In the article, "Green buildings, Singapore's natural ally for a greener future", MacKenzie (2017) states that green building design is a way to fight climate change. The author claims that Singapore’s economic success over many years has resulted in a sharp increase of buildings being built. This contributes to a quarter of the carbon emission produced by Singapore. To combat this issue of climate change, BCA aims to have at least 80% of buildings to be Green Mark certified by the year 2030 and to educate people about the consequence of climate change. In fact, some buildings have already started going green. For example, PARKROYAL has features that make it energy efficient. For a building with green building designs, it should consist of light colours, makes use of natural lighting, optimize technology, utilizing an element that emphasizes sustainability and lastly, liaising with the stakeholders. Asia Square is a prime example of this. It consumes 35% less energy and is one of the most efficient buildings in Singapore, as it combines design and sustainability. This shows that having a green building design is not expensive and is the way forward.
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While the summary provides clear details on the positive impacts and details of green buildings, it fails to mention why developers would adopt green building. It is an undeniable fact that buildings are a major contributor to the carbon emission in the worlds. However, it is essential that the government would have to entice entities to adopt green building. Singapore is a good example of how the government attracts green building design to developers and businesses. In the article, “Why green real estate is the way forward” (Ang, 2017) states that the government of Singapore offers developers benefits for buildings that adopt green building features. The government rewards developers with an extension of 2 percent Gross Floor Area when they adopt green building features. As for existing buildings, BCA will absorb 50 percent to the implementation cost of the green building features. As for businesses, the government enforces green building design by only leasing out office spaces that are certified with a Green Mark Gold Plus. This shows that the government provides an open door for the transition to the adoption of green building design.
India also places heavy emphasis on green building and is leading in the pursuit of green building design. In the article, “Green Buildings: Way forward in reducing emissions from buildings”, (Pundir.A, 2016) states that it is the Indian government’s priority to shift its focus to ‘sustainability of habitats’ through improving the energy consumption of its buildings. This shows that India is committed to green building.
India already has a system in place with the backing of the Indian government which would help in the country’s pursuit to implement green building design. From the article, “Going Green: The way forward” (The Economic Times, 2008), the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) plays a vital role in the green building initiatives. These initiatives are supported by the Indian government (Indian Green Building Council, 2015). It implements a complex system called the Integrated Building Management System (IBMS) which is much like a ‘nerve centre’. It controls anything that consumes power, to reduce the consumption of energy throughout the entire building. In the long run, it is an economical system for developers or businesses to have. Unlike Singapore, which gives direct incentives for the adoption of green building features, the Indian Government provides entities with the system which aids in the facilitation and implementation of green building.
In conclusion, I believe that it is the ease of transition for entities to adopt green building design and its economic benefits they would gain from it, that is the number one pull factor that governments would have to come up with, to push their countries towards green building design.
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