ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF GREEN MARK SCHEME TO HOTELS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The Green Mark scheme (BCA, 2005) was introduced to initiate a move towards building more environmental friendly buildings in Singapore. The scheme was intended to promote sustainability in the built environment and to raise environmental awareness among the developers, building designers and builders when the project is conceptualised, designed and constructed. This scheme applies to all residential and non-residential buildings. However, no hotel in Singapore has achieved Green Mark award. As hotels are meant for short stays by different types of people and usage patterns, having a scheme to guide the hotel owners is a beneficial decision. With the scheme, the hotel owners will be able to study their consumption and also factor in new measures to keep their energy bills low and at the same time keeping their profit margin as high as possible. The scheme will provide a win-win situation for the hotel owners and developers as world wide recognition can be achieved. This study attempts to examine the difficulties the hotel owners may faced to achieve the Green Mark award. Specifically, it aims to find out: Why is the Green Mark scheme not extended to the existing hotels in Singapore? What are the difficulties the owners may face to achieve the award? Is there a need to have a separate scheme for the hotel industry? What are the categories needed in the scheme? Shall the categories breakdown remain the same as the residential scheme? What is the improvement to be introduced to keep the award competitive? From the case studies analysis, this study has reflected that the hotels in Singapore can achieved the Green Mark Award. The main finding of the study shows that most countries have a separate scheme for the hotels in their effort for environmental friendly buildings. Most of the hotels studied practised simple but effective measures to keep their energy bills at the minimum amount. Finally, this study ends with a proposed Green Mark Award Scheme for Singapore’s hotels.