As we approach the year 2025, the built environment in Singapore is on the brink of significant transformation. The facilities management (FM) sector is facing increasing pressures to adapt to changing regulatory demands, cost constraints, and technological advancements. Three key factors will drive the future of FM and enhance its sustainability: the mandatory energy improvement regime, the impact of rising temperatures on energy costs, and the growing trend towards adaptive reuse in construction.
The Mandatory Energy Improvement regime, set to begin in 3Q2025, will require existing energy-intensive buildings to undergo energy audits and implement energy-efficiency improvement measures. This mandate applies to commercial, healthcare, institutional, civic, community, and educational buildings with a gross floor area exceeding 5,000 sq m. Buildings are required to reduce their energy usage intensity by 10% from pre-energy audit levels – a feasible target with the right strategies in place.
Asset owners are encouraged to take a medium to long-term view on capital expenditure-heavy investments in energy-efficient systems. The energy audits will provide valuable data on energy consumption patterns, identify performance gaps, and guide asset owners in developing strategies to prolong the lifespan of assets, reduce operating costs in the long run, and contribute to a more sustainable built environment. Building owners can also take advantage of grants to help cover the costs of energy efficiency upgrades.
Singapore’s first smart campus, Temasek Polytechnic, embarked on a bold ambition to digitise its campus operations in 2021. This experience offers valuable insights into the future of smart and sustainable facilities management. At the heart of Temasek Polytechnic’s smart campus is a suite of solutions that digitise campus operations, including facility booking, automating campus repair and maintenance work orders, crowd management, and temperature control measures. These systems are aggregated into a common data environment that generates data, which is then visualised, tracked, and monitored at a control centre on campus. This helps campus operations teams make informed decisions on managing building systems and prolonging their lifespan, maximizing return on investment, and reducing operational carbon levels.
Another push for sustainability will come from climate disclosures, which will be mandatory for all listed and large non-listed companies with revenues of at least $1 billion and total assets of at least $500 million by 2027.
Rising temperatures and energy costs will further drive investments in predictive technology. Air conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems are already a major contributor to operational costs, accounting for approximately 60% of total energy expenses in many buildings. It is crucial to optimize energy systems to mitigate rising energy costs. Building owners can achieve this by implementing energy-efficient solutions such as energy recovery systems or thermal energy storage. Additionally, optimizing chiller plant operations to match changing weather conditions reduces energy waste and costs.
At a city and precinct level, extreme weather risks such as flooding and urban heat threaten the health and performance of critical infrastructure, including drainage and plumbing systems. To mitigate these risks, building owners and city planners can leverage advances in web-based geospatial IT to help facilities and asset managers identify flood-prone areas and extremely heat-exposed spaces. This data can be used to drive a comprehensive operational plan that considers predicting extreme weather events to mitigate the risk of equipment failure and downtime and optimize chiller plant operations.
The increasing construction costs have prompted a shift towards adaptive reuse, with the rate of redevelopment in Singapore accelerating over the past five years. Surbana Jurong (SJ) estimates that mechanical and electrical costs have increased by approximately 30% compared to pre-Covid levels. The rise in construction costs can be attributed to an increase in logistic shipping costs by 77%, labour costs by about 9%, and construction materials prices, such as copper (up 15%) and a shortage of mechanical and electrical (M&E) contractors. This trend is driving the adoption of smart design and engineering practices, including utilizing collaborative common data environments to benchmark construction and operational costs.
Platforms that support integrated digital delivery enable real estate developers and contractors to gain real-time insights into key performance indicators such as time, cost, quality, and safety. Proptech platforms, such as Podium, aim to provide a digital ecosystem that connects developers, designers, and the supply chain to deliver high construction productivity and promote sustainable building practices. By consolidating data from multiple sources, all stakeholders across the various stages of the building cycle – from design to construction to delivery and operations – will have access to valuable data. This data can be used to prioritize energy efficiency and minimize embodied carbon levels. Increasingly, retaining structural wall columns, beams, and slabs can save material, time, and labor costs.
Post-construction, Podium can integrate with other operational platforms to track building performance metrics such as energy, waste, water, indoor air quality, and occupancy trends. This data can be used to drive operational carbon reduction goals. The utility cost of (ACMV) chiller plants tends to increase post-construction when buildings begin operations, accounting for the bulk of the energy tariffs, at about 60% of total operational expenditure.
Smart buildings can mitigate further cost pressures by maximizing the life cycle of capex-heavy equipment, including ACMVs, lifts, and air handling units. This can be achieved through a data-driven long-term life cycle approach that prioritizes energy savings to offset energy tariffs from the capital expenditure in investing in the equipment. This can be achieved by implementing predictive maintenance for ACMV equipment, which helps reduce downtime and improve equipment efficiency. For example, sensors can be deployed to analyze the vibrations in the chiller equipment, which helps reveal wear or impending failure of the rotating equipment. Similarly, thermographic testing with heat-sensing scanners and imaging equipment can detect abnormal temperatures or heat buildup in the system. AI-powered smart monitoring systems can be used to monitor various components of a building’s M&E system using sensors. These systems provide granular details on the performance of each component, helping asset owners make informed decisions about parts that need to be replaced within a specific period based on the type of defects and the regularity of breakdowns. With access to detailed data, building owners can identify various options, including retrofitting or replacing entire systems, which may be financially challenging.
In conclusion, as the built environment in Singapore evolves, the FM sector must adapt to meet the demands of the future. By embracing digitalization, data analytics, and sustainable practices, the sector can drive sustainability, reduce costs, and ensure long-term operational success.