You have worked with Beca for 30 years and are also the first Vice President of Singapore's Green Building Council. How would you rate Singapore's development in terms of sustainability?
Singapore has made sustainability a priority, and just two years ago the government unveiled the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a national initiative to pursue sustainable development goals. One of the most important actions we need to take is to reduce emissions from buildings, thus it makes sense that one of the main objectives of the Green Plan is to push Singapore toward a more sustainable use of energy in buildings. The targets in the Singapore Green Building Master Plan 2030 are 1) have at least 80% of new buildings in Singapore be super low energy by 2030, 2) 80% of buildings (by GFA) to be green buildings, and 3) the best-in-class buildings to have at least 80% energy improvements from 2005 levels. It is ambitious yet achievable target.
Where does Singapore stand now? Where do we begin?
Until now, Singapore has used a certification scheme where the highest level required energy savings were achieved, roughly 49% of buildings were able to meet this goal. A super low energy level will increase the savings to about 40% to 45%. There are already a number of new buildings under construction that will satisfy the super low energy requirement, therefore the aim is attainable even with only roughly 8 years left to go.
How does Beca help this shift and which of your services are most in demand?
In Beca, we have established Future Energy focus group which pulls the multitude of skills required to enable the energy transition together to provide support to our clients in this space. We have made energy transition for industry and manufacturing a key focus area. We use our existing knowledge and relationships within key sectors like Food & Beverages and Metal & Mining, along with our expertise in alternative energy technologies, to help those sectors create roadmaps for the Sustainable transition of their energy mix.
In our key markets in NZ, Australia and Singapore, one of the primary sources of CO2 emissions is from transportation and industrial process heat. So, we assess how alternatives like hydrogen, biofuels and green electricity can be used to decarbonize sites.
Green hydrogen is an opportunity to reduce our CO2 emissions by blending and replacing fossil fuels, whether that be solid, liquid or gas.
We are currently involved in two green hydrogen projects and in talks with another four clients about their green hydrogen opportunities.
Technology will be critical in this transformation; do you believe there is a significant appetite from the industry across Asia Pacific to integrate modern technologies?
We now have a new consultancy service in assessing our clients for Singapore Industry Smart Index (SIRI), a framework that establishes a standard for manufacturers in terms of their transformation journey in adopting technologies for their operations. We've been auditing our clients to see where they stand against this standard - two years ago, perhaps 40% of the market was looking at achieving this standard, but today the appetite is growing, with more and more companies looking to automate their operations using technologies and become certified in this field.
Beca recently celebrated 100 years of operation; congratulations! What is your vision for the coming years?
Singapore is a highly competitive building market, and I am eager to maintain our lead as one of the top three in the market. I'd like to expand our digital services offering taking advantage of Singapore as a strategic location, with so many multinational corporations having their regional headquarters here. We want to be their go-to digital transformation partner.
In terms of the Group as a whole, the plan is business growth. We recently acquired an Australian water consultancy company and are looking for more M&A opportunities, including into Asia. More specifically, we want to expand beyond our Asia Pacific heart into selected global markets where we have a differentiated niche service for which we have credible winning strategies.
Furthermore, as a service provider, we rely heavily on our people so we want to provide a working culture that can accelerate talents and allows everyone to reach their full potential. We also want to form strategic alliances with like-minded professionals both locally and globally, where there are mutual benefits such as technical collaboration or comprehensive geographical coverage.
Do you have any final words for our global audience?
There is an urgent need to speed up our response to climate change. This can be accomplished through a two-pronged approach of climate mitigation and adaptation. To accomplish this, every individual and every organization must take ownership - we must all act responsibly to care for the planet, for ourselves and future generations.
