ASSESSMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EXISTING GREEN MARK PLATINUM NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Abstract

The national target aims to have at least 80% of the buildings in Singapore to be certified green by 2030. Some of the existing green buildings are already certified and are in operation. There is a need to understand the performance of the existing green buildings. Hence, this research paper looks into the challenges during both the application and recertification process of the Green Mark Platinum award, the benefits the green buildings acquired as well as the current facilities management practices that enables the building to continuously performing as designed or as claimed by consultants. A total of six case studies are done, specifically on offices, retail and institutions. There are similarities in some of the green features installed and the current facilities management practices. However, the buildings have different ideas on their future facilities management practices, which aims to further improve the performance of their building. Surveys are conducted for both the facilities management personnel and the building occupants. The facilities management personnel ranked meeting the requirement for the air-conditioning system as the most challenging under the category of Energy Efficiency whereas greenery provision and refrigerants are the two most challenging Environmental Protection requirements to meet. From the facilities management’s perspectives, low operation and maintenance cost is ranked as the top benefit. Majority also agreed that the challenges faced during the application of the Green Mark Platinum award is similar to those faced during the recertification process of the award. There are 77% of building occupants that are aware of the existence of Green Mark award ratings and the remaining 23% are not aware at all. 59% of the building occupants knew that that their building have attained the highest achievement, which is the Green Mark Platinum award while 41% are not aware. Those unaware may either be due to the building lack of exposure about it attaining the award or the occupants are not interested to know the building’s achievements. Generally, the occupants are more than aware about their building being energy efficient and are neutral with regards to the ability of the building in protecting the environment. Environmental benefits which include generating less pollution and energy waste and sustainability are perceived as a significant aspect of green building from the building occupants’ perspectives. Recommendations were also suggested in this report so as to enable more buildings to achieve the Green Mark Platinum award and the importance of having a dedicated and knowledgeable facilities management team was also highlighted.