UCS Tech Report (Contributions)

 Overview of Sustainability in Singapore

In recent years, sustainability has become increasingly important in the construction industry. Governments worldwide have been trying to achieve the ‘Net Zero Ambition’ set by the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Green Mark certification program, according to the Prime Minister's Office (2022), was established by the Singaporean government to further encourage building owners or developers to design and build greener and more sustainable buildings, helping to lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve sustainability in the city-state.

Through this system, building owners or developers will receive incentives (BCA, n.d.). However, we must need much more easily accessible and user-friendly ways to help civil engineers and building owners evaluate the sustainability of their projects better. In this tech report, we will be exploring an app that helps with the importance of sustainability in the construction industry, its features, and the benefits it offers.

Because of its advancements and activities, Singapore is well-known around the world as one of the most sustainable cities (Chan, 2022). In Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has developed the Green Mark Certification Program to promote sustainable building standards. It provides building owners and developers with a proper framework for evaluating the sustainability of new and existing structures based on a variety of factors such as environmental protection, energy efficiency, and water efficiency (BCA, n.d.). Notwithstanding these measures, tracking and monitoring the sustainability performance of civil engineering projects in Singapore remains difficult.

1.1.2  BCA Green Mark Scheme

To motivate, empower, and involve industry stakeholders in adopting sustainability, the BCA Green Mark Scheme was first introduced. The building industry eventually started to embrace the concept of sustainable buildings, which is evidence that the plan is successful.

According to the Building Construction Authority (2021), the following criteria are used to rate businesses under the current Green Mark program: performance-based energy modelling, energy consumption-based, uses energy use intensity (EUI), compliance with prescriptive performance standards, and uses fixed metrics. A clearer picture of how businesses are rated can be found in the following graph.

Figure 1

BCA Green Mark 2021 Certification Scheme

Note. The table above shows the criteria for various certification tiers. Sourced from BCA, n.d. 

The Green Mark 2021 provides a robust and leading method to assess and verify buildings for their environmental performance, assisting project teams and building owners to deliver and demonstrate high-performing, sustainable buildings. It is also built for the analysis of large building performance data sets. With that, it provides a national and globally recognized green building performance rating (BCA, n.d.).

1.2 Problem Statement

There is a lack of easily accessible and comprehensive tools to help stakeholders in the construction industry to monitor and improve the sustainability aspects of their projects. The app will allow companies to have real-time monitoring at their convenience, anytime. It will also eliminate the use of paper and errors compared to manually tracking sustainability performance.

1.3 Purpose Statement

The purpose of this technical report is to propose to the BCA that it develop a mobile app that provides a comprehensive sustainability assessment tool specifically designed for the construction industry in Singapore. This would allow the building owners and developers to be more efficient and accurate in tracking and monitoring the building's overall performance.