Author
Mr Shazny Ramlan
Organisation/Institution
The Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment
Country
SINGAPORE
Panel
Environmental Law
Title
Green leasing as private environmental governance in Singapore
Abstract
Buildings contribute about 34% of global carbon emissions in 2023, and this fraction is projected to increase in the years to come. While there are regulatory shifts globally for net zero in the building and real estate sectors, these concern real estate developers and exclude building occupants as key contributors to carbon emissions. Interestingly, this regulatory gap is supposedly filled through green leases – an industry practice where environmental obligations are included in leases and tenancy agreements by landlords as a requirement to have a building certified as a “green building”. In the case of Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Green Mark certification scheme mandates such a requirement for all applicants. This paper appraises the BCA’s green leasing requirement as a form of private environmental governance from a socio-legal perspective to argue for the requirement’s revision towards a tenant-centric model. It submits that since effective forms of private environmental governance necessarily relies on measures that fosters behavioural change in the subjects of private regulation, the current BCA’s laissez-faire approach to green leasing implementation risks permitting an implicit form of greenwashing amongst real estate developers. By analysing green leases theoretically and practically from legal, psychosocial and business perspectives, the paper aims to provide guidance to legal counsels working in the building, construction and real estate industries, in Singapore and elsewhere, to maximise the inherent potential of green leases as tools for mitigating future climate, reputational and financial risks. It also seeks to fill a gap in the scholarship in private environmental law and governance with respect to an engineer-dominated industry.
Biography
Shazny Ramlan is an independent researcher affiliated with The Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. His research primarily concerns how corporate, social, and religious actors engage in private forms of environmental governance, and how the law regulates them. with He was previously a researcher with the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law and its Centre for Asian Legal Studies, where his research explored the intersection of law, religion and environmental justice. He has served in the editorial boards of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law and Singapore Law Review. He holds an LL.B. and M.Sc. (Environmental Management) from the National University of Singapore.
