SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards
The biannual SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards are jointly organised by the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) together with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to recognise Professionals, Businesses and Building Projects for their contributions and significant achievements in the development of a green and sustainable built environment.
Applications for the next edition of the Awards will be held in early 2026.
SGBC and BCA reserve the right not to award accolades in any Award Category and/or Sub-Category.
The Professional Leadership in Sustainability Award recognises exceptional Green Mark Professionals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation, and commitment in advancing sustainability within Singapore’s built environment. The Award seeks to honour professionals whose personal vision and drive have created lasting impact, pushed industry boundaries, and accelerated Singapore’s journey toward a greener future.
This Award celebrates transformative leadership, not just job performance. It is for those who have gone above and beyond to champion change, influence the industry, and leave a legacy of sustainability excellence.
Award Winners will be those recognised by their peers as change-makers, mentors, and pioneers who have made a significant, demonstrable contribution to raising the bar for green buildings in Singapore.
Award Criteria
Your submission will be evaluated based on four pillars of professional leadership. The nomination form is structured to help you showcase your achievements in these key areas:
Leadership & Industry Influence
- How have you shaped mindsets and driven the sustainability agenda forward?
- Championing corporate or industry-wide sustainability visions and net-zero roadmaps.
- Leading influential committees, taskforces, or advocacy groups (e.g., with SGBC, BCA, professional bodies)
- Mentoring the next generation of green building practitioners.
- Successfully influencing policy, standards, or major stakeholder decisions.
Project Delivery & Tangible Track Record
- What is your hands-on contribution to Singapore’s landscape of green buildings?
- Direct, significant role in the development, design, or delivery of certified green building projects (e.g., BCA Green Mark Platinum, Super Low Energy, Zero Energy).
- Ability to demonstrate specific responsibilities and quantifiable outcomes (energy/water savings, carbon reduction).
- A portfolio that shows consistent application and elevation of sustainability standards.
Innovation & Creating Lasting Legacy
- What systems, knowledge, or solutions have you created that have a multiplier effect?
- Developing innovative tools, technologies, patents, or services that solve industry challenges
- Authoring influential guidelines, research papers, or standards that have been widely adopted
- Establishing internal corporate protocols, procurement policies, or training programs that institutionalise sustainability
Outreach & Capacity Building
- How have you extended your impact beyond your core role to grow the ecosystem?
- Designing and leading training programmes, workshops, or public campaigns
- Pro-bono advisory, community engagement, or student mentorship
- Thought leadership through speaking engagements, publications, and media contributions that raise public awareness.
Award Eligibility
The Award is open to professionals in built environment and sustainability related fields e.g. Architects, Builders, Engineers, Environmental Sustainability Consultants, Facilities Managers and other Green Building Professions. In recognition of accomplishment in the foundational years of their career, Winners below the age of 40 (as of 1 Jan. 2026) will be presented with the Emerging Professional Award.
All nominations for the Professional Leadership in Sustainability Award must be supported by a Nominator. Organisations are welcome to nominate their employees for the Award.
The Business Leadership in Sustainability Award honours companies and organisations that demonstrate exceptional commitment, strategic innovation, and measurable impact in advancing green building practices and sustainability within Singapore’s built environment.
This Award recognises corporate leadership that not only achieves internal excellence but also elevates industry standards and accelerates the broader market transformation toward a sustainable future.
Award Sub-Categories
Organisations must apply under one of the following sub-categories, which define the primary lens through which the business’ leadership in sustainability will be evaluated.
Impact: Leadership Through Integration & Results
- For organisations that have deeply embedded sustainability into their core business strategy and operations, delivering consistent, measurable, and industry-leading environmental and social outcomes.
- Ideal for companies with mature ESG frameworks, outstanding green building portfolios, robust tracking systems, and proven stakeholder engagement that drives real-world change.
Innovation: Leadership Through Solutions Development
- For organisations that have developed or significantly advanced novel technologies, products, services, or business models that solve critical sustainability challenges in the built environment.
- Ideal for product manufacturers, technology firms, consultancies, or service providers with groundbreaking solutions that have been validated and adopted in the market, delivering superior environmental performance.
Transformation: Leadership Through Strategic Change
- For organisations that have undergone a fundamental, strategic shift to place sustainability at the heart of their business, transforming their culture, operations, and market position.
- Ideal for companies that can demonstrate a clear “before and after” journey, showcasing intentional change management, renewed corporate vision, and tangible outcomes from their sustainability-led transformation.
Choosing the Award Sub-Category
- Choose IMPACT if your business’ strength is in systematic implementation, portfolio-wide results, and comprehensive ESG integration.
- Choose INNOVATION if your business’ strength is a breakthrough product, technology, or service with proven market adoption and performance data.
- Choose TRANSFORMATION if your business’ strength is a documented strategic pivot that has fundamentally changed your company’s culture, operations, and value proposition.
Evaluation Criteria
Submissions will be assessed by an independent panel of judges against five core criteria, which must be addressed through the lens of your chosen sub-category:
- Impact & Integration: Depth of sustainability embedding in core strategy, operations, and stakeholder engagement.
- Innovation & Solution Development: Originality, effectiveness, and benefits of novel practices, technologies, or methodologies.
- Organisational Transformation: Intentionality, depth, and outcomes of the strategic shift toward sustainability.
- Excellence & Distinction: Performance that exceeds standard practice and sets new industry benchmarks.
- Inclusivity & Collaborative Leadership: Effectiveness in engaging and partnering with diverse stakeholders to amplify outcomes.
Award Eligibility
The Award is open to all organisations registered and operating in Singapore whose activities impact the built environment, including but not limited to:
- Developers & Real Estate Companies
- Construction & Engineering Firms
- Architecture & Design Practices
- Building Product Manufacturers & Suppliers
- Facilities Management & Service Providers
- Sustainability Consultancies
- Technology & Proptech Firms
- Financial Institutions & Investors with built environment portfolios
- Academic & Research Institutions
Organisations that have been previous winners in the last two (2) editions of the Business Leadership in Sustainability Award (2022 and 2024) will not be eligible to win in 2026.
Green Mark Champion & Green Mark Pearl Award
The Green Mark Champion and Green Mark Pearl Awards were originally conferred by BCA and are being extensively reviewed.
The Building Project Leadership in Sustainability Award recognises outstanding green building projects that demonstrate leadership, innovation, and transformative impact in advancing a greener, more sustainable built environment in Singapore. This category honours developments that exemplify sustainability across different achievement areas and building types.
For this Award Category, you must make two distinct selections that define how the project will be evaluated:
- Award Sub-Category: the core sustainability achievement for which the building project competes
- Building Typology: the functional classification of the building project
Award Sub-Categories
Choose ONE category that represents your project’s most significant achievement. This determines your judging criteria and competitive cohort.
Carbon Performance
- For projects demonstrating measurable leadership in carbon reduction and climate action.
- Ideal for projects with: Exceptional energy efficiency, innovative low-carbon materials, embodied carbon reduction strategies, renewable energy integration, and comprehensive carbon accounting throughout the building lifecycle.
- Judging focus: Quantifiable carbon savings, innovation in decarbonisation approaches, and scalability of solutions.
Community Engagement
- For projects that excel in creating social value and inclusive stakeholder partnerships.
- Ideal for projects with meaningful community co-creation processes, programmes that enhance social equity, public space activation, stakeholder education initiatives, and designs that foster community identity and belonging.
- Judging focus: Depth of engagement, social impact measurement, and long-term community benefit.
Health & Wellbeing
- For projects that prioritise human-centric design and occupant wellness.
- Ideal for projects with superior indoor air quality, abundant natural light, biophilic design elements, acoustic comfort, thermal comfort optimisation, wellness amenities, and designs supporting physical and mental health.
- Judging focus: Health outcome considerations, indoor environmental quality metrics, and holistic wellbeing integration.
Intelligent Building
- For projects showcasing technological innovation and smart building excellence.
- Ideal for projects with advanced building management systems, IoT integration, predictive analytics, smart grid connectivity, digital twin implementation, automated performance optimisation, and data-driven facility management.
- Judging focus: Innovation level, system integration, operational efficiency gains, and technological scalability.
Urban Renewal
- For projects that transform and revitalise existing urban fabric with sustainability leadership.
- Ideal for projects with adaptive reuse of structures, heritage conservation integrated with sustainability, neighbourhood-scale revitalisation, brownfield redevelopment, and designs that enhance urban resilience while respecting cultural context.
- Judging focus: Transformation impact, heritage integration, contextual sensitivity, and community revitalisation.
Building Typology
Choose ONE typology that best represents the project’s primary function. This ensures appropriate assessment during judging:
- Commercial Office Building – Corporate offices, business parks, co-working spaces
- Civic/ Community/ Cultural Institution – Museums, libraries, community centres, places of worship, performance venues
- Institutional & Educational Building – Schools, universities, training centres
- Healthcare Facility – Hospitals, clinics, medical centres, aged care facilities
- Hotel & Resort Building – Hotels, serviced apartments, resorts, hospitality venues
- Industrial, Logistics & Specialised Facility – Factories, warehouses, data centres, laboratories, specialised industrial buildings
- Retail/ Mixed-Use Building – Shopping centres, retail complexes, mixed-development projects
- Residential Building – Condominiums, apartments, landed housing developments, co-living spaces
Unsure which sub-category fits the project best? Consider these examples:
- A net-zero energy office building with innovative solar integration → Carbon Performance
- A community centre developed through extensive resident workshops → Community Engagement
- A hospital with exceptional indoor air quality and healing gardens → Health & Wellbeing
- A smart industrial facility with AI-driven energy optimisation → Intelligent Building
- A conserved shophouse adapted into sustainable community spaces → Urban Renewal
- For mixed-use developments: Choose the dominant function (e.g., a development with retail, offices, and residential where retail is primary → Retail/Mixed-Use Building).
Award Eligibility
To qualify for this award category, the nominated building project must:
- Be physically located within Singapore.
- Have been completed and operational for at least one (1) full year as of January 2026.
- Have minimally attained an active BCA Green Mark Platinum certification for its specific building typology (e.g., New Non-Residential Buildings, Existing Buildings, etc.).
First introduced in 2015, these special awards are conferred to industry leaders with outstanding contributions to the built environment sector.
- The Green Visionary Award commends forerunners who have made ground-breaking contributions or revolutionised industry practices, and continue to lead and influence sustainability efforts locally and regionally.
- The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises specialists with longstanding contributions to the built environment, and demonstrated leadership or innovation that have a significant impact on building design or operation.