Concrete Green
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In a concrete jungle such as Singapore, an enormous amount of energy is needed to power buildings.
No surprise then, that Singapore has set a goal to make 80 per cent of buildings on the island eco-friendly by 2030.
As of May 2014, there are over 2,000 Green Mark building projects in Singapore, a nod towards promoting sustainability with environment-friendly buildings and environmental awareness among developers, designers and builders.
When the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) handed out its 2014 awards, one of the most lauded was City Developments Limited (CDL).
Apart from being the inaugural winner of the Quality Excellence Award – Quality Champion (Platinum) for the second year in a row, CDL added 11 Green Mark Platinum Awards to its honours roll.
In total, CDL has 30 Green Mark awards to its name to date.
More importantly, the building developer makes sure it walks the talk.
“By incorporating sustainable green features in the buildings, it enables us to use natural resources more efficiently,” says Esther An, head of corporate social responsibility at CDL.
“We believe that it is possible to ‘Conserve as we Construct’, if we take a conscious effort to be more environmentally responsible.”
Green shopping
Forget for the moment, of the need to say “no” to plastic bags when shopping.
When CDL decided that shopping could be greener, it opened City Square Mall.
Opened in 2009, the shopping centre doesn’t just have a green theme. It is also Singapore’s first eco-mall.
While City Square Mall ticks all the right boxes with the green innovations all around the building, developing an eco-mall means more than just water and energy-saving features such as motion sensor lights, solar panels, and urinals that do not require flushing.
At City Square, many of the sustainable features are built to work together to achieve the most efficient result.