The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) and OCBC have announced the initiation of the SGBC-OCBC Built Environment Decarbonisation Challenge during the United Nations COP28 climate conference. This challenge is a crucial step in addressing emissions from buildings, constituting 20% of Singapore’s emissions, aligning with Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Key Highlights of the Challenge

• Objective: The challenge aims to expedite the adoption of sustainability solutions by identifying and supporting innovative technology solutions to decarbonise the built environment.
• Submission Period: Companies are invited to submit proposals from December 6, 2023, to February 16, 2024, showcasing solutions prioritizing carbon abatement and energy efficiency in buildings.
• Piloting Solutions: Winners will collaborate with SGBC to pilot their solutions in selected OCBC managed buildings. The potential for scaling up solutions in all OCBC buildings or other test beddings catalyzed by SGBC is on the horizon.
• Funding: Winners will receive funding of up to $80,000 each to support the development and implementation of their solutions.

Collaboration and MOU

The Environment Decarbonisation Challenge is part of a broader collaboration between OCBC and SGBC, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in November 2023. It covers areas such as knowledge transfer on decarbonisation, green financing opportunities, and joint efforts to drive decarbonisation in the built environment sector.

Lee Ang Seng, President of SGBC, said: “We are excited to collaborate with OCBC on this endeavor to uncover sustainable and innovative solutions that can contribute not only to OCBC’s decarbonisation roadmap but also benefit the broader real estate sector.”

Mike Ng, Group Chief Sustainability Officer of OCBC, said: “Our partnership with the Singapore Green Building Council on this Challenge further exemplifies our unwavering commitment to building a greener future.”

OCBC’s Decarbonisation Efforts

OCBC has achieved carbon neutrality in operational emissions since 2022 and committed over $25 million in decarbonisation efforts. Initiatives include retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient technologies, installing solar energy systems, converting the corporate car fleet to electric vehicles, and implementing energy-efficient cooling methods in data centers.