BACKGROUND

Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development
BCA Awards 2007, Raffles City Convention Centre
10 May 2007

As Singapore aspires to be a leading global city in environmental sustainability, there is scope to further improve on energy efficiency requirements in buildings, to address the impact of climate change. While the focus on energy efficiency remains important, a more holistic approach should be taken to ensure that environmental quality and comfort are not compromised.

BCA intends to go beyond energy efficiency to encourage environmental friendliness in buildings. Among other measures, BCA will enhance the current Building Control Act to require a minimum environmental sustainability standard that is equivalent to the Green Mark Certified Level for new buildings and existing ones that undergo major retrofitting.

BCA has conducted several industry consultations since July last year, with the professionals from various associations to hear their views in relation to the proposed legislative requirement. Overall, the industry stakeholders have shown their great support and responded positively to the proposed legislation on environmental sustainability for buildings. Some professional associations and consultants have also taken the extra mile in volunteering their efforts in fine-tuning these requirements. Indeed, the suggestions and feedback received has helped BCA in refining the requirements for better implementation.

SCOPE AND DETAILS

The new Building Control (Environmental Sustainability) Regulations 2008 will apply to :

• All new building works with gross floor area of 2000 m² or more ;
• Additions or extensions to existing buildings which involve increasing gross floor area of the existing buildings by 2000 m² or more;
• Building works which involve major retrofitting to existing buildings with existing gross floor area of 2000 m² or more.

The effective date of implementation will be based on the first submission date for URA planning permission on or after 15 Apr 2008.

Alteration to existing buildings which does not involve major retrofitting works is not subject to this requirement.

The requirements on environmental sustainability of buildings will be integrated with the building plan process. The qualified person who submits the building plan and the other appropriate practitioners will be responsible for assessing and scoring the building works under their charge using the criteria and scoring methodology spelled out in the Code for Environmental Sustainability of Buildings (updated on 30 April 2008).

Here are the administrative details and FAQs.

BCA has also conducted three industry briefings on 3 and 7 Mar 2008 and 18 Apr 2008 on these new requirements.

The briefing notes on the new requirements are as follows:

Clarifications

For any queries pertaining to the new requirements, please contact our officers :