Cost and return of investment largest obstacle to increasing green buildings: study

Six in 10 said it is the biggest barrier to increasing the use of sustainable buildings.

Singapore businesses may still believe in green goals but they see the return of investment and cost issues as the biggest challenge to increasing access to green buildings, according to research from Schneider Electric and the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC).

More than six in 10 businesses indicated that “cost and return on investment (ROI)” is the biggest barrier when looking to increase the use of green buildings in the next one to two years. 

Aside from this, the report revealed that most business leaders (51%) in Singapore have a general understanding of green buildings, whilst only four in 10 (38%) have a comprehensive understanding. 

Only 12% of poll participants said that all their operations already use green buildings. Over half (52%) said their businesses plan to increase investment in using green buildings in the next one to two years.

Business leaders are still highly supportive of Singapore’s green building targets, with 95% saying 80% of Singapore’s buildings should be following sustainable goals by 2030, and 98% agreeing that 80% of Singapore’s buildings should be ‘Super Low Energy’ from 2030. Of those who indicated support for the latter goal, 56% believe the target should be lower.

The report used responses from 500 business leaders across MNCs and SMEs in Singapore, “as well as findings from a qualitative study conducted with members of the SGBC on the level of awareness, preparedness, understanding, and views of business leaders on green buildings in Singapore. Fieldwork was conducted between October 2022 and February 2023.”

Recommendations

With these findings, Schneider Electric and SGBC identified five recommendations in the report for speedy green infrastructure adoption in Singapore.

Stakeholders, particularly developers, and landlords can take the lead to advance the green agenda: Within the private sector, developers and building owners especially play a critical role in ensuring that green features are accounted for from the onset in upcoming developments or by retrofitting existing buildings.

Promote greater awareness to leverage technology and tap on support schemes: To enable the scalability of green buildings, upfront costs and doubts over subsequent potential cost savings reaped from green solutions must be tackled.

Grow pool and pipeline of green building professionals: Institutes of higher learning can work closely with the industry to groom the next generation of green building professionals.

Enabling greater access to green finance: Green financing must become more mainstream and accelerated to drive sustainable financing for the sector.

Forging impactful partnerships and co-innovating solutions: Stakeholders’ strengths can be leveraged to co-develop new innovative solutions and industry best practices.