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OVER 150 subcontractors and suppliers were involved in the Singapore Institute of Technology’s (SIT) Campus Court, which is set to open this year.
Louis Khoo, director of Kimly Construction, said this large number of stakeholders is typical in many projects, and complicates any ambition to lower the carbon emissions of the built environment industry.
The SIT Campus Court project, which is situated in JTC’s Punggol Digital District, is expected to have a site area of 4.2 hectares and comprises six buildings.
The entire site is certified by the Building and Construction Authority as Green Mark Platinum, while two buildings have been awarded the “super low energy” designation.
To qualify as super low energy, buildings have to demonstrate energy savings of at least 60 per cent from a 2005 benchmark.
Campus Court is an example of the types of building projects greatly needed in an industry that contributes nearly 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
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The Singapore Green Building Council estimates that embodied carbon emissions, or carbon emissions from the supply chain of materials and systems that go into any built environment project, account for about 30 per cent of a building’s total emissions. The other 70 per cent is generated from a building’s operations.
Many of Singapore’s buildings tend to have shorter lifespans, though, due to the nation’s short urban renewal cycle. This means embodied carbon can make up 40 per cent of total carbon emissions over a building’s lifespan.
Industry participants are making efforts to green their buildings. Khoo said Kimly’s clients are asking for presentations and reports on its sustainability practices and targets.
“Maybe in the next three to five years, it’s going to become the norm,” he said, adding that demand will come from both the government as well as private developers.
Delivering on that demand can be challenging, though.
The large number of participants in a project can make it difficult to have visibility over every stakeholder’s decarbonisation efforts, especially as many subcontractors employ their own subcontractors as well.
All subcontractors in the supply chain also have to be convinced of the benefits of green building methods and materials, and be willing to collaborate to accomplish certain goals.
To support its own green journey, Kimly is working with those subcontractors that are more progressive and receptive to greener building methods.
The company identifies these progressive companies through schemes such as the Green and Gracious Builder Scheme (GGBS), which certifies and categorises companies based on several factors.
Among the environmental factors used, for instance, are the amount of concrete and rebar wastage for a company’s recently completed projects, as well as its energy and water usage.
Kimly Construction itself has achieved the highest “Star” categorisation as at Dec 31, 2023.
To achieve this, the company has adopted various measures to reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint.
For instance, the company has adopted a battery energy storage system to replace diesel-powered generators.
This has led to savings of more than S$17,000 in operating expenditure per year and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 53 per cent, or over 200 tonnes.
The company has adopted solar panels to power low-powered equipment such as noise metres and traffic warning signs.
At the company’s innovation hub in Tuas South, Kimly has installed a 994-kilowatt-peak solar panel system on the roof to offset some of its energy consumption.
“It also helps to save our costs; because with solar power, the energy cost is lower as well,” Khoo said.
This spirit of reducing resource usage is also deeply embedded in the company’s culture. Resourceful employees at the worksite have tried to improve the site office by repurposing excess materials into bicycle racks.
Employees are also regularly sent for training to ensure they are able to compile the necessary reports so a building can be certified under schemes such as the Green Mark Certification scheme.
Some staff have been sent for career conversion programmes to take on sustainability roles, so they can keep up with industry practices and conduct the necessary reporting for the company.
While the company relies on some funding from the government, through agencies such as Workforce Singapore, to retrain its staff, it has also budgeted 2.5 per cent of its total annual employee salary for training and development.
Kimly is also using technology to optimise certain aspects of its operations and achieve certain green goals.
For the past three years, Kimly has been using a digital payments platform called Doxa Connex to track what it receives and pays out to subcontractors and suppliers.
In the past, it was difficult to keep track of the numerous purchase orders and invoices sent and received by subcontractors and suppliers over emails.
With the digital platform, Kimly is able to create clear audit trails for which funds are spent on which products.
“In order to be classified as green financing, (funds) need to go to green products.
“If it’s out of the system, it’s more difficult to validate the integrity of the data,” he said.
Usage of the digital platform was one of the criteria that the company needed in order to qualify for UOB’s green trade project financing.
In August 2022, the bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Doxa and Kimly Construction to execute the trio’s first green trade finance transaction together.
The package granted Kimly with overdraft and invoice financing lines based on the cash flow projections of their requirements to support the SIT project, which achieves the Green Mark Platinum certification.
“The overdraft and trade limit is implemented according to Kimly’s requirements throughout the project, and progress is monitored continuously to ensure it aligns with initial projection, with amendments made where necessary during periodic reviews,” a UOB spokesperson said.
Khoo said Kimly’s subcontractors also like the platform because Kimly foots the bill for its usage, and the subcontractors are paid more quickly as the approval process is more efficient.
He said it also helps that UOB, which has a long history and a sprawling network within the construction industry, is pushing for the adoption of such digital platforms.
“They can help to push for the (solution to) scale up. If there’s economies of scale then… we can build an ecosystem where, actually the benefits are better,” he said.
Financial institutions will play an important role in the adoption of green standards and operations in the built environment sector.
Khoo expects projects that are not green-certified to face greater challenges securing financial support from banks.
This means green considerations will become especially important for building owners, because they are still largely responsible for specifying and fitting their buildings out with green technologies.
An example of such technologies being adopted at the SIT Campus Court site is the use of building-integrated photovoltaic glass modules. These modules allow natural light into areas such as the food court, while generating energy solar power as well.
UOB green financing
UOB provided Kimly with a green trade project financing package that gave Kimly Construction access to overdraft and invoice financing lines based on their cash flow projections. This is meant to support the SIT project, which has features that adhere to the BCA Green Mark Platinum standard.
The package caters to Kimly’s working capital needs during each stage of the construction process, and includes the issuance of a Banker’s Guarantee as required by SIT.
UOB head of group commercial banking Eric Lian said: “As part of our commitment towards fostering sustainable growth across industries, we partner progressive companies like Kimly Construction that embrace innovation and efficiency, including the adoption of advanced technologies and sustainable solutions in their projects.”
“Our suite of sustainable financing solutions helps businesses simplify and integrate sustainability into their business strategies towards a more resilient future,” he added.
UOB also monitors the project continuously to ensure that it aligns to its initial projections as the overdraft and trade limits are implemented according to Kimly’s requirements throughout the project. Amendments are made where necessary during periodic reviews.
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