Collaborating to advance Singapore’s green goals with green buildings

Meeting Singapore's green building challenge

Singapore's Building and Construction Authority (BCA) launched the BCA Green Mark Scheme in 2005, to promote environmental awareness in the construction and real estate sectors.

Recognising the accreditation's importance, Grundfos Singapore headquarters went ahead to achieve the green building status of Platinum shortly after the scheme's launch in 2008. Some measures include utilising double walls and double-glazed windows, as well as leveraging natural ventilation and natural daylight to achieve an optimum indoor environment. Building materials are also made from more than 30% recycled content, and use an extensive energy and water monitoring system to track usage.

Today, green building standards in Singapore and globally have advanced by leaps and bounds, and Grundfos is eager to not only keep up, but exceed expectations. This has led us to need to improve and continue as an industry leader in environmental sustainability and decarbonisation.

In early 2022, the team in Singapore wanted to take one step further from reclaiming its Platinum status and qualify for the Super Low energy category, or higher. To realise this goal, Grundfos set out on a project to further "green" its infrastructure and building operations.

In the first stage of this project, Grundfos looks to install a roof-mounted Photovoltaics (PV) power plant at the facilities. PV materials and devices convert sunlight into electrical energy. SP played a supportive role by extending its network of industry contacts and its regulatory understanding and capabilities, including ensuring the project qualifies for relevant sustainability grants from BCA.

Grundfos is currently awaiting BCA's Letter of Acceptance for the Green Mark Incentive Scheme for Existing Buildings 2.0, before installation. The roof-mounted PV proposed is projected to achieve a 120% energy gain, reducing its carbon footprint reduction by 493 tons CO2 per year. With this project, Grundfos hopes to be self-sustainable with its energy usage.

Reimagining green buildings of the future

However, the journey doesn't stop here. Grundfos continues to explore the possibilities of a green future, with the help of the next generation.

Off the back of the PV project, Grundfos engaged enthusiastic SP students from both the School of Architecture & the Built Environment and the School of Chemical & Life Sciences with a challenge: how can a green building become even "greener"? Demonstrating our joint alignment with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, as well as Grundfos' commitment towards advancing sustainability as a socially responsible corporation, we became a "sandbox" for the next generation of innovators to explore and come up with new ideas of sustainability.

To address this challenge, SP students developed ideas, prototypes, and assessments, and plotted a roadmap of sustainable solutions and advancements from 2022 up till 2027. Last year as part of their Final Year Project (FYP), students worked on an assessment and ideation project, focused on rainwater harvesting integrated with Grundfos' PV system.

The FYP led to great insights on potential energy gains and savings, with Grundfos aiming to test further the viability of rainwater harvesting later this year. With this great outcome, Grundfos will continue to work with SP final-year students on exploring other potential projects and prototypes across its sustainability roadmap, such as Power over Ethernet (PoE) lighting, chilled beams (cooling) system, electric vehicle charging installation, cooling tower upgrade, and more, to go beyond net zero and achieve a positive energy building.

Towards a positive energy building

This is but one of the many ways Grundfos has been demonstrating its sustainability commitments. In November 2022, Grundfos became the world's first water solutions company with approved net-zero Science-Based targets. Grundfos' green building efforts in Singapore are aligned with this recent sustainability milestone.