A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GREEN MARK SCHEME AND LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Abstract

Facing various energy-related challenges like fossil fuel depletion and resource inequality, every country in the world has to take initiatives to achieve its sustainable development. Singapore, as an island-state which lacks natural resources is in no exception. There are primarily two ways for Singapore to resolve the challenges, one is developing sustainable energy, such as solar power; another is reducing energy consumption through improving energy efficiency, which is encouraged by Singapore Green Mark Scheme (GMS), a green building assessment method. However, there are lots of existing Green Building Assessment Systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), BREEAM, Green Star and on, which are quite mature and recognized worldwide. What are the differences between the Green Mark Scheme and other Green Building Certification Systems? Is the Green Mark Scheme perfect since it has been receiving applications from overseas projects located in countries and districts such as China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Middle East? This study aims to critique and evaluate the latest Green Mark version 4.1 with comparison to LEED version 4. The objectives of this study also include to find out the differences between these two building assessment methods, to identify what are the strengths and any improvement possibilities for GMS. The study shows that GMS indeed has some room to improve in terms of social impacts, material reuse, life cycle assessment aspect, light pollution, construction workers’ safety and so on. However, GMS has been and will still be playing an important role in increasing water efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and improving building environment towards sustainable building.