Twenty years of greening buildings in Singapore results significant achievements
Singapore now boasts 2,590 Green Mark-certified buildings as of March 2025. These green buildings collectively save over 4.2 billion kWh energy annually – equivalent to powering 1 million 4-room HDB flats and 1.3 billion SGD (1 billion USD) in cost savings per year.
Nguyễn Bích Hường
Green space in a building in Singapore. (Photo: VNA)
Singapore (VNA) – Singapore marked a significant milestone in its green building journey as Building and Constrꦜuction Authority (BCA) and Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) have celebrated two decades of the BCA Green Mark certification scheme.
The scheme was launched 20 years ago by BCA with just 17 certified buildings in 2005. Singapore now boasts 2,590 Green Mark-certified buildings as of March 2025. These green buildings collectively save over 4.2 billion kWh energy annually – equivalent to powering 1 million 4-room HDB flats and 1.3 billion SGD (1 billion USD) in cost savings per year.
The carbon emissions offset by these buildings are equivalent to replanting a forest more than 13 times the size of Singapore.
Singapore's green building expertise has also gained international recognition. Local sustainability consultants such as G-Energy Global and GreenA Consultants have successfully globalised their expertise, with notable achievements including Wisma BCA Foresta, HQ of PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, Indonesia's first Green Mark Super Low Energy (SLE) certified building, and Sobha One in Dubai, a new premium luxury condominium estate that is the Middle East's first Green Mark Platinum SLE development.
Notably, new commercial buildings with the highest Green Mark Super Low Energy certification can recover their sustainability investments in about 5 to 6 years, while achieving average energy savings of 59%. Recent market analysis by Cushman and Wakefield also showed that Green Mark-certified buildings in the CBD commanded premium rents up to 12% higher than non-Green Mark-certified properties, with consistently higher occupancy rates.
The benefits of Green Mark buildings extend well beyond financial returns, delivering significant improvements to health and wellbeing of occupants. Joint research by BCA and the National University of Singapore also showed that these Green Mark-certified buildings maintain superior indoor environmental conditions, with lower concentrations of pollutants and significantly fewer reported health-related symptoms among occupants. These findings underscore the BCA Green Mark certification scheme's role in creating not just environmentally sustainable, but also healthier workspaces for Singapore's workforce./.
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