STRATEGIES AND MEASURES FOR IMPLEMENTING ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN SINGAPORE'S BUILDING INDUSTRY

Abstract

Sustainability issue in the building industry has been the highlight as the industry often causes adverse impacts on the environment by using large amounts of natural resources and clearing large hectares of natural habitats. After the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro proposed the use of eco-labels to attain sustainable developments, the growth of eco-labelling schemes and the use of it has increased significantly. This study focuses on the eco-labelling schemes, particularly the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme (SGLS) and the Singapore Green Building Product Certification Scheme (SGBPCS) and their contributions to the building industry. The effectiveness of the schemes and their drivers are determined through the analysis of survey results from two groups of samples – the suppliers and architects, and interviews with some of the stakeholders involved. It is observed that both SGLS and SGBPCS are only moderately effective in advocating for the use and production of eco-labelled building products and materials. From the survey results and interviews, a framework was developed to serve as a guideline to the industry stakeholders in providing strategies and measures to enhance the effectiveness of the eco-labelling schemes in the building industry. The relatively low number of responses and the limited amount of time to verify the framework and conduct more interviews constitute to the limitations of the study. Therefore, future research is required.