Technologies Singapore firms must use to get a Green Mark

Launched in 2005, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore’s Green Mark Scheme was targeted at fostering the construction of more environmentally-friendly buildings, with the end goal of ensuring that long-term sustainability would be part of the foundation of every building project in Singapore.

With Singapore’s regulations for 2013 and beyond requiring more stringent adherence to the scheme, building and facility managers everywhere need to start paying more attention to the scheme’s certification criteria and look to include more energy-efficient components and procedures into building projects and operations.

As of May this year, there are more than 1180 Green Mark building projects in Singapore.

There is still a long way to go, as the BCA target is to have at least 80% of the buildings in Singapore reach Green Mark status by 2030.

However, time is on the side of facility managers and they should start assessing their individual buildings using the framework provided by the BCA.

The assessment framework states that new buildings should promote energy and water savings, healthier indoor environments as well as adopt more extensive greenery.

For existing ones, owners should aim to reduce adverse impacts of their buildings on the environment and occupant health over the entire building life cycle, as well as meet sustainable operations goals.

With that, let us now take a look at the potential technologies which building managers can leverage on to score points in the Green Mark assessment tests.

Energy Efficient Drives
Variable speed drives are used almost in every application, from factory processes to HVAC, pumping, hoisting, compressors, fans, water treatment and more.

As a result, speed drives contribute to a substantial portion of the energy consumption in a building. With energy efficient drives, almost any building can significantly boost their Green Mark score.

Process Automation
With a control architecture solution in place, processes can be prioritized and operated more efficiently, translating into higher productivity, lower costs, and increased profitability for businesses.

Energy savings of up to 30% are achievable, and can help buildings chalk up to 32 Green Mark points as a result.

Metering and Monitoring
Having proper metering and monitoring capabilities is crucial to reducing building energy consumption. It also reduces operating expenditures as building managers can implement dynamic load-shedding strategies within the control system, reduce peak demand surcharges and power factor penalties as well as prolong the life of building subsystems and their components.

Building managers can get smart about monitoring and control by installing power meters and circuit breakers with integrated metering functions that can provide energy insights needed to reduce costs and increase energy efficiency. Meters that come with software which provide real-time updates on energy consumption allow managers to immediately react and identify areas of energy wastage

Lighting Control
Lighting is prevalent in all buildings, with studies showing that 30% of total electricity consumption in modern commercial buildings is attributable to lighting.

At the same time, it forms a significant part of energy wastage, as employees may sometimes forget to turn lights off after leaving the office, or leaving them on unnecessarily when not needed.

To solve this, installations such as occupancy sensors help to eliminate lighting-related wastage in unoccupied areas – turning off the lights the moment it people step out of the area.

Modern lighting control systems also come equipped with scene control functionality which optimizes the amount of lighting needed for any one task.

Benefits

By meeting the Green Mark requirements, buildings will start to see significant cost savings. Research has shown that the annual electricity bill for offices can average around SGD $175 million.

This huge expenditure shows that even a small percentage of energy saved can amount to millions of dollars annually. Research by Frost & Sullivan indicates that almost all buildings have an average energy savings potential of 20 – 30%, further underlining the importance of implementing energy efficiency measures.

Beyond energy savings, we can also expect to see increased productivity benefits. Energy efficient buildings with features like natural daylighting, access to outdoor views, fresh air and operable windows can make employees happier and more productive.