Int’l panel to review BCA’s green plans

Source : Business Times - 30 Sep 2008

It will examine policies, practices on green building promotion and rules

THE Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has engaged five international players to review its green building plans and ‘accelerate Singapore’s green building movement’.

The panel, which includes researchers from Singapore universities and design experts from overseas, will look at Singapore’s policies and practices on green building promotion and regulation.

It has already started work, will wind up on Oct 2 and present its report at the end of this week.

It will examine how other countries develop green buildings, look at the challenges and potential involved in promoting environmental sustainability for existing buildings, and recommend new directions for Singapore’s green building efforts.

BCA chief executive John Keung said yesterday that the focus will be on ‘greening existing buildings’, after the first masterplan in 2006 and the Green Mark scheme in 2005 brought about 130 green building projects, with another 200 awaiting assessment.

‘We will draw fresh perspectives from the experts, especially in promoting environmental sustainability for existing buildings which are in need of upgrading to improve their energy efficiency,’ Mr Keung said.

For the panel, BCA has engaged Professor Joachim Luther, chief executive of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore and former director of Europe’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

Joining him are Professor Kazuo Iwamura, a Japanese architect who focuses on urban and architectural research; Kevin Hydes, chairman of the World Green Building Council; Maria Atkinson, global head of sustainability for Australian property group Lend Lease; and Peter Head, director of global design, engineering, planning and business consultancy Arup.

The panel will work with Dr Nirmal Kishnani, senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and Associate Professor Raymond Wong from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.