Is there gold in green buildings?

Singapore never really stops moving. The cranes keep swinging, older buildings get facelifts and the city somehow finds room to squeeze in one more development. But as climate expectations grow louder, a familiar question is getting harder for landlords and investors to sidestep: is greening buildings simply a cost to absorb, or has it quietly become the smarter play?

In this week’s PropertyBT, a podcast of BT Correspondents, host Leslie Yee speaks with Jackson Seng, vice president for digital energy, East Asia at Schneider Electric. Seng deals with the systems that keep buildings and data centres behaving themselves, and he is refreshingly pragmatic about what sustainability looks like when you actually have to run a property. Schneider Electric is already walking the talk. Its 30 year old Kallang headquarters was retrofitted, now runs on positive energy certification and uses about 30 per cent less power.

But this is not a conversation about buzzwords. It is about what genuinely stacks up.

Why listen

Wellbeing as the new driver Cost savings matter, but employers are now looking at comfort, health and what it takes to get people back into the office without bribery.

A clearer business case Greener buildings are pulling rental premiums of up to 18 per cent. Owners who drag their feet risk losing tenants to landlords who did not.

Retrofit or rebuild Seng cuts through the usual noise. Energy use, embodied carbon and land constraints make retrofits more commercially viable than most expect.

Singapore’s global standing With clear standards and strong government support, the republic is ahead of many peers, though the bar is rising quickly.

What stays with you is Seng’s steady optimism. Younger staff want to work in greener spaces, retrofits can pay off faster than expected and the market is already rewarding owners who take sustainability seriously. The momentum is no longer theoretical. It is happening.

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If you want a grounded sense of where the built environment is heading and why it matters for everyone from landlords to tenants, listen now.

PropertyBT is a podcast of BT Correspondents. Look out for the next episode featuring senior correspondent Ben Paul. And if you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to reach out to us at btpodcasts@sph.com.sg.

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Written and hosted by: Leslie Yee (lyee@sph.com.sg)

With Jackson Seng, vice president, Schneider Electric

Edited by: Emily Liu & Claressa Monteiro

Produced by: Leslie Yee & Emily Liu

Engineered by: Joann Chai Pei Chieh

A podcast by BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media

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