Introduction

Inspiring a Greener Singapore as a Green Beacon of Asia

The Singapore Green Building Council forges public-private partnerships to foster innovative industry solutions across the entire building and construction value chain. Through its green building product and green building services labelling programmes, SGBC sets high standards and benchmarks for green building solutions both locally and regionally to help build more sustainable cities for better living. As Singapore’s representative on the World Green Building Council, SGBC actively contributes to the global green building movement by sharing expertise and knowledge during international conferences and events.

Officially launched on 28 October 2009 as the only non-profit organisation with a concerted private-public sector partnership to achieve a world-class and sustainable built-environment in Singapore, our key role is to advocate green building design, practices and technologies and drive environmental sustainability in the building and construction industry.

The key areas of SGBC's focus include:

SGBC has embarked on a pro-active programme of public education and industry promotion. These include major industry and public events such as the annual Singapore International Green Building Conference (IGBC) held in conjunction with the Singapore Green Building Week (SGBW) and BEX Asia, a regional exhibition to engage industry players and promote green products and practices. The event is also open to the public, serving as a key public education platform to highlight the trend towards building greener communities and sustainable lifestyles.

SGBC has also joined hands with leading organisations such as IBM and Ministry of Education (MOE) to launch "Project Green Insights" to raise awareness of energy efficiency in schools. Under this programme, a network of smart meters was installed in selected schools to capture data on energy usage for transmission using IBM's cloud-based solution, to the Internet for sharing with all stakeholders. A dashboard of the data captured will provide staff and students a comprehensive view of their energy usage patterns and allow them to identify best practices and make optimal decisions on energy usage.

SGBC launched its first Certification Scheme for green building products in January 2011.

We are the first dedicated Certification Body for Green Building-related Products and Services in Singapore to support Singapore's Building and Construction Authority (BCA)'s Green Mark scheme.

SGBC's Certification scheme is a comprehensive listing of robustly assessed and certified green building products that are meaningfully differentiated for safer, healthier, efficient and sustainable products in the building industry. It provides construction industry professionals with a list of eco-friendly building products that are resource-efficient, give potentially better efficiency and lower environmental impact, provide better indoor environmental quality for a healthy, and productive workplace in buildings.

In 2010, SGBC became the first Asian member of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), to organize the WorldGBC International Congress.

This demonstrates our commitment to the green building cause both locally and internationally.

Through the IGBC and BEX Asia events, we continually provide an excellent platform for international experts and green building advocates, manufacturers and industry professionals to showcase a wide range of green building, architecture, design, products and solutions as well as best practices in the industry. This offers a great opportunity for Singaporean companies to network and collaborate with key international industry players.

SGBC has also initiated and sealed several Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)s with our overseas counterparts such as the Green Building Council of Indonesia (GBCI) and the China Green Building Council (CGBC), Such MOUs promote green building products and services, professional training programmes and co-operation on enhancing recognition of certifications of Green Building Products and Services.

The Council continually promotes green building design, practices and technologies, the integration of green building initiatives into mainstream design, construction and operation of buildings as well as building capability and professionalism to support wider adoption of green building development and practices in Singapore. We regularly organise industry seminars, such as the SGBC Green Trends Seminar, for professionals, manufacturers, distributors, estate and facilities managers, designers and developers to update on the latest trends and innovative solutions. By sharing industry knowledge and research data on sustainable buildings, we hope to help local industry players to make efficient and strategic decisions.

SGBC membership is the best way for you to connect with and contribute to the green building cause.

Our members come from big companies and small businesses to non-profit organisations and governments. The benefits of membership are indeed extensive.

Our members are a key priority for us. We are continuously enhancing the value of membership by offering them new opportunities for connecting individuals and businesses with experts, partners. Also, we provide members with access to information and ideas, solutions and best practices which they need for the rapidly growing green building industry – both locally and overseas.