Green building events may add buzz to industry

Source : Business Times – 6 May 2009

Downturn may have some impact on the conference and exhibition: BCA

THE Building & Construction Authority (BCA) expects 800 to 1,000 local and foreign participants to turn up for its inaugural International Green Building Conference in October.
The conference, which will focus on green building technologies and designs, will take place alongside South-east Asia’s green building exhibition BEX Asia, which could draw another 5,000 visitors.

The economic downturn may have some impact on the events, said BCA director of technology development Tan Tian Chong.

But with new incentives to get at least 80 per cent of buildings in Singapore Green Mark-certified by 2030, they may ‘add more buzz to the industry and create an interest to improve the value and energy efficiency of existing buildings’.

Last week, the government introduced several schemes to promote sustainable development in Singapore.

For instance, BCA launched a $100 million Green Mark incentive scheme for existing buildings to entice owners of some private non-residential developments to carry out energy efficiency retrofitting.

According to Mr Tan, BCA’s co-funding can help shorten the investment’s payback period by as much as a third.

The agency found in a study that a building with the Green Mark platinum rating can carry a cost premium of 2 to 8 per cent, with a payback period of two to eight years.

President of the Singapore Institute of Architects Ashvinkumar Kantilal, who is also projects director at Architects 61, said his firm has got ‘quite a handful of enquiries’ in the past two days from clients who wish to know if they can benefit from the green incentives. He believes other architectural firms are seeing a similar trend.

BCA said that 245 buildings have received Green Mark certification.
They have a gross floor area (GFA) of around 10.47 million sq m, out of a total building stock of about 210 million sq m.

Of the 245 buildings, however, only 60 are complete and in use, representing a GFA of around 1.7 million sq m.