As part of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city’s 10th anniversary celebrations, the Eco-city hosted the China-Singapore International Green Building Conference on 28 and 29 September 2018.

Jointly organised by the Eco-city Administrative Committee (ECAC), the China Society for Urban Studies, and Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the conference showcased the progress and achievements of the Eco-city in green development over the past decade.

The theme of the Conference was From Green Building to Green Urban Area (从绿色建筑迈向绿色城区). The plenary session was held on the morning of 28 September, followed by three sub-forums on green buildings, passive house, and urban water management in China in the afternoon.

Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance, delivered an opening speech at the conference and commended the Eco-city’s achievements, especially its breakthrough in implementing green building standards.

The Eco-city is the second flagship Government-to-Government project between Singapore and China, and aims to be a model of sustainable development. BCA has been an active partner in the project from the start, and was involved in the selection of the Eco-city site, as well as overseeing the KPIs of achieving 100% green buildings and 100% barrier-free buildings.

BCA was also instrumental in the formulation of two green building standards for the Eco-city, namely the Green Building Evaluation Standard (GBES) and the Green Building Operation and Maintenance Standards (GBOMS).

Green Building Evaluation Standard

BCA jointly developed the GBES for the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city with the ECAC and the PRC Ministry of Housing & Urban-Rural Development in 2009. GBES adopts best practices from both countries, and is a hybrid of Singapore’s BCA Green Mark and China’s National Green Building Evaluation Standard (the “Three-star System”). It has been set as a mandatory requirement for building projects in the Eco-city.

In 2015, BCA and ECAC jointly revised the standard to take into account new technologies and new national guidelines. The revised standard was approved by the Tianjin Municipal Urban-Rural Development & Transport Commission in 2016, and was recognised by the Chinese government as the equivalent of its national standard for the Eco-city in that same year.

Green Building Operation and Maintenance Standards

All new buildings in the Eco-city are designed to be green. To help ensure that these buildings perform optimally, BCA and ECAC jointly developed GBOMS in 2013 to promote best practices in green building operation and management.

GBOMS was finalised in 2017 and approved by the Tianjin Municipal Government to be a standard for the Eco-city with an effective date of 1 July 2018. GBOMS is the first standard in this category across the whole of China.

BCA and ECAC are now conducting a GBOMS pilot for the buildings in the Eco-city.