Singapore industry grouping pledges commitment to green buildings at Paris conference

INDUSTRY association Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), which promotes green building design, practices and technologies, has pledged its commitment in line with Singapore's goal to reduce emissions intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

The pledge was made at the COP21 climate change conference in Paris.

Among other things, SGBC runs labelling schemes assessing building products for their energy and water efficiency.

SGBC's founding members include some of the largest building and construction players in Singapore, like real estate giants CapitaLand, City Developments and Keppel Land, government agency Building and Construction Authority, and public housing authority Housing and Development Board.

"All 74 national green building councils support the high level commitment from the World Green Building Council to achieve 'net zero carbon' for new buildings and energy efficient refurbishment of the existing building stock by 2050," SGBC said in a press release.

"A total of 25 green building councils, including Singapore, also unveiled national commitments to register, renovate or certify over 1.25 billion square metres of green building space - almost twice the size of Singapore - and train over 127,000 qualified green building professionals over the next five years."