Green Building Standards And Certification Systems

Green Mark Certification Process

The building’s Existing Non-Residential Buildings (Version 3) scorecard shows that there are several areas where the score was very low in comparison with the maximum score. Therefore the owner of the building should focus on improving the areas that were awarded less than 50% of the maximum points and those that did not get any point at all. The following are some of the proposals that may help the building owner achieve Green Mark Platinum:

• Install a suitable permanent measuring and verification (M&V) instrumentation to monitor the efficiency of the water-cooled chilled-water plant. The instrumentation installed should be effective and capable of calculating the plant’s resultant efficiency within 5% of the true value. Its design and installation should comply with the requirements of relevant standards including AHRI 550/590, ASHRAE Guide 22 and manufacturer’s recommendation. These devices will help the owner in ensuring that the plant operates at its design and expected efficiency so as to minimize energy consumption.
• The owner should hire a professionals to conduct a comprehensive indoor air quality (IAQ) audit. The audit must be carried out by following the NEA guidelines for IAQ in office premises or SS554:2009 code of practice guidelines for air-conditioned buildings. Information from the audit report will help the owner to identify the best strategies of improving IAQ of the building.
• The owner should put in place measures that facilitate use of energy efficient features and practices. Some of these measures include: purchasing energy-efficient products certified by relevant rating systems such as Green Star; use of energy-efficient features such as light shelves, motion sensors, heat recovery systems, heat pumps, photocell sensors and sun pipes; and frequently calculating energy efficiency index (EEI) by using energy consumption data. These measures will help minimize energy consumption and improve energy efficiency of the building.
• The owner should develop an energy policy that includes setting energy targets for the building, discuss about it with the occupants and be committed by providing necessary support to ensure that the set targets are attained. This being a commercial building, occupants that achieve the set targets should be awarded.
• The owner should also consider capitalizing on available renewable energy. This includes installing photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on the building roof and car parking roof, and use of biomass. If available, the owner can also purchase electricity from companies generating and supplying renewable energy in the area.
• The owner should put in place measures that will facilitate use of alternative water sources such as water recycling and reuse especially for non-potable uses like tilet flushing, washing and irrigation. Some of these include installing rainwater harvesting system, reuse of greywater, use of AHU condensate and use of NEWater. A small water recycling system can also be installed at the building.
• The owner should set water efficiency targets, ensure that occupants are aware of and committed to these targets, and put in place measures to measure the water efficiency.
• The owner should install automated irrigation system comprising of sensors to measure soil moisture and rain so as to minimize water used for irrigation. Plants used for landscaping should also be drought tolerant to minimize water demand.
• The owner should involve a professional to develop an environmental policy to outline the sustainability goals of the building and also develop a green guide and share it with the occupants and visitors of the building. The green guide should outline practices that the occupants or visitors should adopt to minimize water and energy use.
• The owner should carry out a post occupancy study to determine the satisfaction of occupants in relation to environmental and energy performance, and use findings from the study to determine appropriate actions to improve energy and water efficiency, and also increase occupants’ satisfaction.
• The owner should put in place the following waste management strategies: educate and encourage occupants and visitors about waste minimization, provide recycling bins or facilities for recyclable waste collection and storage, and monitor and quantify recycling programs so as to identify necessary actions for improvement.
• The owner should encourage occupants or visitors to use sustainable products that are certified by relevant sustainability rating systems such as Green Star.
• There should be minimal use of airborne contaminants in the building. The owner should use certified environmentally friendly adhesives and low volatile organic compounds paints.
• The owner should install appropriate lighting control system to ensure that there is adequate lighting quality in the building to improve occupant comfort and productivity.(Building and Construction Authority, 2016).

Green Mark is an initiative launched in 2005 to drive construction industry in Singapore towards creating buildings that are more environmentally friendly (Ahankoob, Morshedi.E, & Rad, 2013). The initiative aims at promoting environmental awareness among various stakeholders in the construction industry including designers, developers, builders and building owners, and improve the built environment’s sustainability throughout structure’s lifecycle (Teo, 2013); (Vierra, 2016). Green Mark certification is a comprehensive process that involves specialists who are certified as Green Mark Managers or Green Mark Facilities Managers. The key steps in Green Mark certification process are as follows:

Application: the first step in Green Mark certification process is to obtain and fill an application form, which can be obtained from Building and Construction Authority (BCA) offices or downloaded from the BCA website. BCA is a government statutory organization working under the Ministry of National Development that is responsible for spearheading development of sustainable built environment in Singapore (Building and Construction Authority, 2017a). The application form must be filled with all the required information. The information should be complete and true. The application can also be done online. The application forms are submitted together with relevant supporting documents.

Once the application forms are received and accepted by BCA, the applicant will pay an assessment fee. The fee varies depending on the type and size of the building. What follows is to assign a BCA Green Mark Assessor for the building project duration.  

Pre-assessment: this process involves briefing the building management team or project team a brief about the criteria that will be used to evaluate the building against meeting the requested certification level. Here, the team is informed about various elements of the building that will be evaluated and considered before rating the building. The team will also be informed about the documentary proofs and relevant reports that may have to be submitted for substantiating subsequent submissions (Building and Construction Authority, 2018).

Actual assessment: this process is conducted after the building management team or project team has prepared and submitted the relevant documentary and design proofs. In this process, the documentary and design proofs submitted are reviewed so as to authenticate if the building project meets the targets and requirements of the certification level and its relevant criteria, and also the prerequisite requirements for BCA Green Mark Platinum and Green Mark Gold^Plus. After the assessment, a letter of award is issued to show the BCA Green Mark rating that is awarded to the building.

Eligibility Criteria for Recertification

Verification: this process is conducted after the building project has been completed. This is a very comprehensive process where all elements mentioned in the assessment criteria are evaluated to determine their actual performance efficiency using actual data. For example, if it is waste management, the process will entail determining measures put in place and facilities that have been provided in the building to facilitate recyclable waste collection and storage, strategies that are being used to encourage occupants or visitors of the building to minimize waste, and techniques that have been put in place to monitor and quantify the effectiveness of recycling programs employed. Points are awarded for each element included in the assessment criteria. After verification, a certificate is issued. The certificate shows the final BCA Green Mark rating that is awarded to the building (Building and Construction Authority, 2013).

Recertification is the process where a building that is Green Mark-certified is reconsidered so as to determine its performance in relation to energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor air quality, sustainable operation and management, and other green features, and give it a new rating based on its current sustainability performance. The recertification process is conducted by a Green Mark assessor. Some of the information that the applicant has to provide for or used in recertification process include the following: project details (Green Mark reference number, building name, address if the building, building owner, Green Mark Standard, previous Green Mark reference number, date when the previous Green Mark Letter of Award was issued, previous Green Mark score, previous Green Mark rating, data of current Green Mark assessment and names of Green Mark assessors); building details (type of building, gross floor area (GFA), car park area and air-conditioned area); key performance data of the building (building cooling load, type of A/C systems used in the building, efficiency of air-conditioning system, configuration of chiller plant, cooling load/air-conditioned area (W/m²), total annual energy consumption of the building (kWh/yr) and annual energy use intensity (EUI) (kWh/m²/yr). The recertification will be determined by the score of the building in each of the elements in the applied Green Mark scheme checklist.

The above data is provided by the recertification applicant in a prescribed spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can be obtained from the BCA website and it comprises of worksheets that make it easier for the applicant to enter the required data and attach relevant documents. Some of the attachments include: three-year water and energy use, corporate recycling and environmental policy, indoor air quality audit report, cooling system’s energy audit report, chiller M&V instrumentation’s temperature readings, water and energy improvement plan, and occupant satisfaction survey. After submitting this information, the Green Mark assessor will conduct an on-site verification process and visual inspection of various systems. If the application is successful, a Green Mark certificate will be awarded together with its previous Green Mark scheme and rating and the word “Re-Certified” added next to it (Building and Construction Authority, 2017b).

There are three main criteria used to establish the eligibility of a building for recertification. These are:

• The building should not have been revamped from the last Green Mark assessment.
• The applicant wants to maintain the same Green Mark scheme and rating.
• The building was certified with any of these schemes: Green Mark for existing non-residential buildings, Green Mark for new non-residential buildings, or Green Mark for Healthcare Facilities.  

The office building in this case has not been revamped since the last Green Mark assessment, the applicant wants to maintain the same Green Mark scheme and rating of Green Mark Platinum, and it was certified with Green Mark for existing non-residential buildings. For these reasons, the office building is eligible for recertification.

Ahankoob, A., Morshedi.E, S., & Rad, K. (2013). A Comprehensive Comparison between LEED and BCA Green Mark as Green Building Assessment Tools. International Journal of Engineering and Science, 2(7), 31-37.

Building and Construction Authority. (2013). BCA Green Mark Certification – Verification Audit. Singapore: BCA.

Building and Construction Authority. (2016). BCA Green Mark for Existing Non-Residential Buildings Version 3.0. Singapore: Building and Construction Authority.

Building and Construction Authority. (2017a, November 28). About Us. Retrieved from BCA: https://www.bca.gov.sg/AboutUs/about_bca.html

Building and Construction Authority. (2017b). Re-certification of Green Mark Buildings. Singapore: BCA.

Building and Construction Authority. (2018, October 3). About BCA Green Mark Scheme . Retrieved from BCA: https://www.bca.gov.sg/greenmark/green_mark_buildings.html

Teo, S. (2013, January 4). BCA Green Mark Scheme: What It Is All About? Retrieved from STProperty: https://www.stproperty.sg/articles-property/property-guides/bca-green-mark-scheme%253A-what-it-is-all-about%253F/a/99956

Vierra, S. (2016, December 9). Green Building Standards and Certification Systems. Retrieved from Whole Building Design Guide: https://www.wbdg.org/resources/green-building-standards-and-certification-systems

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