Budget 2024: Enhanced funding opens doors for greener buildings

Singapore is making it easier for businesses to adopt green solutions, including tapping into smart building utilities management solutions.

Synopsis: At Budget 2024, Singapore announced more funding for green solutions, including smart building utilities management solutions. Here’s what this means for green targets on both national and business levels.

With the effects of climate change not letting up, Singapore is pulling out all the stops to hit its ambitious Singapore Green Plan 2030 targets. At Budget 2024, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Lawrence Wong announced new initiatives in the national movement towards greater sustainability.

Apart from a S$5 billion Future Energy Fund to spur Singapore's transition to cleaner fuels, DPM Wong also announced an enhanced Energy Efficiency Grant to enable more local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt green solutions. The grant which covered Food Services, Food Manufacturing and Retail sectors will extend to maritime, construction, data centres and their users by the end of 2024. It offers two tiers of support:

• a base tier for pre-approved energy-efficient equipment
• an advanced tier to invest in more extensive energy-efficiency solutions.

Support for energy efficiency is nationwide, extending to the daily needs and consumption of the general population. The Climate Friendly Households Programme (CFHP) will be enhanced in April 2024, with all 1.1 million HDB households receiving $300 Climate Vouchers to further encourage energy- and water-efficiency in households appliances, covering big items such as fridges and aircons, right down to LED light bulbs.

The impetus behind such funding support from the government is to spur progress in reducing carbon emissions and reaching net zero.

What does this mean for our nation's green goals? Let's review.

A staggering 20% of Singapore's carbon emissions comes from the built environment sector. The Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP), under the Singapore Green Plan 2030, was launched in response to this crisis. SGBMP works to push building developers to embed sustainability into a building's life cycle from the onset. The plan aims to green 80% of Singapore’s buildings, have 80% of new developments be Super Low Energy Buildings (SLEB), and improve energy efficiency by 80% for best-in-class green buildings, by 2030.

SP Digital is committed to partnering in Singapore's race towards net zero. A leader in the digital transformation towards a low-carbon, smart energy future, SP Digital has developed several resources that complement what the Government is doing to advance our nation's green goals.

Some energy efficiency tools that SMEs can now tap into are SP Digital's Green Energy Tech (GET™) solutions. GET leverages smart insights using artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to achieve a perfect balance of energy optimisation, occupant comfort, and the advancement of a business's sustainability efforts.

The GET platform integrates different building management systems and diverse data sources to create a seamless, sustainable utilities management experience that is accurate, comprehensive and timely. 

GET can be easily incorporated into a building even past the construction phase, as the installation is simple and modular, and done with minimal disruption to business operations.

GET Insights, in particular, takes the guesswork out of figuring out energy consumption patterns down to details like a particular floor, unit, or even specific common areas. Its dashboard enables customers to manage, monitor, report, analyse and optimise utilities usage to help identify wastage and cost efficiencies to meet sustainability targets.

These data insights work in tandem with a smart and automated tenant submetering solution, GET TenantCare, to help landlords and property owners efficiently manage tenant utilities consumption.

Granular data also drives GET Control, a self-learning building intelligence system that optimises thermal comfort and increases energy efficiency. As air conditioning can account for up to 60% of a building’s energy usage, having energy efficiencies in air conditioning is imperative.

As of the end of 2022, close to 55% of Singapore's buildings have been greened. With the Government's new areas of support, achieving our SLEB targets is within reach. More funding opens doors for smaller business owners, who previously saw sustainability as an added imposition or cost, to move towards going green.

The Budget 2024 developments are noteworthy steps forward. But battling climate change with environmental responsibility requires an international, ongoing effort from all. SP Digital stands resolute with Singapore in working for a greener, more resilient Singapore for existing and future generations.

Work with us to achieve our nation's smart goals. Contact us to start your journey towards energy-efficient buildings with GET solutions today.

This article was updated on 14 March 2024 to include the later announcement of all HDB households receiving $300 Climate Vouchers.