A SUSTAINABLE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR EXISTING EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS BUILDINGS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Today, the raising awareness of the importance and need for sustainability has driven several building performance-related initiatives such as international meetings, literatures of researches and studies. This also includes the launch of rating systems to access the sustainable operation performance of buildings through various assessment areas. In Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark (GM) Scheme for Existing School Version 1.0 was launched to rate the performance of school buildings. It is mandatory for applicants to achieve the ‘green’ requirements put in place by the scheme. However, numerous on-going debates in the building industry have questioned the degree of proximity in the relationship of ‘green school’ and ‘sustainable school’. This is because having installation of physical green features does not guarantee that these buildings will be operated sustainably. Thus, in view of two other rating systems – British Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) and Green Star, a sustainable Facilities Management (FM) framework for existing educational campus buildings in Singapore is developed in this paper. After the implementation of the framework in the form of Active and Passive approach, it was determined that Hillgrove Secondary School, an existing school in Singapore, is not operating sustainably despite the fact that they have fulfilled most of the ‘green’ requirements in the BCA GM Scheme. Thus, using the calculation method of payback period and scenario-based simulation method, recommendations of good FM practices will be provided in this paper. Last but not least, future prospects and limitations of the framework will also be covered to conclude the paper.