Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and automation, launched a joint report with the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC).
The report is titled “Going Green from the Inside Out: Accelerating Green Building Adoption in Singapore”, and presents findings of a survey by Schneider Electric involving 500 business leaders across MNCs and SMEs in Singapore.
The fieldwork was conducted between October 2022 and February 2023, and the results indicated most business leaders in Singapore only have a general understanding of green buildings. These findings highlight the crucial need for more business leaders to develop a deeper knowledge of green buildings so as to spur greater adoption and progress.
Low awareness may be holding back adoption, but momentum is expected to pick up, as over half (52%) of the respondents say their organisation plans to increase investment in using green buildings within the next one to two years.
For the survey, it seems that sustainability goals and energy efficiency are the top drivers for green building adoption. However, Cost and ROI factors was also seen as the biggest barrier to increasing access to green buildings.
Business leaders are generally still highly supportive of Singapore’s green building targets, curated with the Singapore Green Plan 2030. 95% agree that 80% of Singapore’s buildings should be ‘green’ by 2030, and 98% agree that 80% of Singapore’s buildings should be ‘Super Low Energy’ by 2030.
so how can we accelerate the adoption of green buildings?

In light of these findings, Schneider Electric and SGBC have listed five recommendations to accelerate the adoption of green buildings in Singapore:
1. Stakeholders, particularly developers and landlords, can take charge to advance the
green agenda. Developers and building owners can ensure that green features are accounted for from the onset of upcoming developments, or can retrofit existing buildings.
2. To enable increased scalability of green buildings, more awareness should be done for the potential upfront costs and doubts over subsequent potential cost savings reaped from green solutions.
3. Institutes of higher learning can work closely with the industry to groom the next generation of green building professionals.
4. Green financing must become more mainstream and accelerated to drive sustainable financing for the sector.
5. Stakeholders’ strengths can be leveraged to co-develop new innovative solutions and industry best practices.

“As we approach key national sustainability milestones, it is imperative that we continue accelerating efforts to reduce emissions and advance towards a net-zero future,” says Lee Ang Seng, President of the SGBC.
“With Singapore’s buildings accounting for over 20% of national carbon emissions, the case for greening its infrastructure has never been greater, and developers, building owners and business leaders play a critical role in helping to drive this agenda on sustainable development,” says Yoon Young Kim, Cluster President, Schneider Electric Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei.
Sustainability is in all of us, even our chopsticks. Read more about it here.