Published 3 September 2026 –
Singapore’s built environment is where the country’s sustainability ambitions become tangible – and where commercial pressure is becoming increasingly visible. Green criteria have entered tender documents, clients are asking for company-level performance alongside project-level data, and firms that can answer with credible, structured disclosures are finding themselves better placed when the next tender lands.
These questions were at the centre of the seminar, “Winning Green Tenders: Digital ESG & Carbon Tools For Construction”, co-organised by ESGpedia and the Singapore Contractors Association Limited (SCAL), on 18 August. The session brought together 70 built environment professionals, including main contractors, subcontractors, concrete and building manufacturers, and other industry stakeholders.
As part of ESGpedia’s ongoing work with the wider built environment ecosystem, the seminar brought together key industry perspectives from Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), ESGpedia, and on-the-ground insights from Soilbuild Construction Group and Teambuild Construction Group, helping firms put sustainability requirements into practice and turn better data into a business advantage.
Sustainability is raising the bar for project tenders
Alvin Cheong, Member of the SGBP Architectural Technical Committee at SGBC, pointed to a shift already taking place in procurement. Price, programme, quality, safety, and track record remain fundamental. Alongside them, buyers are increasingly looking at environmental performance, certified products, carbon data, resource efficiency, and supply chain transparency.
The questions are becoming more specific. Is a product certified? Does it have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) or Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)? What is its embodied carbon footprint? Can the claim be supported with traceable data? And can that evidence be presented clearly as part of a tender?
TR 149:2026 gives Singapore companies another reference point for building those capabilities. The Technical Reference sets out a progressive pathway from Essential to Bronze, Silver and Gold, covering areas including people, governance and systems, operations, supplier engagement, and product lifecycle impact. Alvin’s message was clear: Companies need to start building systems and evidence before the tender arrives.
Turning ESG data into a business advantage
Chua Yan Na, Business Development Associate at ESGpedia, then showed how digital tools can help companies do that work more efficiently and credibly. Instead of manually tracing information across multiple spreadsheets and disparate formats when a report or tender is due, companies can digitally structure ESG and carbon data as part of normal operations and use it for sustainability reporting, carbon calculations, green procurement, supply chain ESG, and even the attainment of sustainability-linked financing.
Yan Na’s presentation also put numbers behind the business case: Across customer success stories presented by ESGpedia at the seminar, the company highlighted an improvement of up to 15% in tender success rates, 66% operational cost savings, and 600 man-hours saved through digital sustainability adoption.
The use cases also featured Singapore construction companies including Incorporated Builders, Kimly Construction, and Expand Construction, which leveraged ESGpedia’s digital tools to streamline and embed sustainability across their reporting, operations, and business strategy.
For contractors, the practical question is becoming more immediate. If sustainability data forms part of how a tender bid is assessed, how quickly and reliably can the company produce it?
What contractors are learning on the ground
A panel moderated by Benjamin Tan, Vice President at ESGpedia, brought that question to the contractors themselves. He was joined by Alvin Cheong, Member of the SGBP Architectural Technical Committee at SGBC, Brian Lee, Head of Sustainability at Soilbuild Construction Group, and Allan Low, Director Corporate QEHS and Deputy Construction Director at Teambuild Construction Group.
For Soilbuild Construction Group, sustainability reporting began with SGX requirements. Brian shared that the company eventually started looking beyond the annual report and asking what its diesel, electricity, water, and waste data could reveal about operations.
That helped the team identify optimisation opportunities to reduce consumption and emissions, and Brian shared how those efforts by Soilbuild as a contractor, contributed to its client’s development achieving Green Mark Platinum Positive Energy and LEED Gold certification.
His advice to companies starting out was straightforward. “Taking a small step at a time is better than not moving at all.”
Those steps also need to reach the supply chain. Brian noted main contractors cannot meet increasingly detailed tender requirements alone. As part of its broader supply chain ESG efforts, Soilbuild has been engaging subcontractors through awareness sessions and practical decarbonisation showcases, helping more of its supplier base prepare for these requirements.
Allan shared how Teambuild Construction Group began building its sustainability capabilities several years ago as green criteria first started appearing in tenders. The company established a management-led sustainability committee, committed resources, and used industry benchmarks to track its progress. For Allan, sustainability works best when it is treated as part of how construction is delivered, rather than as a separate exercise.
“Sustainability is not a particular thing. It is part of us doing things,” Allan said.
One audience question illustrated why early supplier engagement matters. Allan recalled a recent tender that asked for the distance between a proposed supplier’s plant and the project site, as well as the availability of green concrete. Getting that information after the tender was already underway proved difficult.
A contractor with a wider pool of prepared suppliers has more options when those requirements appear – and suppliers that already understand the information being requested are in a better position to respond.
The panel also touched on the difficulty of setting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets in construction, where resource use can shift considerably depending on the stage and number of projects underway. Brian and Allan both described starting with establishing baselines, breaking down consumption by area,- and reviewing targets as project activity changes.
Getting the underlying ESG data into shape can take years, but the process can be significantly expedited and simplified with digital tools. The discussion covered the time needed to collect, clean, and stabilise information before meaningful comparisons can be made.
That was why Alvin’s closing advice centred on starting early. If the next tender asks for data the company has never collected, assembling it in a matter of weeks may simply not be possible.
Continuing the work across the built environment
The SCAL seminar is one part of ESGpedia’s wider engagement with Singapore’s built environment ecosystem. It follows an ESGpedia and SGBC Lunch and Learn on sustainability reporting and building a green edge for tenders, with a second run that took place at the end of August.
ESGpedia will also be at BEX Asia from 2 to 4 September and will participate in SCAL’s Sustainable Builders Week in September, bringing these conversations to more contractors, subcontractors, manufacturers, and other industry players.
Looking ahead, ESGpedia and SGBC will be hosting a seminar on 8 October – stay tuned for more details.
For firms deciding where to begin, the message from the seminar was clear. Build the data, systems, and supplier relationships early, rather than waiting until the next tender makes them urgent.
To explore how ESGpedia can digitally support your organisation’s sustainability reporting, carbon management, and tender readiness, speak with one of our sustainability experts.
