(EnergyAsia, July 10, Friday) — One of Singapore’s largest real estate companies, City Developments Limited (CDL), is increasing its profile as a green developer with the launch of a certified carbon-neutral building, possibly the first in the Asia Pacific region.

The newly-completed 11 Tampines Concourse office block was given its green status by UK-based Carbon Neutral Company (CNC) at a ceremony officiated by Mah Bow Tan, Singapore’s Minister for National Development, on Wednesday.

Apart from the use of an energy-efficient building envelope design and eco-friendly fittings for energy and water efficiency, CDL said it made efforts to introduce innovative building materials to reduce the use of natural resources in the construction process.

The 124,000-sq ft building is the first in Singapore to be constructed with a wide range of recycled materials for its structural building components including copper slag, recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). It uses natural day-lighting in the atrium and lift lobbies, and incorporates an innovative, indoor non-compressor fresh air cooling system for smart temperature and humidity control. The building uses water as a cooling agent instead of ozone-depleting chemical refrigerants to cool incoming outdoor air through a natural heat exchange process.

Together, these features are expected to result in energy savings of over 620,000 kWh per year, for the 108,000 lettable square feet complex, resulting in the lowering of the building’s carbon footprint, said CDL.

CDL added that it will reduce the building’s carbon emissions to “net zero” by offsetting some 6,750 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-equivalent) for 2009. The amount of CO2-e offset through this exercise represents the total estimated 5,243 tonnes of CO2-e generated during the construction phase and 1,507 tonnes of CO2-e for the first year of operations.

The building’s carbon emissions will be measured and offset on an annual basis, estimated to be approximately 1,500 CO2-e per year.

Designed and built with environmental sustainability in mind, Tampines Concourse was awarded the BCA Green Mark GoldPlus this year.

Kwek Leng Joo, CDL’s managing director, said: “This voluntary initiative reaffirms our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint. For many years now, we have been consciously monitoring and taking deliberate efforts to reduce our carbon emissions as part of our environmental, health and safety policy.

“Carbon offsetting is relatively new in this part of the world and being the first to foray into uncharted territory, we hope to encourage more Singapore corporations to take a stronger stand in tackling climate change. In addition to Tampines Concourse, we have also embarked on neutralising the carbon emissions of our corporate office operations. Going carbon neutral is in line with CDL’s overall corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment.”

John Keung, CEO of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), said:

“Sustainable construction through the use of recycled materials is an excellent strategy for Singapore’s continuing journey of sustainable development. It serves the twin objectives of prolonging the lifespan of our Semakau Landfill and also provides an alternative to natural materials that have to be imported.

“CDL’s holistic approach to environmental friendliness, especially in its use of sustainable construction methods and materials, has … made Tampines Concourse … an example and benchmark for the rest of the building industry.”

Andrew Tan, chairman of the Energy Efficiency Programme Office and CEO of the National Environment Agency, said:
“We are happy to note that CDL has incorporated energy saving features and technologies from the design stage for this new development. This initiative is expected to result in significant energy savings for the development, and will contribute to the national efforts to improve resource efficiency. We encourage other developers to also integrate energy efficient design in their buildings.”

The journey to attaining carbon neutral status

The process of attaining carbon-neutral development status was facilitated by The CarbonNeutral Company, one of the world’s leading carbon offset and carbon management companies with a proven track record of working with 300 large organisations and 200 carbon offset projects across six continents.

Underpinned by a well-recognised standard known as the carbon neutral protocol, every tonne of carbon sold by The CarbonNeutral Company is guaranteed such that, any shortfall is made up for in the unlikely situation of a project failure.

Managing director Jonathan Shopley said: “We are privileged to be working with CDL as they extend their leadership position on sustainability by taking Tampines Concourse CarbonNeutral®. This means CDL plays its part in a solution to tackle climate change as they chart a course for profitable growth while reducing Green House Gases (GHG) emissions to net zero.

“Businesses in Singapore now have a viable alternative to demonstrate their commitment to the environment by locating in Tampines Concourse.”

In the case of Tampines Concourse, the estimated CO2 emissions generated during the construction and annual operational phases have been measured and will be offset by the purchase of carbon credits which will fund carbon offsetting projects in Asia through The CarbonNeutral Company.

For 2009, the carbon credits CDL has purchased under this exercise will fund three projects in China including one renewable energy project (Guizhou Hydro Power Project in China) and two resource conservation projects (Fujian Landfill Project and Jilin Methane Power project in China). All three projects have been verified to the international voluntary carbon standard (VCS) and are pre-clean development mechanism (CDM) projects.

Without the injection of carbon finance, these projects would be unviable. Beyond generating climate benefits, these projects also bring about social benefits such as employment and training opportunities, as well as improving the quality of life for the local community.

Given the continual development of new carbon offsetting projects in Asia, CDL said it will maintain a flexible approach evaluating its portfolio of carbon offsetting projects on an annual basis, throughout the building’s lifetime.