City Developments reveals $4m savings from City Square Mall

That's after 5 years of going green.

According to the summary of a roundtable by the the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and WWF, when CDL built City Square Mall, Singapore’s first ‘eco-mall’, it dedicated 5% of its construction to green measures. Five years later, reduced energy consumption has generated savings of around $4 million dollars.

Here's more from the summary:

Esther An, CDL’s head of CSR, explained how CDL started to ‘go green’ 15 years ago, challenging the perception of property developers as environmental destroyers, while also recognising that a green approach offered real opportunities for differentiation.

A range of ‘green drivers’ continue to support CDL’s policy decision. Investor activism is now significant; the Carbon Disclosure Project, for example, now has over 650 investor subscribers – companies hoping to attract funds from these investors must disclose their environmental performance.

Local communities now have a high expectation of corporate transparency, especially regarding social and environmental impact, and a good environmental record also helps retain talent.

Government-led initiatives are also significant, such as the Energy Conservation Act, which will soon mandate that all organisations with high energy consumption both appoint an energy manager and regularly report energy use.

Globally, the construction industry does not have a good environmental record, consuming 40% of all energy while contributing 30% of all greenhouse gasses.

In Singapore, good environmental performance in the building sector has – since 2005 – been recognised by the BCA Green Mark scheme, originally voluntary but since 2008, basic Green Mark certification is now compulsory for all new buildings.

Over the last 10 years, up to 5% of each CDL development has consisted of green measures, with the result that CDL has more Green Mark buildings than any similar company in Singapore.

In older properties, retrofitting more efficient air conditioning systems has improved efficiency by up to 54%, reduced operational costs and energy consumption by up to 10%, and increased capital value by up to 2%, resulting in a payback period of around seven years.