JTC's CleanTech Park - First Development to Clinch BCA's Platinum Green Mark for Districts Award

JTC Corporation (JTC)’s CleanTech Park, the first eco-business park in Singapore, is the first development to clinch the Building and Construction Authority (BCA)’s Platinum Green Mark for Districts Award.

CleanTech Park won the award for its energy-efficient infrastructure and its public amenities which can potentially help save more than 40 per cent of energy consumption and 25 per cent of potable water usage. This translates to about an annual 40 per cent of cost savings in utilities.

Mr Manohar Khiatani, CEO, JTC, said, “We are very honoured and encouraged that CleanTech Park is the first development to clinch this prestigious accolade by BCA. It is a strong affirmation of our efforts to promote responsible and sustainable environmental practices in our developments. CleanTech Park is a business park with unique clean technology features and is an example of JTC’s efforts to develop infrastructure solutions that offer a differentiating advantage for Singapore.”

“Since the launch of the BCA Green Mark for Districts scheme in October 2009, CleanTech Park is the first project to attain the highest Green Mark Platinum rating. I am glad to note that JTC has also committed to lead by example such as setting Green Mark Platinum rating for all of the buildings developed by JTC within CleanTech Park, and setting parcel design guidelines such that buildings developed by other owners within CleanTech Park are to attain a minimum Green Mark Gold rating. BCA encourages more owners, developers and master planners to consider greening their districts and enjoy the environmental benefits and cost savings of a BCA Green Mark district,” said Dr John Keung, CEO, BCA.

CleanTech Park is specially designed with a “blue network” of water bodies, including streams, bioswales and ponds. It is made possible by retaining the natural undulating topography in CleanTech Park which allows a substantial catchment area for stormwater to be stored for reuse. An estimated 150,000 litres of stormwater will be stored yearly for sanitary flushing which accounts for the 25 per cent of savings in potable water usage. A central Green Core has been planned as the “green lung” of the eco-business park. When completed by March 2013, the Green Core would allow the CleanTech Park community and visitors to enjoy the local flora and fauna. The Green Core was the first development in Singapore to achieve the BCA-NParks Green Mark Platinum award in the New Parks category in May 2011.

Another key feature of the CleanTech Park is its compact and “walkable” district pattern with sheltered walkways which enables ease of mobility for the working community in the eco-business park. Secure bicycle parking facilities will also be installed to encourage eco-friendly modes of transportation via green walkways within the park.

JTC has also planned for a district-level energy monitoring and automatic control system that benchmarks energy consumption rates of buildings in CleanTech Park. The system will monitor and optimise energy consumption and performance to maintain the eco-business park’s energy efficiency.

In addition, JTC also runs the CleanTech Park Living Lab Programme which is aimed at engaging external partners and the CleanTech Park community to test-bed ‘yet to commercialise’ sustainable solutions at the eco-business park.

BCA’s Green Mark for Districts Award was launched in 2009 to promote and recognise environmentally friendly and sustainable practices in master planning, design and implementation of district developments. It places emphasis on energy and water efficiency, management of infrastructure and public amenities, environmental planning, and green buildings and green transport.

While other award recipients such as NUS University Town, Resorts World Sentosa and JTC’s Mediapolis garnered the Green Mark GoldPLUS award (Version 1), CleanTech Park was assessed under the revised Green Mark for Districts (Version 2) which places more emphasis in seeking to engage the stakeholders and community in the district, through soliciting of their feedback and evaluation of ideas to seek areas for improvement.

The masterplan for CleanTech Park was launched in February 2010 and the development was aimed to position Singapore as a global test-bed and the preferred site for early adoption of clean technology products and solutions for urbanised settings in the tropics. CleanTech One, a multi-tenanted building built by JTC in CleanTech Park, has an occupancy rate of more than 70 per cent and has anchored world class research institutes like the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), and top global companies such as DHI, Toray and Yingli Solar. The second building in CleanTech Park that is also being built by JTC has A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre as its anchor tenant.

Source: JTC