmentally friendly, Chief Executive Officer John Keung
said. It needs the funds to offer incentives and programs to
help owners of older properties upgrade, he said.
“New buildings isn’t a problem, our bigger challenge is
existing building because retrofitting can disrupt existing
operations,” he said in an interview in Singapore. “So we are
helping fund part of the retrofitting to get them to go green.”
Singapore is aiming to have 80 percent of its properties
meet its green standards by 2030 as buildings make up a fifth of
its land area, a city-state that’s smaller than the size of New
York City. The authority said a recent study of 36 commercial
properties that upgraded cooling systems showed energy
consumption fell 16 percent.
The government agency is using the funds to match expenses
by landlords for upgrading their facilities to meet green
standards, capping the grant at S$3 million, Keung said. The
authority will also help fund an energy audit to track the
efficiency of the air-conditioning plants. Only 21 percent of
the city’s buildings meet its green standards now, it said.
Green Standard
Singapore’s property owners made 1,650 buildings
environmentally friendly since 2005 when the authority
introduced the green standard, Keung said. The additional cost
for a new property to meet its certification would raise
expenses by as much as 5 percent, which could be recovered
through energy savings in 2 1/2 years to 6 1/2 years, he said.
The city’s floor area per capita for green buildings, or
the amount of space in those properties compared with the number
of occupants, was 8.7 square meters (93.6 square feet) last
year, according to data from the authority. In California’s four
biggest cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco, the
ratio was 3.8 square meters, according to data from U.S. Green
Building Council.
California was ranked first in the U.S. with 6,438
commercial buildings meeting the widely used Leadership Energy
and Environmental Design, or LEED standards.
Energy Emphasis
The Singapore regulator studied the major green rating
systems in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. and adapted to suit
local conditions, it said. Unlike LEED, the Singapore
certification places more emphasis on energy efficiency, the
authority said.
To push developers to add more environmentally-friendly
aspects to properties, the government stipulated in land sales
that developers bidding for sites in the business districts will
have to meet its highest green standards, Keung said.
The payback period for office buildings to meet the
standards varies from four to eight years, with no financial
returns for adding green features in residential developments,
according to Tan Swee Yiow, president of Singapore operations at
Keppel Land Ltd., the property developer partly owned by the
world’s largest builder of oil rigs.
“As environmental issues dominate global agendas,
businesses today recognize that going green is no longer an
option, but a necessity,” Tan said in an e-mailed response.
Tenant Attraction
Keppel Land (KPLD) and its partners have invested almost S$90
million on residential and commercial projects in Singapore and
overseas to make them environmentally friendly, Tan said.
CapitaLand Ltd. (CAPL), Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, aims
to exceed the regulator’s requirements, Francis Wong Hooe Wai,
chairman at the company’s green committee, said in an e-mailed
response to queries. Twenty three of its 29 shopping malls and
office buildings have achieved at least the minimum green
standards set by the regulator, he said.
“Green buildings are naturally more attractive to
tenants,” Wong said.
Six Battery Road, which is owned by its property trust
CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT), was renovated for S$92 million, of which
about 3.7 percent was set aside to achieve the green rating, he
said. The return on the building in the city’s financial
district is estimated at 4.7 years, he said.
The government will allow developers to build more space to
incentivize them to construct green properties, Keung said. It
also plans to train 20,000 people to design, build and maintain
these projects by 2030, from 6,000 currently, he said.
“Last year, a new legislation was passed that requires all
existing buildings will need to meet the minimum green standards
whenever they upgrade their cooling systems,” Keung said. “So
it’s a matter of time that all buildings will have to become
green as they start upgrading their systems.”
Singapore Needs More Funds to Build Green Towers: Southeast Asia
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