In the article, “Green buildings, Singapore’s natural ally for a greener future”, Mackenzie (2017) reported that promoting eco-friendly buildings will be the solution for a cleaner and sustainable future for Singapore. The author reported that the high resource consumption of its dense infrastructure is rapidly increasing. This massively increases the number of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions that are affecting the environment.
Known as the “Garden City” for its stance on preserving the environment, it plans to maintain this image further into the future. As a keen supporter of environmental protection, Singapore’s Building Construction Authority (BCA) aims to spread awareness to developers and designers on the benefits of Singapore’s Green Mark certification. The report also mentioned that the implementation of green initiatives has had huge successes in cutting costs and consumption in the long term. The author proved through Asia Square that design is the key factor, thus giving designers and stakeholders the power to lead to a greener future. The author concluded that Singapore needs a proactive approach to protect the environment and fight climate change.
I support the author that building sustainability is the key to fight climate change. It highlights that actions taken are not only environmentally but financially beneficial. The current direction pushes green building even further by utilizing incentives that benefit both the designer and stakeholders.
Firstly, Singapore has been trying to control building consumption. It has been proven that the increase in carbon emissions are directly linked to the increase in demand from buildings and their maintenance. In the article, “Analysing CO2 emissions from Singapore’s electricity generation sector: Strategies for 2020 and beyond” (ScienceDirect, 2017), it highlights that the largest contributors to carbon emissions were the production of electricity and buildings coming in second. It is also projected that it will continue to rise, placing a bigger emphasis on this issue. By optimizing a building’s consumption, like utilizing Singapore’s Green Mark certification system, we can effectively reduce carbon emissions.
Secondly, Singapore’s Green Mark certification provides a guideline that promotes efficient buildings. In the article,” GREEN MARK FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS NRB: 2015″ (BCA, 2015), it lists out how points are distributed out based on the efficiency of the different aspects of a building. It pushes a large incentive towards efficient energy consumption and building sustainability by rewarding a substantial amount of points in those areas. To receive the highest grade of platinum, a high score is needed that can be easily achieved through efficient and sustainable building design.
Lastly, stakeholders and designers are the keys to success. By alleviating the “high cost to build” misconception and raising awareness of the benefits of green buildings, would provide leverage towards greener designs. In the article, “Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits” (BCA, 2015), it highlights that green buildings are expensive is a misconception. The article presents findings that the long term cost saving far outweighs the initial building costs. This provides incentives for both parties to lean toward green buildings.
The current motive and direction promote further advancement into a greener and more sustainable future. Through collective effort and pro-active approach towards green buildings, we may eventually become, in the author’s words, “Garden City 2.0”.
References
ScienceDirect. (2017). Volume 124, Analysing CO2 emissions from Singapore’s electricity generation sector: Strategies for 2020 and beyond
Retrieved, January 31, 2019, from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217301196#sec3
Building & Construction Authority. (2015). GREEN MARK FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS NRB: 2015
Retrieved, January 31, 2019, from
https://www.bca.gov.sg/GreenMark/others/Green_Mark_NRB_2015_Criteria.pdf
Gregory H. Kats. (2003). Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits
Retrieved, January 31, 2019, from
http://staging.community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-kats.pdf
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