Singapore has launched its third Green Building masterplan, aiming to create a high-quality living environment that has a positive impact on its citizen's health and well-being, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Monday.

Wan made the statement at the opening ceremony of the International Green Building Conference and the BEX Asia Expo.

The masterplan is the third step since Singapore announced its Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark scheme in 2005. The first two masterplans were launched in 2006 and 2009, which focused on new buildings and greening the huge stock of existing buildings respectively.

Over one quarter of Singapore's built-up area has been greened under the previous two masterplans, the ultimate goal is to achieve the target of greening 80 percent of Singapore's total building stock by 2030, noted Khaw.

Under the third masterplan, which will guide Singapore's green building journey over the next five to 10 years, a 52 million- Sinapore-dollar (41.6-million-U.S. dollar) fund will be set up for the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster to develop, test, monitor and showcase new green building solutions.

It will also implement a 50-million-Singapore dollar (40- million-U.S. dollar) Phase 2 Green Mark Incentive Scheme for Existing Buildings and Premises. The scheme will give funding support to both building owners and tenants to improve energy efficiency. It is especially targeted at helping small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs).

While the first two masterplans focused more on greening new buildings and existing buildings, the third will take Singapore's greening efforts "beyond the building structures and hardware" and focus more on end-users, in a bid to change behaviors and practices, said Khaw.

Therefore, a new Green Mark Pearl Award will be introduced by BCA to recognize developers and building owners who have actively engaged their tenants to reduce energy consumption through changes in their behavior and their daily operations.

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