In the article, “Green buildings, Singapore’s natural ally for a greener future”, Mackenzie (2017) stated that promoting Eco-friendly buildings will be the solution to a cleaner and sustainable future for Singapore. The article emphasizes the importance of how sustainability can significantly affect the future. Singapore generates high energy consumption due to its metropolitan lifestyle and vast infrastructures. The immense demand for energy has gravely affected the natural environment because of the process the generate energy has led to the massive amount of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions being released. As a keen supporter of environmental protection, Building Construction Authority (BCA) aims to influence developers and designers to incorporate sustainable design into their buildings. In addition, the author also mentioned that the implementation of green buildings was a huge success and it can benefit the developers to save costs in the long run. Green buildings such as the Asia Square has proved that design is an important factor and therefore, it gives designers and stakeholders the power to achieve sustainability. The author concluded that a proactive approach to protect the environment will help to deal with climate change.
I do agree with the article that implementing green features into buildings will alleviate the environmental impact and it acts as a stepping stone to pave out a greener future for Singapore.
Firstly, as a developed country with dense population, the high demand for energy is unavoidable. However, witnessing the evident progression of the green features through platform such as Build Construction Authority (BCA) has shown that there is a distinctive reduction in the consumption of natural resources. Based on the article “Green buildings also better for health, not just more energy efficient’’, Boh (2017), mentioned that BCA has tabulated data on existing buildings that have underwent upgrades and incorporated green features into their building. BCA attained an outstanding result of a major reduction in energy consumption. Green features have shown their impact and significance on the environment. On BCA’s website, the news article has provided a graphical report to showcase the gradual reduction of the energy consumption contributed by commercial building with Eco-friendly features. As a result of the increase in influence and advancement in green features technology, the natural resources were being consumed efficiently.
Furthermore, Singapore has been diligent in educating and encouraging people to take part in the journey for a greener future. In the article, ‘‘Green moves to get students and companies involved in sustainability efforts”, Seow (2016) remarked on how Secondary school students were exposed to sustainable practices and given opportunities to participate in promoting green features. Nurturing the young about the impact of green buildings will help to cultivate the habit of a sustainable lifestyle for them. On the WWF’s webpage (2017), it supports the idea of raising the awareness of the negative environmental impact by providing helpful programmes to educate the younger generation.
Lastly, Singapore’s Government plays a major role in protecting the environment. The Government has set policy to achieve environmental goals by indirectly encouraging the developers to take up environmentally-friendly measures. In the article, “Singapore Budget 2018: Singapore’s carbon tax to start at S$5 a tonne”, Soh (2018) informed that government aims to reduce the carbon emission and imposed a tax based on the amount of carbon emission released by the industrial company. Although the hefty tax will continue to increase at a consistent rate, the Government has offered their assistance to avoid it by providing grants to improve the sustainability for their buildings. Based on greenfuture’s webpage, there are more than 30 incentives and funds offered to developers that are interested to take up the green future challenge. With the support of the government and the continual advancement of green technologies, I firmly believe that the involvement of green features will be key to counter climate change.
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References
Green buildings also better for health, not just more energy efficient: BCA study (2016). The Straits Times. Retrieved, September 12, 2017 from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/green-buildings-also-better-for-health-not-just-more-energy-efficient-bca-study
HEALTHIER AND GREENER BUILDINGS IN NEXT LAP OF SINGAPORE’S GREEN BUILDING JOURNEY (2017). Building and Construction authority. Retrieved, September 12,2017 from https://www.bca.gov.sg/newsroom/others/Media_Release_SGBW_2017_120917.pdf
Green moves to get students and companies involved in sustainability efforts. The Straits Times. Retrieved, June 24, 2016 from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/green-moves-to-get-students-and-companies-involved-in-sustainability-efforts
Eco-Schools Programme, World Wildlife funds. Retrieved, 2017 from http://www.wwf.sg/wwf_education/eco_schools_programme/
Singapore Budget 2018: Singapore’s carbon tax to start at S$5 a tonne. Business Times. Retrieved, February 20, 2018 from https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/energy-commodities/singapore-budget-2018/singapore-budget-2018-singapores-carbon-tax-to-start-at-s5
2015 Guide to Singapore Government Funding and Incentives for the Environment, Green Future, February 16,2015 fromhttp://www.greenfuture.sg/2015/02/16/2015-guide-to-singapore-government-funding-and-incentives-for-the-environment/
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