Letter of Transmittal

03 October 2015

Dr Chong Fook Loong

Director of Building Research and Planning

Housing and Development Board

Block 190 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh

#04-510 Singapore 310190

Dear Mr. Chong

RE: Request for Proposals

This letter is to inform you of our acknowledgement and response to your letter of authorization. We are pleased to present you with the following proposal for upgrading older generation public housing buildings into green buildings. This will be in line with Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) goal of having at least 80% of buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030.

In 2005, BCA introduced the Green Mark scheme to encourage new buildings in Singapore to be sustainable and eco-friendly. In 2006, BCA released the Green Building Masterplan to motivate industry stakeholders to embrace green buildings. While these initiatives are critical and necessary (BCA has since released Green Building Masterplan 3 in 2014), we must not forget the many HDB flats built before 2005.

As of 31 March 2005, there were 879,556 units, and taking an average of 103 units per block according to teoalida.com, that would equate to 8,540 HDB blocks built before Green Marks existed. We must not forget about these buildings as they form a large percentage of all buildings in Singapore. If BCA wants to have 80% of buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030, we need to upgrade these old generation buildings with new green technology.

We are proposing the use of smart meters in individual homes of these mature HDB estates. These smart meters provide real time update on the amount of electricity or water being used. It is a good way to influence the residents to reduce their utility consumption.

We believe that education of the public over introduction of new technologies will have a greater impact on Singapore in terms of going green because of how wasteful Singaporeans can be. We are targeting the HDB flats because 76.3% of all dwelling units in Singapore are HDBs, which allows us to reach more of the public.

Yours Sincerely,

Siok Xue Yuan

On Behalf of Team “Old is Green”

Personal Statement

Being born in an era where the world spent most of its time talking about global warming, I am naturally interested in doing my part to help Mother Earth recover from the damage we humans have done. Where better to start than home, mainly the Housing Development Board (HDB) flats like the one I live in. These mass produced flats are abundant and most of them lack any green technology at all. It is extremely exciting to think that there are so many old buildings out there that we can implement our ideas on, giving our project a huge potential to succeed. 

Executive Summary

            Since its establishment in January 2005, the Green Mark Scheme is now ten years into operation. In the recently published 3rd Green Building Masterplan, Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has announced its plans on having 80 per cent of all buildings Green Mark certified by 2030. To ensure that BCA keeps its target in sight, the organisation has also set interim goals from now till 2030. From the 1960s till January 2005, a large number of Housing Development Board (HDB) residential buildings were built to provide roofs over Singaporeans.  These estates are old and have yet to be retrofitted to be energy efficient for the Green Mark Certification. Team Old is Green has seen this problem as an opportunity and have set our sights on the potential of retrofitting existing residential buildings to make them energy efficient. This proposal discusses why the team decided to take on the problem of retrofitting existing residential buildings and a feasible solution that should be made aware of to all consumers. With the green movement, every building stakeholder will stand to reap benefits and protect Mother Earth from further deterioration. With this proposal in place, the team hopes to reach BCA’s target well before 2030.

Reader's Response Draft 4

Reader’s Response to article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities” Draft 4

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) states that developing cities cannot sustain steady growth by ignoring economic, social, and environmental challenges and the impact of rapid urban expansion. The writer first introduces the Envision Sustainability Rating System, a tool from Harvard University used to measure the sustainability of newly built infrastructure. She then mentions the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) that is being built in Saudi Arabia with the Envision Certification firm at its roots, citing positive impacts on local communities. According to Cho, infrastructure sustainability has a huge role to play in the swift expansion of developing cities. While I agree with her and think that countries must look thoroughly into their city planning before they start construction, she did not mention critical points like how Envision is useful for developing countries and other alternative rating systems.

The first thing to know about Envision is how available it is to everyone, given that a lot of essential material is found free online. Envision's rating system is the current reference for best practices in building sustainable infrastructure (Nelson, 2015). Developing countries that may not have a lot of experience creating sustainable cities can definitely benefit from all the information Envision provides. Envision captures all the lessons learnt in developing and building sustainable projects over the years by developed countries. These lessons are then reproduced in the form of simple and easy to use checklists. And anyone can get hold of those invaluable checklists just by providing their email. Envision is extremely useful to interested parties in developing countries by being easily obtainable, which translates to small companies being able to create sustainable infrastructure without additional costs, something Cho did not mention.

One other point that Cho did not bring up is the existence of alternate rating systems in the industry.  Envision, being a comprehensive guide for creating sustainable infrastructure, will be useful for projects with multiple factors. But there are different rating systems that focus on projects that are much less complex and much smaller in scale (Vargas, 2013). In a small project where manpower is limited, a self-assessed system employed by Envision can require extra time commitment from a team that could already be working very hard. This is where systems like Greenroads are useful (Ninmann, 2012). Although Greenroads only certifies roadway projects, it is purely third party reviewed which means the project team can focus on the project and not on the certification process. A small project in South Africa called the Model Kloof pedestrian bridge used Greenroads as a pedestrian bridge was the only thing built (Greenroads, 2013). Project teams in developing countries with small projects, low budget or limited manpower can find rating systems like Greenroads extremely useful.

In conclusion, the article by Cho discusses about how building sustainable cities in developing countries is important and how Envision aids this cause. However, she did not comment on how developing countries have easy access to Envision and the presence of other rating systems that could be better suited to small projects.

(509 words)

References

Cho, H. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. New Cities Foundation. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Greenroads. (2013). Model Kloof pedestrian bridge. Retrieved December 04, 2015 from https://www.greenroads.org/141/52/model-kloof-pedestrian-bridge.html

Ninman, T. (2012). Greenroads rating system is on a roll. For Construction Pros. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.forconstructionpros.com/article/10782771/greenroads-rating-system-is-on-a-roll

Nelson, D. (2015). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Vargas, S. (2013). Sustainability rating systems: broad based or narrowly focused? Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/9438/sustainability_rating_systems__broad_based_or_narrowly_focused_

Critical Reflection: Giving and Receiving Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback has always been an important part of being human. From the day we were born, our parents have been giving us feedback on how to behave, what to do and what not to do. When we were young and we overstepped the line, our parents would scold or beat us. That was how we learnt to differentiate between right and wrong. As we grew older, we started to give feedback instead of just receiving them. The value of the feedback given usually increases with experience. For example, a tutor teaching language classes would give more valuable feedback than a student taking the class.

In the effective communications class, I got a chance to give and receive feedback. The feedback received from everyone was of significant value whether they were from a teacher or a student. If the feedback was good and it aligned with what I believed in, then it would reinforce my knowledge. If it was bad, then I would reflect on it and think of ways to improve myself. There were no bad feelings when bad feedback was given to anyone as the class genuinely wanted to help each other to improve. I understood that receiving bad feedback was a good thing, because that is the type of feedback that would help me improve.

Even though negative feedback can be really helpful, it must really come from the giver's heart. We must want to help others improve before we can give good negative feedback. This was especially evident when Brad gave feedback, as the sincerity can be felt through his words. Learning from Brad, we went off to give feedback to each other. When we checked through our peers' work and spotted mistakes, it reinforced the lessons taught to us and definitely aided us in our learning. Giving feedback is also a good life skill to have as one would want to know how to give a negative comment without hurting the recipient's feelings. Thankfully, the class has been very nice and all the feedback received and given were taken objectively.

To end off, I felt that this effective communications class is so effective because of the constant receiving of feedback. Here are two important lessons regarding feedback from this module that I have learnt. Firstly, receiving negative feedback is the best thing that can happen. It means that you will know where you went wrong and how you can improve yourself. Just like how a diamond with more cuts sparkles more, receiving more negative feedback allows one to shine brighter. Secondly, one must be sincere in order to give good feedback. Flattery is for fools and it does nothing to improve the recipient.