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BCA to incentivise green practices

SINGAPORE — Besides green buildings, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will also place greater emphasis on encouraging tenants and occupants to adopt green practices under the third Green Building Masterplan unveiled today (Sept 1).

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. Photo: Sim Yi Jin

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. Photo: Sim Yi Jin

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SINGAPORE — Besides green buildings, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will also place greater emphasis on encouraging tenants and occupants to adopt green practices under the third Green Building Masterplan unveiled today (Sept 1).

S$50 million has also been set aside for a new Green Mark incentive scheme to encourage building owners and tenants with fewer resources to adopt energy efficiency improvements to their buildings and premises. In particular, this scheme will target building owners and tenants from small and medium enterprises.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Green Building Conference today, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan noted that the first and second masterplans had previously focused on greening new buildings and existing buildings respectively.

He added that the third masterplan will then take Singapore’s greening efforts “beyond the building structures and hardware” and focus more on end-users, aiming to change behaviors and practices.

BCA noted that besides improving the energy efficiency of buildings, it is also important to address how building occupants carry out their daily activities and operations within the buildings’ premises.

New awards — Green Mark Pearl and Pearl Prestige Awards — will recognise those that have performed well overall, which includes adopting green leases, achieving Green Mark certification for at least 50 per cent of tenant spaces, among other things.

Green leases are environmentally friendly leasing arrangements between landlords and tenants that can specify their commitments to, for instance, cut energy use.

Separately, new initiatives for the public sectors will also be rolled out under the new masterplan, which includes requiring office spaces to be leased from a high Green Mark-certified building upon lease renewal, among other things.

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