SGBC-BCA Leadership In Sustainability Awards 2024 Announces High-Quality Winners At This Year’s Edition

SOUTHEAST ASIA BUILDING11 Jun 2024

Guest-of-Honour Ms. Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for National Development. Photo credit: Singapore Green Building Council

Mr. Lee Ang Seng, President of the Singapore Green Building Council. Photo credit: Singapore Green Building Council

SGBC Board Members of the 2023-2025 term with Guest-of-Honour Ms Indranee Rajah. Photo credit: Singapore Green Building Council

Photo credit: Singapore Green Building Council

Singapore – On 6 June 2024, the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), in partnership with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), officially unveiled 24 winners of the SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards 2024 at the SGBC Gala Dinner 2024.

The biennial Awards programme, first held in 2016, honours significant achievements by Professionals, Businesses and Building Projects in the development of a green and sustainable built environment.

The 24 winners, comprising of 8 Professionals, 10 Businesses and 6 Building Projects, received their trophies from the event’s guest-of-honour Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for National Development.

According to SGBC, this year’s edition witnessed a surge of high-quality submissions, highlighting the industry’s heightened commitment to sustainability. The Main Jury – comprising senior leaders from SGBC and BCA – commended the quality of the high-calibre applications received this year, which made the assessment process extremely challenging.

“The strong response to the Awards programme underscores the significant progress made in our collective journey towards a greener built environment,” said Mr. Lee Ang Seng, President of the SGBC. “Particularly noteworthy is the high number of submissions for the Business Leadership in Sustainability award category, a testament to the growing recognition of sustainability as the standard, not the exception, within the industry.”

More than 80 award applications across all award categories were received in the 2024 edition, with applications for the Business Leadership in Sustainability award category accounting for half of all submissions.

BCA Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kelvin Wong said, “We are encouraged by the positive response from the industry. The remarkable achievements and contributions by the award winners will accelerate our efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment. We hope that this uptake will inspire more industry leaders to develop more sustainable buildings and push the envelope in building a greener future.”

Over 630 representatives of the Singapore built environment sector attended the SGBC Gala Dinner 2024, which was held at the Orchard Hotel Singapore.

Alongside the awards, a few new initiatives were announced to support the built environment.

Sustainable Financing Guide for the Built Environment

SGBC is part of an international alliance to publish the Financing Transformation: A Guide to Green Building for Green Bonds and Green Loans. This is a practical guide that will show how green building certification schemes ensure compliance with multiple sustainable classification frameworks used globally, such as the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) green taxonomies, and how they can be used to put the built environment on a 1.5C trajectory.

SGBC has brought together the Singapore Workgroup, consisting of representatives from BCA, prominent financial institutions and developers to provide strong support for this initiative. The Guide, scheduled to be officially published during London Climate Action Week on 27 June 2024, is envisioned to be a valuable resource for investors and developers, showcasing how green building certification schemes like Singapore’s BCA Green Mark scheme can contribute to achieving ambitious climate goals and attracting sustainable financing.

Refreshed Green Mark for Interiors Scheme

SGBC has been working with BCA to review the Green Mark User-Centric schemes to update its relevance for a broader base of application for interior spaces. The refreshed scheme was launched at the SGBC Gala Dinner 2024 and will be known as the Green Mark for Interiors (GMI) scheme. It will take on an integrated structure similar to Green Mark 2021 for buildings, whereby energy efficiency will be a prerequisite, with options thereafter for sustainability badges to reflect key performance achievements of the certified spaces. The new scheme will make Green Mark certification more accessible to a wider range of stakeholders, tenant types and interior spaces and provides a blueprint for businesses across the economy to fit out their premises and facilities in an environmentally conscious manner.

SGBC will assist BCA to administer the GMI scheme after the launch and invites interested parties to conduct walkthroughs for the new Green Mark for Interiors criteria.

Launch of Singapore Mechanical & Electrical Carbon Calculator

The Singapore Mechanical & Electrical Carbon Calculator (MECC) was officially introduced during the SGBC Gala Dinner 2024. Developed by the National University of Singapore Energy Studies Institute (NUS-ESI) and JTC, in close collaboration with BCA and SGBC, the release of the MECC builds on the Singapore Building Carbon Calculator (SBCC), which was launched in June 2023. While the SBCC focuses on computing the embodied carbon emissions of building materials in a building project, the MECC expands this scope to encompass the carbon impact of mechanical and electrical (M&E) equipment and services, both embodied and operational carbon. This comprehensive approach will enable building project teams to obtain a more complete picture of a building’s whole-life carbon performance, ultimately contributing to certification and/or disclosure requirements. Industry stakeholders are encouraged to come on board to pilot the use of MECC and make more informed decisions on their carbon impact on the built environment.

Singapore Green Building Product and Singapore Green Building Services Certificates

More than 20 built environment organisations also received their Singapore Green Building Product (SGBP) and Singapore Green Building Services (SGBS) certificates during the SGBC Gala Dinner 2024, a firm testament to their commitment to developing and delivering green building products and services towards a low-carbon built environment.

2024 Award Winners

Professional Leadership In Sustainability

- Elaine Tan

Sustainability Leader

Arup Singapore Pte Ltd

- Prasantha Raveenthirakumar

Head of Technical Optimisation and Asset Enhancement

C&W Services (S) Pte Ltd

- Qian Xuejia

Senior Manager (Technology and Engineering), Green Building, Decarbonisation & Safety

City Developments Limited

- Chen Wenjie