80% Of Singapore Office Space Certified Green

SINGAPORE— A new survey conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) shows that 80 percent of the city-state’s 60.7 million sq ft of office space are deemed as eco-friendly, reported the Singapore Business Review (SBR) on Friday morning (14 January, SGT).

Moreover, JLL’s study entitled “Road to 2030: Greening Singapore’s Real Estate” revealed that about 8 in 10 local companies consider the properties they own or lease as a crucial part of their sustainability objectives.

“Sustainability has grown increasingly important, as 72 percent of businesses here have adopted or are planning to adopt net-zero carbon goals by 2025,” said Chris Archibold, Country Head at JLL Singapore.

“With the built environment accounting for 40 percent of carbon emissions globally, real estate presents an effective opportunity for responsible businesses to reduce their carbon footprint,” he added.

The real estate consultancy’s latest survey was carried out in response to Singapore’s Green Building Masterplan, a government-back initiative to enhance sustainability standards by 2030.

Aside from that, the research revealed that sustainability is one of the major priorities of Singapore-based companies, with 70 percent of the polled occupants saying that they are willing to pay a premium to lease green-certified office buildings.

Around 56 percent of local businesses also intend to embrace green leases by 2025, surpassing the 36 percent that have already adopted green leases at present.

Despite the higher percentage of firms that intend to adopt green leases in the future, the study shows that going green is not the sole responsibility of tenants. In fact, 82 percent of the surveyed companies believe occupants and landlords should work together for such endeavor.

However, more than 33 percent of the tenants polled cite a lack of support from their commercial property lessor as a major barrier in having green leases.