Push for Greener Buildings and New Support Scheme to Boost Transformation Efforts through Industry Alliances Unveiled

Thursday, 4 March 2021

- Refreshed Singapore Green Building Masterplan to raise sustainability standards for green buildings
- Growth and Transformation Scheme to support strategic alliances to transform the Built Environment sector
- Extension of the Construction Productivity and Capability Fund to provide continued support for the sector to transform

The Ministry of National Development announced several key initiatives during its Committee of Supply debate today. These initiatives will further accelerate the transformation of the Built Environment (BE) sector and position the sector to emerge stronger and more resilient post-COVID-19. They include a refreshed Singapore Green Building Masterplan to steer Singapore’s buildings towards higher sustainability standards, the introduction of a new Growth and Transformation Scheme that adopts a value chain approach to transform the BE sector and the extension of the Construction Productivity and Capability Fund to provide continued support for the sector to transform as the sector recovers from COVID-19.

Singapore Green Building Masterplan: “80-80-80 in 2030”

2          The Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP) is an action plan that sets out Singapore’s environmental sustainability ambitions for the Built Environment. It is part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

3          Since January 2020, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) have engaged over 5,000 stakeholders to co-create the next edition of the SGBMP. Titled “Build Our Green Future Together”, the 4^th edition of the SGBMP seeks to foster a leading green Built Environment sector which can lower its carbon footprint and provide a healthy, liveable and sustainable Built Environment for all. The SGBMP targets are as follows:

a.    Stepping up the pace to green 80% of our buildings by 2030

·      The earlier editions of the Green Building Masterplan had set a target of greening 80% of Singapore’s buildings (by gross floor area, GFA) by 2030. As of end 2020, 43% of Singapore’s buildings have been greened.

·      To step up the greening of buildings, BCA will identify all buildings in the building energy performance data that it publishes, starting with commercial buildings in the second half of 2021. Owners of existing buildings will be able to benchmark their buildings’ energy performance against similar building types and take the necessary steps to improve energy performance.

·      In order to future-proof our building stock, BCA will also raise the minimum energy performance requirements for new buildings and existing buildings that undergo major retrofit, to be 50% and 40% more energy efficient compared to 2005 levels[1] respectively. This is comparable to the current Green Mark Platinum standards. BCA will also be reviewing the Green Mark scheme to raise the standards accordingly.

b.    80% of new developments by GFA to be Super Low Energy (SLE) buildings[2] from 2030

·      Since 2006, the public sector has been taking the lead on environmental sustainability by requiring new public sector buildings to attain Green Mark certification, including Green Mark Platinum for new buildings with air-conditioned area exceeding 5,000 sqm.

·      Under the GreenGov.SG initiative,[3] the Government will take the lead in bringing Super Low Energy buildings into the mainstream. BCA will also be exploring further measures to drive adoption of Super Low Energy buildings in the private sector.

c.     Achieving 80% improvement in energy efficiency for best-in-class green buildings by 2030

·      Today, best-in-class buildings are able to achieve more than 65% improvement in energy efficiency over 2005 levels.

·       BCA aims to raise this figure to 80% by 2030 through the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) programme. Established in 2014, GBIC supports the development and deployment of green building solutions with high potential to be widely adopted. GBIC has supported more than 60 innovative technologies to date, and BCA is looking into enhancing funding support for the programme.

(Details on the SGBMP are at Annex A.)

Adopting a value-chain approach to support industry transformation

4          A new Growth and Transformation Scheme (GTS), which adopts a value chain approach to industry transformation, will be introduced to support the formation of strategic alliances among progressive developers, builders and consultants across the construction value-chain. Each alliance will need to develop a minimum three-year business and transformation plan outlining strategies and initiatives to achieve transformation outcomes. These outcomes include demonstrating how productivity savings will be reaped through the use of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) technologies, and outlining how sustainability outcomes, capability building, workforce development, business growth and strategic collaboration will be delivered. This value chain approach, in which alliance members will be collectively responsible for the transformation outcomes, is intended to help alliance members forge long-term partnerships, reap mutual benefits and build up capabilities through knowledge sharing and transfer.

(Details on the GTS are at Annex B.)

5          The Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (CPCF) was first introduced in 2010. It offers various incentives to help firms adopt productive technologies and develop their workforce to raise construction productivity. About $850 million was set aside for the CPCF, and BCA has disbursed close to two-thirds of the funding allocated to date. Previously due to expire in March 2021, the CPCF will be extended for another year. This will provide continued support for the industry to transform as the industry recovers from COVID-19. We will also maintain 80% funding support for the Productivity Innovation Project (PIP) scheme from January 2021 until March 2022.[4] Maintaining this higher level of support until March 2022 will encourage firms to pursue longer term transformation despite the current challenges due to COVID-19.

(Details on the CPCF are at Annex C.)

Enhancing the Buildability Framework

6          Under the Buildability Framework, projects are required to meet minimum Buildable Design Scores (B-scores) through the adoption of labour-efficient designs and technologies. BCA has enhanced these requirements periodically to champion the use of more productive technologies, such as DfMA.

7          To accelerate the adoption of DfMA technologies, BCA will raise the minimum B-scores for all industrial, commercial and institutional building projects with GFA of at least 25,000 sqm from April 2022. This follows BCA’s raising of the requirements for large non-landed residential buildings in 2019, and is part of BCA’s efforts to establish DfMA as the default building method for all large building projects, to promote more productive construction methods.

(Details on the Buildability Framework are at Annex D.)

[1] The current requirements are for new and existing buildings to be 30% and 25% more energy efficient respectively, compared to 2005 levels.

[2] More information on SLE buildings is at https://www1.bca.gov.sg/buildsg/sustainability/super-low-energy-programme.

[3] Public Sector Taking the Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) has been renamed as GreenGov.SG.

[4] We had previously raised the funding quantum for PIP from 70% to 80% from 1 April to 31 December 2020.

Download PDF version of the Media Release here
Download Annexes here