Starting from Q4 2021, new developments submitted for planning approval will be required to be 50% more energy efficient than the 2005 levels, up from the 30% current requirement.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) on Thursday announced that all new developments are set to face higher minimum energy performance requirements from end-2021, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).
Starting from Q4 2021, new developments submitted for planning approval will be required to be 50% more energy efficient than the 2005 levels, up from the 30% current requirement.
The increases will also apply to existing buildings that are undergoing major retrofitting.
They will be required to be 40% more energy efficient than the 2005 levels from 2022, up from the 25% current requirement.
This comes as the Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP) has set more ambitious sustainability targets.
“The built environment sector plays an important role in achieving our vision of a greener and more sustainable Singapore,” said Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How as quoted by CNA.
BCA noted that the new energy performance requirements are comparable to the Green Mark Platinum standards, which is the highest rating in the system that evaluates the environmental impact and performance of a building.
BCA revealed that the Green Mark scheme is being reviewed to raise its standards accordingly.
“The revised scheme will raise energy performance standards and place greater emphasis on other aspects of sustainability such as health and wellbeing, and how the buildings are designed for long-term maintainability,” said Tan.
The new standards will be trialled starting from Q2 2021, with the industry feedback considered prior to the roll out of the revisions, he said.
With the adoption of the Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) technology having “good productivity outcomes”, the authorities are planning to make DfMA the default building method for big projects, said Tan.
BCA will raise minimum buildable design scores (B-scores) in the Buildability Framework to drive DfMA’s adoption.
With this, productive designs and technologies will score more points compared to labour-intensive ones.
From April 2022, the minimum scores for all commercial, institutional and industrial buildings with a gross floor area (GFA) of at least 25,000 sq m will be raised.
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This means that about 80% of the GFA of all projects submitted for approval will eventually be subject to the increased minimum B-score, said Tan.
In the coming months, BCA will consult the industry before firming up the new standards.
Tan believes that this will help Singapore achieve its target of 70% DfMA adoption by 2025.
BCA assured that it will support companies meet the new targets, with the grants available to public or private sector projects.
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this story, email: victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
