Sustainable Urbanisation – who has a part to play?

We live in a world where the economy takes centre-stage. We live in a world where the status of a country is dependent on how developed it is. We live in a world where your survival and well-being is dictated by the affluence of your country. Every developed country seeks to be ‘more developed’, and every developing country is on the road to ‘development’. Development and economic status is king, and in the foreseeable future, it doesn’t seem like much will change.

The environmental effects of our obsession are clear. Heavy industrialisation, urbanisation, and constant development leads to more than excessive levels of carbon emissions, material waste, and environmental pollution. But lamenting about how development and industrialisation is bad for the environment simply won’t work, because the idea of development is unlikely to change. To satisfy the demands of humans, it seems that we simply must continuously build and expand, and in the process, inevitably pollute more.

Can buildings be sustainable?

What can we do then? We can try to reduce demand, but this has been a Sisyphean task. On the other hand, we could look towards “greenifying” our processes and modern infrastructure. Can we make industrialisation and development a more sustainable process?

Many measures have already been put in place locally and internationally to minimise the impact of development on the environment. For example, environmental impact assessments are conducted to assess and reduce any impacts that may be imposed on the environment for a planned development. The 9^th Sustainable Development Goal also targets to facilitate sustainable development and infrastructure building in developing countries through financial, technological, and technical support¹.

When we look at the life cycle of a building, the construction phase accounts for 12.6% of all carbon emissions from a building². These emissions stem from the construction processes as well as the production of construction materials. Concrete, a key material that allows for large buildings to be built, actually accounts for 8% of the world’s CO₂ emissions³. That’s even more than the emissions associated with aviation fuel!

All those programmes and policies addressing the construction phase – such as the Green Building Masterplan⁴ – will surely help to ensure a more sustainable manner of development to some extent.

But after the buildings are built… What’s next? 

When we look beyond the building’s construction, we realise that its operational phase actually accounts for 85.4% of its total carbon emissions². This high percentage stems from all the systems and processes that go into the function and maintenance of a building, such as cooling or heating systems. What this high percentage also means is that for cities that are already packed, there should be an increased focus on making existing buildings more sustainable.

The concept of adding new technology or systems to existing buildings is known as retrofitting. While it may seem like a foreign concept, many of you may already know one example of it. Have you seen the news about the installation of new solar panels on HDBs in Singapore? That’s one example of retrofitting!

Retrofitting can also include upgrading building systems to enhance their energy efficiencies or reduce their energy demand. One scheme in Singapore used to encourage the installation of sustainable technologies or systems is the Green Mark certification scheme⁵. Through this scheme, emphasis is placed on 5 areas of energy performance and sustainable outcomes: designing for maintainability, reducing embodied carbon throughout a building’s life cycle, utilisation of smart technologies, enhancing a building’s climate resilience, and creating healthier environments for users of the building.

Sustainable development – everyone’s responsibility

This concept helps to highlight one key point: Developing countries aren’t the only ones responsible for reducing emissions associated with development. Urbanised cities also have work to do in making their existing infrastructure cleaner. To put it in another way, every place in the world, no matter developing or developed, still has work to do to develop the built environment in a more sustainable manner. 

With all this talk on the construction sector, the question now is: what can you readers, as individuals, do about this? Try applying the same concepts to your daily life! Consider ‘retrofitting’ your house with more energy-efficient appliances. (Take note to only replace these appliances when they need replacing – we don’t want to end up generating unnecessary waste!) This may seem like a small act, but every small action you do contributes to reducing that 85.4% of emissions from the building that you might be in now.  

Sources: 

Building and Construction Authority. (2021, November 25). Green Building Masterplans. https://www1.bca.gov.sg/buildsg/sustainability/green-building-masterplans 

Building and Construction Authority. (2021, December 7). Green Mark 2021. https://www1.bca.gov.sg/buildsg/sustainability/green-mark-certification-scheme/green-mark-2021

Peng, C. (2016). Calculation of a building’s life cycle carbon emissions based on Ecotect and building information modeling. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 453–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.078 

Rodgers, B. L. (2018, December 17). Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844 

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2021). Goal 9. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9