COMPANIES that can demonstrate the sustainability credentials of their goods and services may soon have a leg up when bidding for certain government tenders.

From 2024, environmental-sustainability criteria will be added to the evaluation of large construction and information and communications technology (ICT) tenders, as the government moves to green its supply chain.

These two sectors collectively make up more than 60 per cent of the value of government procurement contracts awarded.

As this is a new concept, up to 5 per cent of evaluation points will be set aside for environmental sustainability for a start, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu at her ministry’s Committee of Supply (COS) debate on Thursday (Mar 2).

“We will review the amount and engage (the) industry closely as we expand the adoption of sustainability criteria to more public-sector procurement sectors,” she said.

This builds upon existing sustainability requirements for selected goods and services, in place since 2007. Those cover ICT equipment, electrical appliances, paper, water fittings, buildings and vehicles.

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Office ICT equipment tenders, for example, must already match the best in class in energy efficiency – but with the upcoming change, the government may also evaluate tenderers’ efforts to reduce packaging and the carbon footprint of their operations, said Fu.

Annual disclosure

The government will publish an annual report on its environmental-sustainability efforts, progress and plans from FY2023, which begins on Apr 1, she said.

From FY2024 onwards, all statutory boards will commit to making similar annual disclosures.

The aim is partly to encourage more companies to track, plan and disclose their environmental performance in the transition towards a greener economy, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) said in an accompanying statement.

The few statutory boards already making such disclosures have managed to systematically incorporate sustainability in their decision-making and risk-management frameworks, and achieve concrete sustainability outcomes, Fu said.

The measures come as Singapore last year raised its climate target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, aiming to cut emissions to around 60 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalents in 2030, after peaking them earlier.

The government has committed to achieve net-zero emissions by around 2045, five years ahead of the national target.

Floating solar tender

Separately, national water agency PUB will call a tender this year for a floating solar farm with a minimum capacity of 44 megawatt-peak (MWp) at Pandan Reservoir, said the minister.

This capacity is enough to power some 11,000 four-room public housing flats annually, PUB said. It adds to the 68 MWp generated by existing solar-energy systems.

PUB will also look into improving the efficiency of energy-intensive processes, such as desalination. It targets to reduce energy consumption for desalination from 3.5 kilowatt-hour per cubic metre (kWh/m3) to less than 2 kWh/m3 by 2025, Fu said.

The water agency is exploring the use of electrolysis to capture carbon dioxide in seawater as part of the desalination process as well. PUB said a pilot plant that can remove up to 100 kg of carbon dioxide daily is expected to be commissioned in end-March.

Upfront certainty to efficiency grants

To reduce industry emissions, the Energy Efficiency Fund will provide more support to manufacturers that adopt pre-approved energy-efficient technologies, including compressed air systems and boilers.

From Apr 1, such technologies will be eligible for a fixed 70 per cent support of qualifying costs, subject to a cap per facility, according to technology type.

This provides upfront certainty of the grant amount, said Fu. Before this, the grant rate varied according to the carbon abatement achieved by each project.

Eligible projects could involve switching from fluorescent lighting to LED lighting with efficacy of at least 100 lumens per watt, and from air conditioners with three ticks or fewer to those with four or five ticks under the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) energy-labelling scheme.

The cap is S$200,000 for both lighting and air-conditioning projects. Projects opting for more efficient compressed air systems and boilers could get up to S$350,000.

Previously, a measurement and verification (M&V) report was required to ascertain the energy savings of supported projects. This requirement will be waived for projects with grant amounts of up to S$50,000. For those with higher grant amounts, NEA will accept a third-party assessment report in lieu of an M&V report.

The Energy Efficiency Fund was launched in 2017 for manufacturers with annual group sales turnover of up to S$500 million. Last April, its support cap was raised to 70 per cent, from 50 per cent before. As at January, the fund has supported 44 projects for an estimated annual carbon abatement of around 2,000 tonnes, equivalent to taking 700 cars off the road, NEA said.

To get households to be more energy efficient, the government will add energy labels to portable air-conditioners and more types of lamps next year, and raise the standards for air-con, refrigerators, lamps and televisions over the next two years, the minister said.

The move will remove less efficient appliances from the market, she added.