A COMPARISON OF PERFORMANCE OF GREEN TECHNOLOGIES AND FEATURES IN NEW AND EXISTING NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Abstract

Singapore, being an island with scarce natural resources, recognizes the need to work towards a sustainable built environment. Thus, the government has set a target of having at least 80% of the buildings greened by the year of 2030. In order to achieve the target, greening existing and new buildings has become a crucial aspect. This research looks into greening existing and new non-residential buildings, alongside with comparing the performance between new and existing non-residential green buildings to identify differences in efficiency and effectiveness.

A total of twenty case studies are done, specifically ten on new buildings which have integrated the green technologies during conceptual stage and ten case studies are done on existing buildings which have undergone retrofitting to adopt the green features. In addition, interviews with industry professionals are conducted.

In this research, it has been found that new green buildings typically perform better in terms of energy and costs savings as compared to existing green buildings. This might have been due to the fact that green features for new buildings have been fully integrated into the building during the design stage while existing buildings may face site and human constraints. Nevertheless, it is determined that greening existing buildings is still highly recommended and practical due to its potential benefits. Recommendations were also suggested in this report in order for green buildings to perform to its maximum efficiency.