SingLand’s Sustainability Journey
SingLand is committed towards a net zero future and as part of this commitment, the Group has been making strides towards greening its extensive portfolio of buildings through retrofitting, asset enhancement and redevelopment works.
Over 85% of SingLand’s portfolio by gross floor area is certified by Singapore’s Building Construction Authority Green Mark Scheme. Of which, Stamford Court is a Super Low Energy-certified property, after changes were done to raise the building’s energy efficiency. Some of these improvements included the adoption of water-cooled chillers, LED lightings and upgrades to the building’s mechanical systems. In the near term, the Group aims to achieve certification for its remaining commercial properties.
Assessing SingLand’s Carbon Impact
In 2021, SingLand was one of nine developers to sign the Singapore Built Environment Embodied Carbon Pledge initiated by the Singapore Green Building Council. Embodied carbon refers to the carbon emissions associated with the materials and construction processes throughout the lifecycle of a building. While embodied carbon typically accounts for about 30% of emissions over a building’s lifetime, it is typically overlooked as operational carbon, the carbon emitted during the building’s operation accounts for the remaining 70%.
As part of this pledge and its transition towards a low carbon business, SingLand is taking stock of the total carbon impact of its property portfolio, starting with its flagship Singapore Land Tower which is undergoing an extensive asset enhancement initiative (AEI). In 2023, SingLand completed an embodied carbon study which calculated the carbon emissions of the building’s original base build, the new materials added to the building as part of the AEI, and the projected emissions if it had pursued a demolish and rebuild alternative to upgrade the building’s features and specifications.
The results from the study showed that Singapore Land Tower’s base build had a lower embodied carbon value below industry benchmarks, indicating that the 40-year-old tower had an efficient building design to start with when it was completed in the 1980s. With the AEI, the existing building’s foundation and superstructure was retained, allowing the amount of carbon emissions to be lower by more than 50% as compared to the demolish and rebuild alternative.
For a more holistic assessment of the building’s total environmental impact, it is critical to consider the building’s operational carbon emissions. Operational carbon forms a substantial part of building’s emissions and the AEI which saw upgrading works done to improve the building’s mechanical and engineering specifications is expected to have reduced this. However, the full impact has yet to be determined, and plans are underway to calculate the building’s operational carbon emissions once all AEI works are completed in the second half of 2024.
Moving Towards Net Zero
Following the conclusion of Singapore Land Tower’s embodied carbon study, the Group looks to conduct building life cycle assessments of selected properties within its portfolio to better understand their environmental impact and the steps needed to reduce their future impact. Efforts are also ongoing to further reduce the operational carbon emissions of its buildings by improving energy and water efficiency, and waste management. Together, these actions allow SingLand to progress further in its decarbonisation journey and do its part to realise Singapore’s net zero vision by 2050.
