Eco-friendly housing: the way forward is more promotion

IT is widely accepted that human consumption has driven environmental damage including climate change. Interestingly, according to estimates of the UN Environment Programme, as much as one third of total global greenhouse gas emissions are contributed by buildings. Hence the development of more environmentally-friendly buildings can make a significant difference to our efforts to limit the impact of climate change.

While most people would agree that we should try our best to protect the environment, it is far from clear that people would be willing to pay a price premium for eco-friendly products, including their housing. The results of prior research based on analyses of samples from different countries have been mixed and inconclusive.

In Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) introduced the Green Mark Scheme for buildings in 2005 aimed at achieving a number of positive outcomes including a reduction in the consumption of electricity, an improvement in air quality, and a reduction in environmental damage due to buildings. The BCA assesses buildings quantitatively on several criteria for eco-friendliness and if the points attained by a building exceed various thresholds, they receive one of the following Green Mark Awards: Platinum, Gold Plus, Gold and Certified. Possibly motivated by the recognition and the incentives provided by the government to eco-friendly buildings, the number of such buildings in Singapore has grown exponentially - from 17 in 2006 to 2003 in 2013 with a similar increase in gross floor area from 1.1 million to 62 million square metres. The number of environmentally friendly housing projects has also grown, though not at the same pace as commercial and industrial buildings - one stumbling block being the reluctance of buyers to pay higher upfront costs for eco-friendly housing.