THE Top 10

solidiance
THE Top 10
Global Cities
for Green Buildings
June 2016
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EXECUTIVE
Two International Finance Center, Hong Kong
SUMMARY
Today, ‘green buildings’ have become one of the most famous and
fastest growing construction and design concepts; in fact, green
buildings are doubling every three years worldwide. Owners, developers,
architects, designers and even consumers are realizing its importance
in sustainability, and expressing deep interest in the cost-efficiency,
energy saving solutions, modern design, and the quality of life that such
buildings are offering to present and future generations.
Due to the built environment
playing such a substantial role in the
sustainable development discourse,
Green Buildings hold particular
importance, especially in cities; this
is largely because buildings are the
largest energy-consuming sector
worldwide – accounting for more
than 40% of global energy-use and
responsible for an estimated 30% of
city-wide emissions.
In addition, buildings hold the most
promise when it comes to “potential for
global energy savings”; the International
Energy Agency posits that the world’s
built stock accounts for up to 41% of
global energy savings potential by 2035.
This is primarily due to green buildings
using ~40% less energy and ~30%
less water than in standard buildings
of the same size. Furthermore, there
are roughly 8-10 million new buildings
constructed each year, worldwide.
Imagine a world where each of those
new buildings erected each passing
year were resource- and cost-efficient,
consuming less energy and water,
releasing less CO 2
emissions, improving
air quality, and built to be more durable
than our standard building stock; the
world would undoubtedly be making
a gigantic step towards sustainable
development and the greater good.
Although the area of sustainable and
green development has received
a lot of attention from researchers
and practitioners, with many papers
being published on “Green Cities” or
“Sustainable Cities”, very few public
papers have tried to collate and
evaluate data on the progress made in
the development of green buildings in
Global Cities. In particular, few report
on the rate of green building adoption,
or the efficiency and performance of
the built environment within these
cities. This paper seeks to compare
the performance of 10 Global Cities
specifically with regards to Green
Buildings.
In order to rank these cities’ green
building performance, a set of criteria
has been developed. The methodology
developed assesses the Global Cities
for their green building performance
across four categories, out of which
three focused on total number of green
2
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

uildings, performance and initiatives,
and one category focused on the city’s
green initiatives, which provides a
supportive infrastructure that fosters a
healthy green building movement.
After assessing the 10 Global Cities
for green building performance, the
leading cities were found to be Paris,
followed by Singapore and London.
Sydney, Tokyo and Hong Kong came
respectively in the fourth, fifth and
sixth positions. While New York, Dubai,
Beijing, and Shanghai were the laggards
on this ranking.
When evaluating the Global Cities
on the number of green buildings
and the certification systems in use
(for green buildings), the research
identified Singapore, London and Paris
as the top scorers. These three top
cities are advanced in the adoption
of new and existing green buildings,
and experience a high level of green
building activity.
It should be noted that though Beijing,
Dubai and Shanghai lagged in many
green building indicators compared to
its other Global City peers, these cities
are among the most recent joiners of
the green building movement; when
considering the limited number of
years that Beijing, Dubai and Shanghai
have been working to green their
built stock, the achievements of these
cities are profound, especially when
considering the large number of highly
internationally-certified buildings
currently standing within these cities.
When the Global Cities were ranked
based on the overall performance
and efficiency of the built stock, the
research concluded that Paris and
Singapore are amongst the best
performers; this confirms that the
green building efforts in Singapore and
Paris are palpable, and that the local
green building standards are stringent
enough to produce tangible results.
Although attempting to compare and
rank the numerous green building
policies and codes would pose a
challenge due to their volume and
diversity, Singapore did indeed stand
out as a pioneer in the industry by
putting a comprehensive and bold set
of policies and targets for greening
the city’s built block. As a city that has
committed to greening 80% of its builtstock
by 2030, Singapore stands out as
one of the most ambitious cities on the
list of cities evaluated.
Finally, the assessment of the citylevel
green initiatives established that
both Sydney and Hong Kong have set
higher than average CO 2
reduction
targets amongst the 10 Global Cities,
and have also proven themselves
as they perform noticeably well with
low CO 2
emissions city-wide and high
percentages of waste recycling. Paris,
Singapore, and New York also seem to
perform extremely well on the green
initiatives by implementing appropriate
green solutions for waste and energy
efficiencies.
Thus, for all the above mentioned
reasons, it is important to benchmark
and publish the green building
performance of the largest, most
attractive Global Cities, in order to
evaluate global progress towards
sustainable development, increase
knowledge-sharing, share bestpractices,
and better understand what
is and is not working.
Disclaimer
This white paper was conducted
independently by Solidiance, a
growth strategy consulting firm, though it
was in part commissioned by the
Building and Construction Authority
(BCA) of Singapore. The methodology
for the white paper was developed
independently by Solidiance, to
objectively assess the performance of
the top 10 global cities in terms of green
buildings.
Indiana University South Bend, U.S.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 3

Hotel Éclat Beijing, China
4
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
CHAPTER 1. 6
METHODOLOGY AND MEASUREMENTs 6
Selecting the Global Cities in the Ranking 6
Ranking Cities by Green Building Performance 7
Green Building Metrics 8
1. City-wide Green Building Landscape 8
2. Green Building Efficiency and Performance 8
3. Green Building Policies and Targets 8
Green City Metrics 9
1. Green City Culture and Environment 9
CHAPTER 2. 10
INTRODUCTION TO GREEN BUILDINGS 10
The Green Building Movement 10
What are Green Buildings? 12
Benefits of Building Green 12
Prevailing Trends in Green Buildings 13
CHAPTER 3. 15
RANKING OF THE 10 GLOBAL CITIES FOR GREEN
BUILDING PERFORMANCE 15
CHAPTER 4. 18
CITY WIDE GREEN BUILDING LANDSCAPE 18
How Green is the Built Stock of Global Cities? 18
Green Building Certifications 19
Who’s Performing Better In The Total Number Of Green Buildings? 22
International Certifications, Local Systems, or Both? 24
Credentialed Professionals 27
Conclusion 28
CHAPTER 5. 29
GREEN BUILDING EFFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE 29
How efficiently do buildings in Global Cities perform? 29
How much CO 2
do Cities’ Buildings Emit? 30
How much Energy do Cities’ Buildings consume? 31
How much Water do Cities’ Buildings consume? 32
Conclusion 32
School of the Arts, Singapore
CHAPTER 6. 33
GREEN BUILDING POLICIES AND TARGETS 33
What Policies and Targets are Global Cities setting directly
related to Green Buildings? 34
Tokyo 36
Singapore 37
Paris 38
New York 39
Hong Kong 40
London 42
Sydney 43
Dubai 44
Beijing 46
Shanghai 47
Conclusion 48
CHAPTER 7. GREEN CITY CULTURE & ENVIRONMENT 50
Do Global Cities enable a Green Building Agenda by
Fostering a “Green City” Environment? 50
Climate Action Plan 51
CO 2
emissions 52
Waste recycling 53
Consumption of Renewable Energy 54
Waste Water Recycling 54
Conclusion 55
CHAPTER 8. 56
CASE STUDies 56
Abu Dhabi 57
Boston 59
Copenhagen 61
Melbourne 63
Oslo 65
San Francisco 67
Vancouver 69
CONCLUSION 71
ANNEX 73
REFERENCES 76
AUTHORS 79
The Bridge Office, Bucharest, Romania
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 5

CHAPTER 1
METHODOLOGY AND
MEASUREMENTS
Selecting the Global
Cities in the Ranking
The Global Cities selected for this
white paper were adopted from The
Globalization and World Cities Research
Network (GaWC) approach, which is
a leading academic think-tank that
classifies and researches Global Cities.
Table 1: List of top Global Cities selected based on GaWC 2012 classification
List of top 10 Global Cities selected for GB ranking
No Final Global Cities Alpha ++ City Alpha + City
1 London
2 New York
3 Beijing
4 Dubai
5 Hong Kong
As per GaWC, Global Cities are heavily
ranked based on economic factors,
followed by political and cultural
factors. Cities are sorted into three
major categories: Alpha, Beta, and
Gamma. The top 10 Global Cities are
comprised of the Alpha++ and Alpha+
cities, which are vastly more integrated
with the global economy than others.
Due to the similar levels of integration,
pressures, and dynamics of these top
10 GaWC Global Cities, these were
the Global Cities (outlined in Table 1)
selected to become the basis of this
white paper.
6 Paris
7 Shanghai
8 Singapore
9 Sydney
10 Tokyo
Source: The Globalization and World Cities Research Network 2012 Classification
6
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Shanghai water front, China
Ranking Cities by Green Building Performance
This paper seeks to compare the performance of these 10 Global Cities specifically with regards to Green Buildings. Each of
these cities were analyzed to assess each city’s green-building policies and targets, adoption of green building certification and
construction projects, and the efficient performance of the city’s built-environment.
In order to rank these cities’ green building performance, a set of criteria was developed. The methodology developed
assesses the Global Cities for their green building performance across four categories, out of which three focus on the
total number of green buildings, performance and initiatives, and one category focuses on the city’s green initiatives and
performance. The data used across all metrics was collected up to the end of year of 2014.
Figure 1. The Defining 4 Categories in the Methodology for Ranking 10 Global Cities on Green Building Performance
GREEN BUILDING METRICS – 67.5%
GREEN CITY METRICS – 32.5%
1 2 3 4
City-wide Green
Buildings Efficiency &
Green Building
30%
25%
12.5%
Building Landscape
Performance
Policies & Targets
Green City Culture &
Environment
32.5%
Assessment of green
building and the
availability of credentialed
professionals by city
Assessment of the current
efficiency and
performance of buildings
Assessment of the
availability of green
building policies and
targets
Assessment of the city’s
green initiatives and
performance
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 7

Green Building Metrics
1. City-wide Green Building Landscape
This category assesses the total number of green buildings in each city, and
assesses the 10 Global Cities on the number of green buildings, the certifications
given to those buildings, and the availability of green building credentialed
professionals in the city.
The metrics in this category are as follows:
• The % of green buildings versus total number of buildings
• Number of green buildings
• Number of green building credentialed professionals per building
The abovementioned metrics are assessed and analyzed thoroughly in Chapter 4.
2. Green Building Efficiency and
Performance
This category evaluates the current efficiency and
performance of buildings within each of the 10 Global
Cities by measuring CO 2
emissions and energy use
of each city’s built environment. Water consumption
was also evaluated, but not enough reliable data was
available for inclusion.
The metrics in this category are as follows:
• CO 2
emissions from buildings
• CO 2
emissions from buildings per capita
• CO 2
emissions from buildings per GDP
• Energy consumption from buildings
• Energy consumption from buildings per capita
• Energy consumption from buildings per GDP
Bank of China Tower &
Cheung Kong Center, Hong Kong
The abovementioned metrics are assessed and
analyzed thoroughly in Chapter 5.
3. Green Building Policies and Targets
This category identifies available city green building codes and targets, and compares them amongst the 10 Global Cities.
The metrics in this category are as follows:
• Green building code
• City-wide green building targets
The existence of the abovementioned metrics is assessed and discussed in Chapter 6. It should be noted that only the
development and existence of green building codes and targets were assessed for the purpose of this paper; the effectiveness
or resulting impact of these codes and targets being put in place was not compared, as the analysis required is too subjective.
Thus, this chapter discusses the differences between city-wide codes and green building targets, solely for the purpose of
knowledge-sharing.
8
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Green City Metrics
1. Green City Culture and Environment
This category looks at the city-level green initiatives in
each city and evaluates the effectiveness of the adoption
of those initiatives. Because the green building movement
thrives in sustainability-oriented cities which have policies
and leadership that provides an enabling and fostering
environment, it was important to have one set of metrics that
measured the sustainability culture of a city.
The metrics in this category are as follows:
• Climate action plan
• City-wide CO 2
emissions
• City-wide CO 2
emissions per capita
• City-wide CO 2
emissions per GDP
• % of CO 2
emission reduction targets
• % of renewable energy consumed by the city
• % of waste recycled by the city
The abovementioned metrics are assessed and analyzed
thoroughly in Chapter 7.
One Angel Square, Manchester, England
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 9

CHAPTER 2
INTRODUCTION TO
GREEN BUILDINGS
The Green Building Movement
In 1987, the Brundtland
Commission (formerly known
as the World Commission
on the Environment and
Development (WCED) issued the
Brundtland Report at the United
Nations, which first defined
sustainable development as the
“development which meets the
needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own
needs.” Therefore, the pursuit
of sustainability requires holistic
thinking in order to understand
how and to what degree each
developmental element affects its
surroundings. By understanding
and measuring these impacts, we
can seek to minimize each effect.
Today, ‘Green Buildings’ have
increasingly become one of
the most growing construction
and design concepts. Owners,
developers, architects, designers
and even consumers are realizing
its importance in sustainability.
When the resource-efficiency
of these green buildings are
coupled with modern designs
and an enhanced quality of life
– the “Business Case for Green
Buildings” quickly become an
attractive one, to both present
and future generations.
The aim of this white paper is to
evaluate Global Cities particularly
on green building performance.
This is particularly important
because green buildings are
one of the most important
elements to the sustainable
development discourse, and the
built environment plays a very
substantial role in cities. In fact,
buildings are the largest energyconsuming
sector worldwide
– accounting for more than 40%
of energy use and responsible
for an estimated 30% of city-wide
emissions.
The focus of this chapter will be
to introduce the concept of green
buildings, highlight the benefits
of building green, and identify
prevailing trends in the green
building movement.
10
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Alibaba Headquarter, Hangzhou, China
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 11

What are Green Buildings?
Green Buildings present itself as an opportunity to generate
tangible results towards sustainable development. The
practice of green buildings drives environmental, economic
and social benefits; this is done by fostering the efficient
operations of buildings through the responsible use of
resources in construction and operations, enhancing
durability, and therefore lowering both operational and longterm
maintenance costs, and often driving up the quality of
life in these built environments.
Green buildings are known to have less negative impacts
on the environment in comparison to standard buildings
of the same size. They are designed, developed, and run by
taking into consideration key elements such as indoor air
quality, efficient resource use (e.g. use of energy, water, and
materials), outdoor views, and synergy with the surrounding
landscape.
Benefits of Building Green
Green buildings play a major role in…
• Decreasing energy use. With the integration of
renewable and zero carbon technologies, green
buildings are made more comfortable, less costly to
operate, and increasingly energy efficient. In essence,
42% less energy is used in a green building than in a
standard building of the same size.
• Reducing water waste. Innovative ways are adopted
in order to achieve water conservation. In fact, statistics
show that 34% less water is wasted in a green building
than in a standard building of the same size.
• Minimizing waste and encouraging reuse. Waste
generation can be minimized through the use of durable
materials and the design of recycling systems. This will
lower waste costs since recycling generally costs less
than getting rid of landfill.
• Conserving natural resources. By maximizing the
use of re-usable, renewable, sustainably managed
materials, it is ensured that buildings make truly low
impacts.
• Boosting employee productivity. Employee
productivity in a green commercial building can be
boosted by 15%, which can strongly affect the attraction
and retention of human capital.
• Supporting a healthier lifestyle and enhancing
well-being. Commercial and residential green
buildings produce efficient heating, ventilating, and
air-conditioning systems to provide high quality indoor
air, and incorporate natural light and views. This creates
an excellent environment for the people residing in or
occupying those buildings, which in turn enhances their
comfort and satisfaction.
“People spend more than 90 percent of
their time indoors — from homes to offices,
schools, retail stores, fitness centers,
health care facilities, and more — which
means that buildings, and everything
in them, can have a profound effect on
human health and well-being. Our built
environment can shape our habits and
choices, regulate our sleep-wake cycle,
drive us toward healthy and unhealthy
choices, and passively influence our health
through the quality of our surroundings.
The WELL Building Standard (WELL)
is the first building standard to focus on
health, and health provides a framework
to incorporate a variety of strategies to
integrate human health and well-being at
the heart of building design, construction
and operations. The standard also has the
potential to transform the way humans
interact with the buildings and spaces they
live in through innovative design.”
– Paul Sciallia, Founder of WELL Institute, U.S.
Central Park Sydney, Australia
When considering just some of the benefits of ‘building
green’, it is easy to see why this is a strategic initiative worth
pursuing for many cities and countries at a government level.
Green cities are also linked to better well-being and greater
popularity, which can enhance a city’s competitiveness,
leading to enhanced tourism and other economic revenues
for a city. As more and more cities are trying to mitigate
their negative footprint on the environment and reduce the
operational costs of running their own cities, a “green-built
environment” becomes increasingly important.
12
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Figure 2. Projected Levels of Global Building Activity based on Global Firms’ Share of Green
Building Projects between 2009 and 2015
Projected levels of global green building activity based on global firms'
share of green building projects (2009-2015)
Activity Level
100%
75%
50%
13%
11%
13%
30%
28%
21%
19%
51%
20%
25%
33%
26%
17%
0%
10%
6%
2%
2009 2012 2015
More than 60% of projects considered Green
31% to 60% of projects considered Green
16% to 30% of projects considered Green
1% to 15% of projects considered Green
Exploring (No Green Involvement)
Source: Statista; Solidiance Research and Analysis
Prevailing Trends in
Green Buildings
The global supply and demand for
green building is on the rise as owners,
engineers, contractors, and tenants
realize the importance of the long-term
market opportunity.
1. There is a major shift in the
expectations stakeholders have
of their own buildings. The level
of education in relation to green
buildings and green materials
from key stakeholders such
as architects, developers, and
end-users is growing. The global
green building materials market is
anticipated to grow at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of
around 13% during the 2015-2020
period. As already explained,
green buildings are service
providers of enhanced health and
well-being, better environment,
and minimized operating costs.
Consequently, the green building
material market is also expected to
reach USD 234.77 billion by 2019.
2. An increasingly cost-conscious and
financially conservative world has
emerged in the aftermath of the
global financial crisis, coupled with
the recent volatility in the price of
fossil-fuel based energy. In such a
global context, the long-term costsavings
of a green building that
consumes less energy and utilizes
renewable energy is growing
in demand. Accordingly, the
International Energy Agency (IEA)
posits that renewable energy will
represent the largest single source
of electricity growth over the next
five years, and is expected to top
700 gigawatts by 2020 – which is
more than twice Japan’s currently
installed power capacity.
3. Globalization is boosting
sustainable real estate
development worldwide and
aligning regulations. The flow of
economic and intellectual capital
in international trade is helping
to emphasize the adoption of
energy-efficient building practices
and world-class designs; this
has contributed significantly in
achieving public awareness on
environmental concerns and
the need for adopting greener
solutions.
With the increasing demand for green
buildings, developers and clients are
realizing the business, social and
environmental value that green projects
are providing. Global green building
activity is steadily on the rise. In 2009,
only 13% of developers responding to
a survey stated that over 60% of their
firms’ construction projects were a
‘green building’. In 2015, green activity
was four times higher, where over 50%
of all respondents stated that more
than 60% of their firms’ construction
activities were ‘green’ (Figure 2).
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 13

“Singapore can certainly be considered a leader in
the field of green building. The city target for 80
per cent of buildings to achieve BCA Green Mark
standards by 2030 is ambitious but achievable, and
the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) will
play a key role in delivering this!”
– Terri Wills, CEO of World Green Building Council, United Kingdom
Marina Bay, Singapore
14
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

RANKING OF THE 10
GLOBAL CITIES FOR
CHAPTER 3
GREEN BUILDING
PERFORMANCE
1. PARIS
2. SINGAPORE
The research, assessment and evaluation
undertaken for this white paper has
produced the following results in the ranking
of Global Cities, based on their Green
Building performance:
3. LONDON
4. sydney
5. tokyo
6. hong kong
7. New york
8. dubai
9. beijing
10. shanghai
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 15

Figure 3. Global Cities Ranking based on Green Building Performance
Global Cities for Green Building Performance Index
City by Ranking
Paris
Singapore
London
Sydney
Tokyo
Hong Kong
New York
Dubai
Beijing
Shanghai
71.74%
70.32%
67.77%
62.93%
59.99%
51.75%
50.62%
43.52%
41.00%
36.94%
City-wide Green Building Landscape
Green Building Efficiency & Performance
Green Building Policies & Targets
Green City Culture & Environment
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
“Singapore and London are the cities which have the
highest green building activity, and Costa Rica, France,
Singapore, and the United Kingdom are the countries that
witness high demand for green building materials”
– Michael Scarpf, Head of Sustainable Construction at Lafarge Holcim, Switzerland
After assessing the ten Global Cities
for green building performance, the
winning city is Paris, followed closely by
Singapore. London rounds out the Top
3 performing cities.
Paris and Singapore took the top spot
by excelling in all four assessment
categories: City-wide green building
landscape, green building efficiency and
performance, green building policies
and targets, and green city culture and
environment. They were the only cities
that ranked within the Top 5 in every
category.
Both Paris and Singapore have strong
building efficiency and performance,
which shows that both local and international
certification standards are
yielding high-performance on green
buildings. London benefits from high
yield of green buildings in the city,
which can be linked to the fact that the
United Kingdom was the first country
ever to introduce a green building
certification system (e.g. BREEAM). Paris
16
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings
fell just slightly short of Singapore in
the absolute number of green buildings
in the city, and by not setting out a clear
city-wide green building target.
Sydney, Tokyo, and Hong Kong came
respectively in the fourth, fifth and sixth
positions. Although the three cities
performed extremely well on the green
city culture and environment, Sydney
and Hong Kong’s ranks were negatively
affected with the poor results
they achieved on their green building
landscape and performance. Quite
surprisingly, Sydney had the fewest
absolute number of green buildings in
the city, with only 67 green buildings
to date. New York followed as number
7. It has a relatively healthy number
of green buildings constructed within
the city, with 287 (5th) and 320 (4th)
green buildings respectively, due to
having the largest built-environments
in comparison to the other cities, the
percentage of green buildings as per
the total built landscape ranked these
cities as laggards.
Finally, Dubai, Beijing, and Shanghai
were the last cities on the list; this was
an unsurprising result, as these three
cities are amongst the most recent to
join the green building movement. It is
expected that these rankings should
see changes in the future as these
newer ‘green building cities’ are setting
ambitious targets in order to catch up
to other cities’ levels.
Dubai, for example, launched its local
green building standard last among
these 10 Global Cities, in 2010, resulting
in fewer locally certified buildings
(8th), and only launched its green
building regulations and specifications
in 2012. Despite the slow start, Dubai
ranks 5th in internationally certified
green buildings (104), and has a total of
147 internationally and locally certified
green buildings erected on its
cityscape. Dubai already ranks 6th for
‘green buildings as a percentage of
total buildings’ and is certainly a city to
watch, as the city seems to work quickly
to recover lost time.

“The UAE is running
behind, compared to its
European counterparts,
but it won’t be like that for
long. We are learning from
others’ experience,
mistakes and best
practices, and adapting
‘old concepts’ to our own
environment and situation.
This is placing the emirate
at a privileged position
where we can focus on the
right aspects from the very
beginning and become a
playground for innovation
and an example for the
other countries in the
region.”
– Saeed Al Abbar, Chairman of Emirates Green
Building Council, United Arab Emirates
Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 17

CITY WIDE
CHAPTER 4
GREEN BUILDING
LANDSCAPE
How Green is the Built
Stock of Global Cities?
Green Buildings
are doubling every
3 years worldwide.
*The absolute number of green buildings: The total
number of green building projects or certification
applications submitted for each city.
Green Buildings are rapidly increasing
– doubling every three years worldwide
as a response to accelerating demand
for sustainability. Green Buildings have
proven to not only minimize the impact
of humankind on the environment but
also to improve social and economic
conditions.
That being the case, cities worldwide
are taking the action to “green” their
built stock and integrate sustainability
principles into the design and planning
process of construction.
Therefore, Global Cities were assessed
on the basis of their green building
landscape, which is defined as the total
number of green buildings and green
building certification systems in use.
The Green Building landscape is an
important dimension to consider since
it shows the overall current uptake of
Green Buildings across our 10 Global
Cities.
London, Singapore and Paris take the
top 3 spots with regards to Green
Building Landscape. This is primarily
due to these three cities scoring in
the top 3 for both *the absolute
number of green buildings and on
the ‘green buildings as a percentage
of total number of buildings’ metrics.
London and Paris particularly scored
high with 68% and 64% of the built
environment comprising green
buildings, respectively; Singapore
followed with 48% of its built landscape
being “green”. Singapore and London,
in particular, also had a very high rate
of absolute number of green buildings
with 2,339 and 1,729, respectively.
Paris also ranked 3rd in absolute
number of green buildings, but scored
relatively low in comparison to the top
2 cities with just 456 green buildings
18
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Figure 4. Ranking of Global Cities based on Green Building Landscape Metrics
City-wide Green Building Landscape
20.24%
16.88% 16.30%
12.14%
6.69%
6.34%
5.65% 4.96%
3.88% 2.75%
London
Singapore Paris Tokyo Shanghai New York Dubai Beijing Hong Kong
Source: Solidiance Research & Analysis based on Figures 1, 6
Sydney
in total. Though Paris and London
did not perform particularly strong
with regards to the number of green
building credentialed professionals,
Singapore ranked 4th with 889
individuals.
This chapter gives a brief overview
of sustainability ratings for building
and construction projects, and the
associated certifications systems; and
evaluates cities based on the total
number of green buildings, comparison
of the number of locally and
internationally certified buildings, and
certified credentialed professionals.
Green Building
Certifications
Green Building Certification is an
integral part of the planning and
construction of sustainable buildings.
From the early 1990s, the number
of sustainability tools along with the
number of buildings certified have
increased dramatically worldwide. In
addition to standards for design and
construction of buildings in line with
sustainability goals set by government
authorities, there now exist more than
600 green building certification systems
globally.
These green building ratings or
certification systems are measuring
tools that provide guidelines for the
planning and construction of buildings
while taking into consideration
environmental, economic and social
factors. Moreover, they allow building
owners and developers to confidently
label their buildings as “green” in
a standardized and recognizable
format. The assessment instruments
measure, rate and certify the level
of compliance and performance of
a building with alignment to specific
environmental goals and requirements
set by the standardization organization,
often in line with city-targets, thereby
contributing to the achievement of
those targets.
The first Green Building rating system
in the world was created in the UK in
1990 and named the Building Research
Establishment’s Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM). It is
a multi-attribute rating system that
integrates the assessment of the
following key categories: Water, Energy,
Material, Innovation, Management,
Land Use & Ecology, Health & Well-
Being, Pollution, and Waste. Being
highly recognized globally, it has served
as a basis for numerous countryspecific
schemes for rating systems,
such as Hong Kong’s 4-star Green
Building Certification System.
Despite BREEAM being the first green
building rating system, the most widelyused
Green Building rating system
around the globe is the Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) system, launched in the United
States. It was established by the U.S.
Green Building Council in 2000 for
the sustainability assessment and
rating of green building projects.
LEED assesses projects on the basis
of credits earned across the following
seven categories: Site Selection, Water
Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere,
Materials and Resources, Indoor
Environmental Quality, Regional Priority,
and Innovation in Design. Credits are
evaluated and eventually result in a
point score compatible with four levels
of LEED certification: Certified, Silver,
Gold, and Platinum.
In order to stimulate the demand for
sustainable buildings and to suit the
individual climatic, cultural and legal
boundary conditions, many countries
have designed and began adopting
their own Green Building rating
systems (Figure 5). In fact, all 10 cities
in our Global Green Building Cities
Ranking have developed their own local
certification. Although each certification
differs in the ratings awarded and
categories assessed, the Green Building
evaluation principle of “awarding credits
for each pillar” is the same.
Today, there exists
more than 600
green building
certification
systems globally.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 19

“Part of the difficulty with both LEED and
BREEAM systems is the one approach across
multiple geographies, climates and cultures. For
example, transportation needs in Texas are very
different from Singapore; water security in Beijing
is different to Manila which requires different
issues to be ranked differently to match local/
regional environment and regulations.”
– Scott Dunn, Vice President at AECOM, Malaysia
20
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Cayan Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Figure 5. List of Green Buildings Certification Systems, their Ratings Scheme, and their Assessment Tools
LEED BREEAM Estidama BEAM 3-Star HQE CASBEE Green Mark Green Star
USA London Dubai Hong Kong Beijing
Shanghai
Paris Tokyo Singapore Sydney
RATINGS AWARDED
Platinum Outstanding 5 Pearls Platinum 3 Stars Exceptional Class S (excellent) Platinum 6 Star
Gold Excellent 4 Pearls Gold 2 Stars Excellent Class A Gold Plus 5 Star
Silver Very Good 3 Pearls Silver 1 Star Very Good Class B +
Gold
4 Star
Certified Good 2 Pearls Certified Passable Class B ~ Certified 3 Star
Pass 1 Pearl Class C (poor)
2 Star
Unclassified
1 Star
Water Water Water Water Water Resource Water Water
ASSESSMENT SECTIONS
Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy Energy
Material Material Material Material Material Material
Innovation in
Design
Indoor
Environmental
Quality
Sustainable Sites
Innovation
Management
Land Use &
Ecology
Innovating
Practice
Integrated
Development
Process
Livable
Communities
Innovation
Indoor
Environmental
Quality
Site Aspects
Indoor
Environmental
Quality
Management
Ecomanagement
Local
Environment
Outdoor
Environment
Indoor
Environmental
Quality
Environmental
Protection
Innovation
Indoor
Environmental
Quality
Management
Regional Priority
Health &
Wellbeing
Natural Systems
Land & Outdoor
environment
Ecoconstruction
Other Green
Features
Land Use &
Ecology
Pollution &
Waste
Health &
Comfort
Emissions
Transport
Transport
Source: CoreNet Global by Ove Arup & Partners Ltd.: International Sustainability Systems Comparison
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 21

No
Ranking based on % of Green Buildings*
1 London 68%
2 Paris 64%
3 Singapore 48%
4 Shanghai 15%
5 Beijing 11%
6 Dubai 8%
7 Tokyo 8%
8 Sydney 6%
*Green Buildings: The total number of green
building projects or certification applications
submitted for each city.
9 New York 5%
10 Hong Kong 4%
“All three cities – London, Paris, Singapore – are clearly
advanced in the field of green buildings in terms of
standards and actual certified buildings and landmarks.
They also have a long history of urban planning, research,
regulations and frameworks, which make them examples
for other cities in the world.”
– Saeed Al Abbar, Chairman of Emirates Green Building Council, United Arab Emirates
WHO’S PERFORMING BETTER IN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF GREEN BUILDINGS?
By ranking the Global Cities by total
number of green buildings, Solidiance
has estimated the number of Green
Buildings as a percentage of total
number of buildings in each city (Figure
6). It should be noted that ‘the total
number of buildings’ was derived
from adding up the total number of
skyscrapers and the total number of
high-rise buildings in a city. Due to the
inconsistency of available data, and
green building certifications generally
targeting high-rise buildings firstand-foremost,
low-rise buildings and
other types of buildings (ie. churches,
etc.) were removed from the total
building count for the purposes of this
paper. The total number of Green
Buildings for each city is a sum of
building projects certified by LEED,
BREEAM and local certification
systems.
With regards to the city leading the
Green Buildings chart, London has the
highest percentage of green building
projects (68%) for its total number of
green buildings among the ten Global
Cities chosen. Abreast of London,
Paris also has more than half of the
built stock (64%) certified as ‘Green’.
Singapore, with the concerted efforts
of its government agencies, round
out the top three Global Cities with
48% percent of total number of green
buildings. It is worth noting here that
the fact that the total number of
buildings was limited to two types
of buildings (High-rise buildings 1
and Skyscrapers 2 ), had an impact on
generating such high percentages.
1
High-rise buildings are defined as a multi-story structure between 35-100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from 12-39 floors.
(source: http://www.emporis.com/building/standard/3/high-rise-building)
2
Skyscrapers are as defined as a multi-story building at least 100 meters tall.
(source: http://www.emporis.com/building/standard/75/skyscraper)
22
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Green Buildings as a % of Total No. of Buildings
New York
5%
21 LEED
0 BREEAM
299 Energy Star
London
68%
33 LEED
1,696 BREEAM
Dubai
8%
104 LEED
0 BREEAM
42 ESTIDAMA
Beijing
11%
116 LEED
0 BREEAM
Tokyo
8%
22 LEED
0 BREEAM
197 CASBEE
Paris
64%
12 LEED
356 BREEAM
88 HQE
Hong Kong
4%
6%
65 LEED
0 BREEAM
222 HKBEAM
Shanghai
15%
223 LEED
11 BREEAM
Singapore
48%
Sydney
38 LEED
1 BREEAM
2,300 GREEN MARK 5 LEED
0 BREEAM
62 GREEN STAR
Figure 6. City-wide Green Building Landscape Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis based on Figures 9, 11, 12
While looking at the number of total
buildings, the inconsistency between
the percentage of Green Buildings and
number of total buildings is noticed.
For instance, although it makes sense
for Singapore and London to achieve
high percentages of green buildings
from the built stock since they both
rank first and second respectively
on total number of green buildings
(Figure 8), Paris’ result (Figure 9) can
be questioned as the city does benefit
from having the lowest number of total
buildings (Figure 7). For those that
may claim that Singapore performs
particularly well because it is a relatively
small city, Figure 8 quickly lays those
arguments to rest; Singapore has the
highest number of absolute green
buildings with 2,339 Green Buildings
built to date, outperforming London by
35%.
The disparity between those top
three cities mentioned above and
cities following them is high. As such,
the percentage of Green Buildings in
Shanghai, which comes fourth after
Singapore, is 15%. The fifth city in the
rank is also Chinese: Beijing with 11%
of the total number of green buildings.
Dubai, Tokyo, Sydney, and New York
City come as the next, whereas Hong
Kong complete the list with the lowest
percentage (4%). Having New York City
and Hong Kong achieve the lowest
ratings might be attributed to the fact
that they both have double or triple the
average total number of buildings in the
other cities (Figure 7), knowing that they
come in fourth and fifth place when
ranked based on total number of green
buildings (Figure 8). Another reason
could be the fact that those cities have
been focusing on constructing new
green buildings, without placing much
effort on retrofitting existing buildings.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 23

Figure 7. Total Number of Buildings*
*Total number of buildings account only for high-rise buildings and
skyscrapers
Total No. of Buildings
Total Number of Buildings
Figure 8. Number of Green Building Projects*
*Total number of green building projects is a sum of LEED, BREEAM
and locally (Figure 5) certified green building projects
Total No. of Green Building Projects
Total Number of Buildings
Total Number of Green Buildings
Hong Kong
7,956
1
Singapore
2,339
New York
6,933
2
London
1,729
Singapore
4,857
3
Paris
456
Tokyo
2,886
4
New York
320
London
2,536
5
Hong Kong
287
Dubai
1,740
6
Shanghai
234
Shanghai
1,602
7
Tokyo
219
Sydney
1,058
8
Dubai
146
Beijing
1,030
9
Beijing
116
Paris
714
10
Sydney
67
Source: Emporis Building Directory
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis based on Figures 7, 11, 12
“The current green building development has been focused on new buildings
but is shifting towards existing buildings. For significant progress, the focus
of stakeholders in Hong Kong should shift from new to existing buildings
which make up the bulk of the building stock. Potentially, more effort can be
made to incentivize sustainability for existing buildings, promote microgrid
/ renewable systems to reduce dependence on coal-powered electricity, and
divert waste from precious landfill space.”
– Vincent Cheng, Director of Building Sustainability at ARUP, Hong Kong
Figure 9. Green Building as a percentage of total number of Buildings
in the City
International Certifications, Local
Systems, or Both?
1
2
% of Green Building Projects
Green Buildings as a % of Total No. of
Buildings
London
Paris
68%
64%
Cities such as London, New York and Hong Kong, which have
adopted their own rating tools in the 1990s, accordingly
have the largest ‘locally certified’ green buildings (Figure 11).
Likewise, cities lagging behind have adopted their own local
green building certification systems in the past 10-15 years.
3
4
5
6
7
8
Singapore
Shanghai
Beijing
Dubai
Tokyo
Sydney
15%
11%
8%
8%
6%
48%
However, Singapore is an exception to this rule. Despite
having launched Green Mark only recently in 2005 – 15 years
after BREEAM (UK) and 10 years after HKBEAM (Hong Kong)
– Singapore’s green building movement has grown rapidly to
include the largest number of locally certified green buildings
in the world (e.g. using Singapore’s Green Mark certification
system).
9
New York
5%
10
Hong Kong
4%
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis based on Figure 8
24
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Media Corp Building, Singapore
Figure 10. Number of capita per Green Building
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Singapore
London
Paris
Dubai
Hong Kong
New York
Tokyo
Sydney
Shanghai
2,351
4,974
4,978
15,959
25,226
26,531
60,731
75,625
103,205
10 Beijing
185,345
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
The ranking based on the number of capita per green building (Figure 10) did not show a large difference from the ranking
cities based on the number of green buildings. The top three cities for green buildings – Singapore, London, and Paris –
remained in the same position when compared on the population level, i.e. how many people are allocated to each green
building. The only two cities that jumped in the ranking are Dubai and Sydney. This could be due to the fact that both cities
have smaller populations in comparison to Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai, and Beijing. The number of capita per green
building highlights cities that are making notable effort in building design and construction, as well as to create a healthier
environment for inhabitants and workers. The indicator was not included in the methodology, but simply illustrates the ranking
of the cities based on the number of capita per green building.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 25

Figure 11. Timeline of the Development of Green Building Rating Tools
HQE
France
HKBEAM
Hong Kong
1996
CASBEE
Japan
2001
3 Star
China
2006
1990 1995
2000
2002 2005
2010
BREEAM
UK
ENERGY STAR
USA
LEED
USA
Green Star
Australia
Green Mark
Singapore
Estidama
UAE
Source: CoreNet Global by Ove Arup & Partners Ltd.: International Sustainability Systems Comparison
The number of buildings certified locally
versus those certified internationally
vary slightly across the cities. The
general pattern and trend is for cities
to have a larger number of buildings
certified locally instead of using
international standards (Figure 12
vs Figure 13). The only cities outside
of the trend line are Paris and Dubai
with the larger stock of buildings
certified internationally than with locally
developed standards (Paris using
BREEAM primarily, and Dubai using
LEED).
This can be partially explained here.
In the case of Paris, the small number
of green buildings certified by HQE
certification is believed to be due
to the greater complexity of local
versus international standards. HQE
brings with it a greater number of
requirements, whereas BREEAM and
LEED certifications have far fewer
requirements. Moreover, the BREEAM
certification is less demanding about
the integration of prerequisites, and
processing times for the certification
is more streamlined. One Paris-based
green building professional reported
that LEED and BREEAM certification
applications can be sent via online
platforms without on-site audits;
On the other hand, HQE (Paris’ local
certification system), requires on-site
visits by HQE certifiers on up to 3
separate occasions to conduct various
audits.
In the case of Dubai, it is largely
explained by two factors. Firstly, the
local Estidama Pearl Rating system is
relatively new, having only launched in
2010. Secondly, Estidama is a rating
system developed by the Abu Dhabi
Government, for the Emirate of Abu
Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, being the capital
of the United Arab Emirates, made
Estidama available and recommended
its use to all other emirates, including
Dubai – but government regulations
requiring the use of Estidama was only
passed through Abu Dhabi’s policies.
Having been left with the choice,
Dubai continues to use international
standards rather than subscribing to
their neighbouring state’s certification
process.
“It is important to note
that a building can be
sustainable and incorporate
green best practices without
having a certification
behind it. Certifications,
however, are useful tools
for measurement and can
serve as guidelines for best
practice. Nonetheless,
Dubai does not have a
specific certification or
rating systems such as
Estidama in Abu Dhabi, but
the Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design
(LEED) rating system
is used and recognised
broadly.”
– Saeed Al Abbar, Chairman of Emirates
Green Building Council, United Arab
Emirates
26
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Figure 12. Total No. of Locally Certified Green Building Projects
Total No. of Locally Certified Green Buildings
Figure 13. Total No. of Internationally Certified
Green Building Projects 3
Total No. of Internationally Certified Green Buildings
Locally Certified Green Buildings
LEED Certified Green Buildings
BREEAM Certified Green Buildings
1
Singapore
2,300
1
London
33
1,696
2
London
1,696
2
Paris
12
356
3
New York
299
3
Shanghai
223
11
4
Hong Kong
222
4
Beijing
116
5
Tokyo
197
5
Dubai
104
6
Paris
88
6
Hong Kong
65
7
Sydney
62
7
Singapore
38
1
8
Dubai
42
8
New York
21
9
Shanghai
9
Tokyo
22
10 Beijing
10 Sydney 5
Source: Greenbooklive Certified BREEAM Assessments, HQE in the
world, Energystar Buildings, C40 & USGBC Green Building City Market
Briefs, China Green Building Design Label Rated Buildings, Estidama
Pearl Qualified Buildings
Source: LEED Projects Directory, Greenbooklive Certified BREEAM
Assessments
3
Please see Annex for more details on cities’ ranking based on LEED certified Projects
Oslo Opera House, Norwegia
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 27

Credentialed Professionals
Whereas the ranking of Global Cities in the previous sections is based on the number of green buildings
certified internationally and locally, the ranking in the data-set of Figure 14 is based on the number of
LEED, BREEAM and local Credentialed professionals.
Figure 14. Total Number of Credentialed Professionals (City-wide)
Total Number of LEED & BREEAM Credentialed Professionals (City-wide)
Number of LEED Credentialed Professionals Number of BREEAM Credentialed Professionals
2 1 1 2 129 2
40 53 78 172 324 458 426 673 676 2,398
Sydney Paris Tokyo Singapore Beijing Hong Kong London Shanghai Dubai New York
Total Number of Local Credentialed Professionals (City-wide)
Number of Locally Credentialed Professionals
3,999
Ministry of Housing &
Rural Development
73 129 141 180 884 913
2,323
Beijing Shanghai Paris London Sydney Dubai Singapore New York Hong Kong Tokyo
Source: LEED - USGBC LEED People Directory; BREEAM - GreenBookLive BREEAM Accredited Professional; Beijing
& Shanghai - Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Department; Paris – beHQE Referents Directory; London -
GreenBookLive BREEAM Accredited Professional; Sydney – Green Building Council Australia Accredited Professional
Directory; Dubai - C40 & USGBC Green Building City Market Briefs; Singapore - Building and Construction Authority of
Singapore; New York – Energy Star Licensed Professional (PE or RA) Directory; Hong Kong - C40 & USGBC Green Building
City Market Briefs
Overall, there are more LEED accredited professionals than those upholding the BREAAM certification
system, and there is a growing trend where locally credentialed professionals are increasing. Tokyo is the
leader both in the total number of professionals, as well as in the normalized metric, which looks at the
total number of credentialed professionals per building (Figure 15).
Figure 15. Number of Green Building Credentialed Professionals per Building
1.41
0.49 0.48 0.42 0.35 0.32
0.219 0.217 0.18 0.17
Tokyo Dubai New York Shanghai Hong Kong Beijing London Singapore Paris Sydney
Source: Solidiance Research & Analysis based on Figure 16
28
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Conclusion
This chapter has assessed the green
building landscape of each global city by
measuring the number of green buildings,
breaking down those green buildings by
certification system type and evaluating
the number of credentialed professionals
per building. Overall, the trend is an
increasing number of Green Buildings
certified locally instead of internationally,
and cities such as London, Singapore
and Paris rank highest due to both high
number of total green building projects
in the city, and high percentage of green
buildings as per total number of buildings
in the city.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law, California, U.S.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 29

GREEN BUILDING
EFFICIENCY AND
PERFORMANCE
CHAPTER 5
How efficiently do buildings in Global Cities perform?
Buildings are a substantial element
in every city. They are the largest
energy-consuming sector worldwide
– accounting for more than 40% of
energy use and responsible for an
estimated 30% of city-wide emissions.
As a city commits to building green, it is
important for it to set measurable goals
for emissions and energy efficiencies,
water conservation, and waste
management in order to ensure that
building projects are in fact contributing
into enhancing the environment. The
previous chapter evaluated the number
of ‘certified green buildings’ each city
had, and whether they were to a local
or international standard.
This chapter steps in to evaluate,
regardless of the number of certified
green buildings in the city – the overall
efficiency and performance of the built
stock in each city. The efficiency and
performance of the built environment
in each city involved zooming into
2 major interrelated environmental
impacts, namely, CO 2
emissions and
energy use.
Space heating and cooling together
with water heating are estimated to
account for nearly 60% of global energy
consumption of buildings. CO 2
from
energy use is the dominant factor
leading to greenhouse gases emitted
in the buildings sector. Water use was
also an indicator, which was evaluated,
but the lack of data and inconsistency
of city-wide data led to the removal of
this metric.
Figure 16. Ranking of Global Cities based on
Green Building Efficiency & Performance Metrics
Green Building Efficiency and Performance
Paris
Sydney
Singapore
Tokyo
London
Hong Kong
Dubai
New York
Beijing
Shanghai
5.75%
14.15%
12.67%
11.68%
23.73%
22.39%
21.45%
20.24%
18.66%
18.65%
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
“Globally, buildings account for 40% of energy consumption and 30% of carbon emissions.
There is a real need for the building industry to undertake greater environmental
responsibility and mitigate the impact of our activities on the environment. Moreover, we
also witness that there is a strong business case for sustainability. This has been proven
as integrating sustainability into our corporate vision and strategy has not only created
long-term business value for CDL, but also for our investors and customers.”
– Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer at City Developments Limited
30
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Paris, Sydney, and Singapore take the highest ranking spots with regards to each city’s green building efficiency. This is
primarily due to the three cities not only being very low CO 2
polluting cities in general, but also because they have a very low
percentage of emissions which can be attributed to the city’s built-environment.
How much CO 2
do Cities’ Buildings Emit?
While green building efforts are already underway for all of these Global Cities studied in this report, a majority of the top
Global Cities emit relatively high levels of CO 2
into the environment, with the exception of Paris and Sydney (Figure 17).
Consequently, both cities also perform well in terms of CO 2
emissions as a result of the built environment.
Figure 17. CO 2
Emissions from Buildings, normalized per capita and per GDP
Total CO 2
Emissions from Buildings (Million Metric Tons)
85
96
2 5
15
26 27 32 34
45
Paris Sydney Singapore Hong Kong Dubai London New York Tokyo Beijing Shanghai
Total CO 2
Emissions from Buildings (Metric Tons) per Capita
11.4155
2.7120
3.3838 3.5387
3.7433 3.9675 3.9675 4.0086
0.7508 0.9473
Paris Sydney Singapore Tokyo Hong Kong London Shanghai Beijing New York Dubai
Total CO 2
Emissions from Buildings (Kg) per GDP
0.1613 0.1686
0.0024
0.0206 0.0243 0.0278 0.0321 0.0385 0.0408
0.0616
Paris Sydney New York Tokyo Dubai London Singapore Hong Kong Shanghai Beijing
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
By analyzing the carbon emissions per capita in the top 10 Global Cities (Figure 17); Paris, Sydney, and Singapore maintained
their position as top performers and while Shanghai and Beijing recorded the highest CO 2
emissions from buildings, they
performed slightly better on this dimension, by ranking seventh and eighth on this metric. However, Dubai has a significantly
higher carbon footprint per capita of (11.4MT) as energy consumption is high and its emissions are being spread among a
small population.
Carbon intensity is usually measured in terms of the CO 2
emissions per dollar GDP. A city with low carbon intensity would
mean that it is able to produce each unit of output with less CO 2
emissions. Paris and Sydney remain undefeated as they also
top the scale for carbon intensity of their building stock. Whereas, Singapore and Hong Kong that were in the top 5 for both
CO 2
emissions from buildings and CO 2
emissions per capita, now find themselves ranked just before Shanghai and Beijing.
Singapore has recently announced its goals to reduce emissions intensity by 36% from 2005 levels by 2030 and generally
performs much better when compared as a country considering that it ranked 113th out of 140 countries, according to IEA
Key World Energy Statistics in 2014.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 31

How much Energy do Cities’ Buildings consume?
Paris and Singapore are amongst the best performers in how much energy is consumed from their buildings (Figure 18) – an
indicator of the cities’ level of eco-consciousness and proof that both the local and international green building certifications
used in both these cities are strong certification guidelines which push for greater greener building performance. This, of
course, is the main goal. There may be cities where green building policies are in place, targets are set, local certification
guidelines are created, but none yield strong green building performance in terms of efficiency of resource use and minimal
negative environmental impact. In this light, the performance of the built-landscape in each city is the ultimate end-goal.
Indeed, it seems as though the green building efforts in Singapore and Paris are working together, marking tangible progress,
and are paying off.
Shanghai accounts for the highest level of building energy consumption. New York follows in second place due to relatively
high CO2 emissions from buildings, second highest size of built stock and second lowest percentage of total green buildings.
Figure 18. Energy Consumption from Buildings, normalized per capita and per GDP
Total Energy Consumed from Buildings (GWh)
366,259
431,816
15,050 23,277 29,250 42,047 49,047 70,263
101,228
166,839
Paris Singapore Sydney Dubai Tokyo Hong Kong London Beijing New York Shanghai
Total Energy Consumed from Buildings (GWh) per Capita
0.0431
0.0037 0.0042 0.0060 0.0066 0.0078 0.0097 0.0118
0.0179 0.0180
Tokyo Singapore Sydney Paris Beijing Hong Kong London Shanghai Dubai New York
Total Energy Consumed from Buildings (KWh) per GDP
0.7270
0.0210 0.0303 0.0507 0.0636
0.1211 0.1312 0.1689
0.2616
0.3297
Paris Tokyo Dubai Singapore London Sydney Hong Kong New York Beijing Shanghai
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
When evaluating the per capita energy consumption from buildings, New York still comes as the first with the highest energy
use by buildings, further followed by Dubai and Shanghai. Oppositely, Singapore and Tokyo exhibit the lowest building energy
consumption level per capita, whereby the population sizes of the respective cities rank as the 8th and 3rd highest out of
selected top 10 Global Cities (Figure 18).
In part of energy consumption from buildings per GDP, which implies energy efficiency per unit of production, Shanghai and
New York have the highest level, whereas Paris, Tokyo, and Singapore’s buildings consume the lowest level of energy in this
category (Figure 18).
Noticeably, Shanghai and New York do not fare as well in both normalized metrics in comparison to other cities. Under the
City Building Energy Saving Projects Special Support Measures introduced in 2012, Shanghai’s government committed to
provide energy monitoring and management to building projects, and promoting energy saving and green building features.
New York City’s new plan, “One City, Built to Last: Transforming New York City’s Buildings for a Low-Carbon Future” announced
in September 2014 seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of the city’s top greenhouse gases emitters - buildings, both public
and privately owned. These efforts set out by both cities, if executed well and successful will likely materialize into substantially
better results in coming years.
32
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

How much Water do Cities’
Buildings consume?
Water consumption from buildings is an important
metric that governments worldwide should take
into consideration. The benefits of enforcing waterefficiency
measures encompass water savings
and achieving sustainability goals. Moreover, such
measures will reduce buildings’ energy costs since
heating water is associated with significant amount
of energy use. Additionally, implementing waterefficient
practices implies achieving green building
certifications thereby fostering healthy green
building movement. Recognizing the importance
of water consumption from buildings, this metric
was however not used in the ranking due to lack
of available data (as only data for New York - 1235
billion litres, Dubai - 267 billion litres, Sydney - 101
billion litres, were found). As such, cities should do
more to focus on the portion of water consumed
from buildings, as it is just as important a resource
as energy, if not growing in importance over time.
Annex II includes a graph showcasing annual water
consumption by city.
Conclusion
There are roughly 8 to 10 million new buildings
constructed per annum worldwide, most of
them in developing countries. According to the
International Energy Agency, buildings account
for up to 41% of global energy savings potential
by 2035, compared with the industrial sector
(24%) and the transport sector (21%). Attempts
to improve energy consumption in buildings will
ultimately lead to better levels of CO 2
emissions.
Thus, it is crucial for cities to intensify action
plans aimed at greening the design of the built
environment, so that buildings not only have less
impact on the environment during construction,
but most importantly, operate in a green and
more efficient manner. Greening new buildings at
the design stage is much easier than retrofitting
existing buildings to operate more efficiently. For
these reasons, green buildings are an important
pillar to build more sustainable cities around the
world.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 33

GREEN
BUILDING
POLICIES AND
CHAPTER 6
TARGETS
As covered in the previous chapter,
buildings have wide-ranging direct and
indirect impacts on the environment.
Given the long lifespan of most buildings,
decisions made on the design and
construction of a building during its project
phase will determine its consumption
and impacts over its lifetime. This has
then prompted the inception of green
building standards, certifications, and
rating systems targeted to alleviate a broad
range of environmental issues through
sustainable and greener designs.
For this reason, green building codes
and targets are imperative in a city’s
journey towards greater adoption of
Green Buildings. They act as a guideline
to demonstrate and inform the respective
stakeholders on essential elements to
building green and the crucial steps to
execute such initiatives within a specific
timeframe.
Asia Square Tower, Singapore
34
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Figure 19. Green Building Codes & Targets
Green Building Code
Green Building Targets
Beijing
Beijing
Dubai
Dubai
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
London
London
New York
New York
Paris
Paris
Singapore
Singapore
Shanghai
Shanghai
Sydney
Sydney
Tokyo
Tokyo
Source: C40 Cities; News Articles; Solidiance Research and Analysis
How supportive is your Government towards
Green Buildings?
Singapore is the standout leader in the Green Building Codes and Targets
assessment. While all the Global Cities have outlined city-level green
building codes, only three cities have achieved their green building targets.
Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai are the only cities with both a green
building code and green building targets set-out by the city.
What Policies and Targets are Global Cities
setting directly related to Green Buildings?
Local and regional governments are uniquely positioned to implement
policies that influence the commitments towards sustainability measures in
the building sector, and to encourage its corporate citizens to build green,
and citizens to live green. As such, city-level green building policies were
researched for each city. Two metrics were considered in ranking the cities
on the Green Building Culture dimension – the existence of green building
codes and the existence of green building targets.
Amongst the Global Cities in this study, Tokyo took the chronological lead
with its Green Building Program having been issued in 2002; Tokyo’s Green
Building Program began to take responsibility for the impacts its buildings
had on the environment by requiring that newly built or extended buildings
submit their building environment plans. In 2006, Singapore then launched
its green building policy to spearhead the delivery of green buildings and
concentrated on new buildings and those undergoing major retrofitting. The
newbies in the green building agenda would be Beijing and Shanghai with
recently issued action plans in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Figure 20. Ranking Global Cities based on Green
Building Policies and Targets
Green Building Policies and Targets
Singapore
Beijing
Shanghai
Paris
London
Sydney
Tokyo
Hong Kong
New York
Dubai
12.50%
12.50%
12.50%
10.00%
10.00%
10.00%
10.00%
10.00%
10.00%
10.00%
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 35

Figure 21. Timeline of launch of local Green Building Action Plans
SHANGHAI
Shanghai
Municipality 3-Year
Green Building
Action Plan
SINGAPORE
Green Building
Masterplan
NEW YORK
Greener, Greater
Buildings Plan
SYDNEY
Better
Buildings
Partnership
DUBAI
Green Building
Regulations and
Specifications
2006
2002 2007
2009 2011 2012
2013
TOKYO
Tokyo Green
Building Program
PARIS
Paris Climate and
Energy Action Plan
HONG KONG
Buildings Design to
Foster a Quality
and Sustainable
Built Environment
BEIJING
Beijing’s Green
Building Action Plan
Source: Solidiance Research LONDON and Analysis
Delivering
London’s Energy
Future Plan
“Tokyo and Singapore are two progressive Asian
cities in terms of green building development.
Tokyo is pretty unique with its cap-and-trade
program covering even large-scale office buildings.
This controls carbon emissions at the source.
Furthermore, development in green building
technologies are at the forefront. Singapore has
mandated energy efficiency standards and energy
audits for existing buildings and provided financial
incentives for the upgrades. The new smart nation
agenda is also interesting with its well thought out
vision and extensive scale.”
– Vincent Cheng, Director of Building Sustainability at ARUP, Hong Kong
36
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

TOKYO
Green Buildings Policy Overview
The submission system of “Building Environment Plan”,
introduced in 2002, was designed in Tokyo to clarify
environment-friendly approaches to buildings and highly
evaluate excellent approaches. The system was introduced
in June 2002 with the aim of creating a market where
environment-friendly and high-quality buildings are
evaluated. It is required for those newly built buildings
or extended and whose total floor area exceeds 5,000
square meters to submit their building environment plans,
which evaluates four points: “streamlining of energy use,”
“appropriate utilization of resources”, “protection of natural
environment” and “mitigation of heat island phenomenon”.
Energy Efficiency policies
The Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program, launched in 2010, is
one of the worldʼs first programs which covers buildings and
facilities in cities such as offices and commercial buildings
and mandates total reduction of CO 2
emissions from large
facilities (accounting for approximately 40% of emissions
from the city’s industrial and commercial sectors). A target to
be achieved by the relevant sectors has been established as
a cap (emission limit) taking into account the 2020 reduction
target for Tokyo as a whole, and a mandatory reduction rate
has been set for each facility based on the cap. Each facility
is obliged to reduce the aggregate total of emissions for the
five years from 2010 to 2014 (the first planned reduction
period) by 8% or more (for office buildings, etc.) or 6% or
more (for plants, etc.), compared with the amount obtained
by multiplying the baseline annual emission amount by five.
Owners of facilities will reduce CO 2
emissions by introducing
energy-saving measures and renewable energy in their
own buildings, as well as by applying credits such as excess
reductions and renewable energy credits purchased from
other facility owners to their own reductions.
Energy benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
Under the Evaluation and Publication Programme of
Environmental Performance of new buildings, all large newly
constructed buildings in Tokyo are obliged to conduct an
environmental performance evaluation and publish the
building environmental plan, which indicates the evaluation
results. The system requires building owners to adopt
environmentally conscious designs based on guidelines set
down by the government, with the aim of creating a market
where environmentally friendly buildings are highly valued,
through publication and disclosure of their environmental
performance.
Financial incentives
In Tokyo, tax incentives have been made available through
the Energy Saving Promotion scheme targeting small to
medium enterprises. These incentives exempt individuals and
corporations from the enterprise tax when they introduce
energy efficient equipment and renewable energy projects.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 37

SINGAPORE
Green Building Policy
Overview
In 2005, the Singapore Government’s
Building and Construction Authority
(BCA) launched the Green Mark
scheme, a leading green building rating
system, serving as a benchmark tool for
evaluating environmental sustainability
in buildings. The main purpose was
to encourage stakeholders to start
building and living green. Thereafter,
the city launched its first, second, and
third Green Building Masterplans,
which currently focus on driving the
green building agenda by:
1. adopting green building as the
norm for new projects, and
2. greening existing buildings, and
3. focusing on both the hardware and
software of the built environment
(i.e. energy efficiency of buildings
as well as the occupants’ behavior)
4. setting Singapore as the leader
in green building and sustainable
development
In 2010, with the launch of the City’s
Sustainability Blueprint, Singapore
set an ambitious target of greening
80% of its building stock by 2030 in
order to accelerate the green building
agenda. By 2014, more than 25% of
the city’s entire built-stock were already
‘greened’.
The target is set to be achieved by
supporting the advancement of green
building within the region, raising
the community’s engagement and
encouraging all stakeholders to get
involved in greening the city, and
sustaining constant monitoring of
energy consumption, and seeking
38
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings
solutions for enhancing the well-being
of people, and the quality of the built
environment.
Energy Efficiency
policies
Demonstrating building energy
performance has become vital in
Singapore to ensure an improved
quality of the built environment.
Existing buildings must comply with
high energy standards and optimally
operate after undergoing retrofit.
Periodical energy efficiency audits
are required, to ensure existing
buildings comply with the minimum
environmental sustainability standards
under the Green Mark scheme.
Energy Benchmarking
/ Disclosure of
information
Singapore acknowledges the
importance of energy and green
building data sharing within the
industry, and ensures transparency
in the performance results. As of
2012, Singapore set requirements for
existing building owners to submit
annual reports regarding their
building information and its energy
consumption through the Building
Energy Submission System (BESS). This
plan is beneficial to many stakeholders:
• It serves the government as it is
used as a way to monitor energy
consumption and energy efficiency
of buildings, thereby providing
insights to BCA in the formulation
of green building policies and
energy performance monitoring
strategies
• It benefits owners and tenants by
creating awareness on the energy
performance of their buildings
and helps them set measureable
targets to improve energy
efficiency of those buildings
• It allows architects, engineers
and other consultants to rethink
their designs and incorporate
best-in-class practices in design
and retrofit of green buildings.
Research and education
communities can also benefit
through data sharing and applied
research to further advance green
building technologies and solutions
for the future
Financial incentives
There has been several Green Mark
Incentive Schemes (GMIS) rolled out
by the Building and Construction
Authority (BCA) over the years, with the
Green Mark Gross Floor Area Incentive
Scheme being the most impactful for
new developments as it drives new
and existing private developments to
undertake substantial energy efficiency
enhancements in efforts to earn high
Green Mark ratings. Other major
schemes in play include its USD 50
million and USD 100 million GMIS to
encourage existing building owners
and tenants to improve the energy
consumption of their buildings and
premises. Moreover, the Building
Retrofit Energy Efficiency Financing
(BREEF) Scheme financing programme
introduced in collaboration with several
Financial Institutions provide support to
its building owners in overcoming the
high upfront cost of carrying out energy
efficiency retrofits.

PARIS
Green Building Policy Overview
Thirty large businesses have signed Paris Climate Action
Charter initiated by the city authorities thereby undertaking
steps to realize aims of Climate-Energy Plan. Under this
charter, the Paris District Heating Company supplying 1/3 of
public heating launched a programme to reduce pollution
and promote renewable energies. By 2020, more than
500,000 tonnes of CO 2
will be reduced in the city every year.
Built on the initiative of the City of Paris to assist in achieving
the goals of the France Climate Action Plan, the Paris Climate
Agency has been providing the support to the stakeholders’
projects on green action. For instance, Lumo, a platform for
responsible investment in renewable energy projects, has
been developed in partnership with local authorities.
Paris has also started the plan of one thousand buildings’
energy renovation set to complete by 2020. This involves
supporting building owners in their efforts to reduce
Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) and energy consumption
through trainings spreading the word about ways to reach
greener buildings while taking into consideration affordability.
Moreover, under the environmental law approved by French
parliament on March 19, 2015, the rooftops on all new
buildings built in commercial zones in Paris must now be
partially covered in plants or solar panels aiming to reduce
heat and cooling energy consumption by buildings.
In 2012, Paris introduced regional energy and air quality
guidelines aligned with three following goals of Energy Action
Plan for 2020:
• Improve buildings’ energy efficiency, with a target
of doubling the pace of non-residential building
refurbishment and tripling it for residential buildings
• Develop district heating powered by renewable and
recovered energies, with a target of increasing the
number of connected equivalent housing units by 40%
• Reduce GHG emissions from road traffic by 20% in
combination with a significant reduction in air pollutants
Energy Benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
Every five years since 2004, the city authorities conduct
GHG inventory and energy consumption assessments
of government and community. In addition, an annual
assessment of the implementation of the climate action
plan is realized. The data on performance and practical
achievement along with budget spent is published in the
“Bleu Climat” report every year.
Financial incentives
Every year the City of Paris invests around USD 44 million
in retrofitting residential buildings. Paris also supports
green initiatives providing loans to green entrepreneurial
companies and low rent fee spaces to install green activities.
Energy Efficiency policies
Under the Energy Plan, Paris has renewable energy sources
starting from January 2016.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 39

NEW YORK
Green Building Policy
Overview
The City of New York was one of the
first jurisdictions to concentrate on
improving energy efficiency in existing
buildings, and it now leads innovation
in Green Building.
With energy efficiency and conservation
driving its main agenda, New York City
(NYC) established an independent,
non-profit financial corporation called
the New York City Energy Conservation
Code (NYCEEC) in 2010 – to assist
the city in implementing its Greener,
Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) while
advancing the goals of PlaNYC.
The GGBP, introduced in December
2009, addresses benchmarking, energy
audits and retro-commissioning, as well
as the adoption of a new energy code,
all working towards increased energy
efficiency for the city. Local Law 86
(LL 86), the local Green Building Law,
establishes a set of standards for public
design and construction projects.
Energy Efficiency
policies
With ‘One City: Built to Last’, the city
will target every public and private
building that needs significant energy
upgrades. It is an all-inclusive 10-year
plan targeted to improve the energy
efficiency of the NYC’s buildings, and
sets an ambitious goal to reduce the
city’s building emissions by 30% by
2025. To achieve this goal, the City
intends to:
1. Complete efficiency improvements
in every City-owned building that
has significant energy use and
install 100 MW of onsite renewable
power.
2. Cost-effectively build highly
efficient buildings, looking to
Passive House, carbon neutral, or
“zero net energy” strategies.
3. Develop interim energy
performance targets for existing
buildings to be achieved through
voluntary reductions and new
regulations.
Other measures such as LL86
requires that projects (i.e. new
constructions, additions and substantial
reconstructions) receiving more than
a specified amount of city funding
achieve a LEED rating level of certified
or Silver and/or reductions in energy
cost and potable water use.
Energy Benchmarking
/ Disclosure of
information
The GGBP requires large commercial
and multifamily buildings to benchmark
their energy and water consumption
with Energy Star where the data will
be posted online by the city. Failure to
comply will warrant a fine. Local Law
87, also part of the GGBP, mandates
that buildings over 50,000 gross square
feet undergo periodic energy audit and
retro commissioning measures.
Financial incentives
New York City is one of the national
leaders in terms of providing incentives
for energy efficiency, at approximately
USD 250mil p.a. covering a variety of
programs, including direct incentives
for energy reduction and market
transformation. Local utilities and the
New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority administer such
programs.
In addition, the New York State Green
Building Tax Credit provides USD 25
million in income tax credits over
a nine-year period for owners and
tenants of buildings, which meet
energy, indoor air quality, materials,
commissioning, water conservation,
appliance, and size criteria. Low
interest loans (i.e. 4% below market
rates) are provided for energy efficiency
measures and building materials
that meet New York green building
standards.
40
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Hong kong
Green Building Policy Overview
The Building Design to Foster a Quality and Sustainable Built
Environment (BDF QSBE) was introduced in April 2011 for
all new building plans to promote energy efficiency, urban
livability, building maintenance, environmental conservation
and green features in buildings. BDF QSBE requires that
all new buildings undergo the Hong Kong Green Building
Council BEAM Plus assessment and designed in accordance
with a package of green building measures to receive
concessions for additional gross floor area (GFA).
Launched in March 2013, HK3030 campaign targets a
reduction of 52% in absolute electricity consumption
compared to a BAU scenario, which essentially reduces 30%
of the absolute building electricity consumption by 2030, as
compared to 2005 levels. For government buildings, a 5%
electricity reduction target by 2020 (2014 as base) is set.
Energy Efficiency policies
In October 1998, the Building Energy Codes laid out
compliance standards for which subsequently required
mandatory compliance with the enactment of Buildings
Energy Efficiency Ordinance (BEEO). The BEEO requires that
developers or building owners of newly constructed buildings
ensure that building services installation comply with the
design standards of the BEC.
Energy Benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
The BEEO enforced a statutory requirement to perform
energy audits every 10 years and that the first round of
audits to be completed by September 2016 on owners of
commercial and composite buildings. Further requirements
mandate that the Energy Audit Form, which contains the
annual energy utilization index of the past 12-month period
be exhibited in a conspicuous position at the main entrance
of the building.
Financial incentives
BEEFS, one of the largest government-funded energy saving
schemes in the world provided USD 450mil to stimulate
private sector building owners to invest in improvements.
New matching schemes in operation from 2014 to 2018 by 2
major electric companies will provide an estimated USD 100
million to support energy saving projects.
With BDF QSBE, building owners are incentivized to
incorporate specific features such as sustainable building
design guidelines on building separation, building setback,
site coverage of greenery and energy efficiency of buildings in
order to obtain a GFA concession of up to 10%.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 41

“The strengths in Hong Kong green building
roadmap are having an actionable market driven
plan showing the critical initiatives, showing linkage
between events, and the interim milestones along
the way. The roadmap is in turn constructed out of
a series of interlinked modules, including roadmaps
for existing buildings, reporting and benchmarking,
regulatory drivers, BEAM Plus, new buildings,
GFA incentive scheme, green building financing,
carbon markets and education. Such a modular
and sequential approach allows a campaign of such
magnitude to be tackled.”
– Vincent Cheng, Director of Building Sustainability at ARUP, Hong Kong
Hong Kong water front
42
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

LONDON
Green Building Policy Overview
For existing buildings, public bodies are coordinating with
the private sector to reduce CO 2
emissions. This initiative
is encouraged by the Green Organisations Programme,
which focuses on incentivizing landlords to upgrade their
buildings, improving buildings operations, and training staff in
both the public and private sectors to educate them on the
importance of reducing CO 2
and consuming clean energy.
Moreover, RE:FIT an award winning non-domestic retrofit
programme, was introduced to encourage public buildings
to consider retrofit projects and achieve financial savings.
The city’s government has also set a national target requiring
all new homes built from 2016 and all new non domestic
buildings from 2019 to be zero carbon. Finally, developers
of new buildings are to abide by the mayor’s energy policies
of being lean, being clean and being green. This means
improving a building’s energy efficiency, supplying energy
efficiently, and using renewable energy technologies.
Energy Benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
1. Sustainability statement, which includes BREEAM or
Code for Sustainable Homes pre-assessment, resource
efficiency, summary of energy approach, climate change
resilience measures, and addresses pollution.
2. Energy strategy, which constitutes a comprehensive
assessment of the energy demand of the building, all
relevant proposed energy efficiency measures and
low and zero carbon technologies to be incorporated.
Carbon emissions savings are to be also disclosed as per
the GLA guidance for energy assessment.
Financial incentives
The London Green Fund has set up an Urban Development
Fund worth of USD 50 million for investments in energy
efficiency projects, the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF).
LEEF invests in projects to retrofit London’s public and
voluntary sector building stock with energy efficiency and
renewable energy measures.
For both new developments, and refurbished buildings, two
types of information are required for disclosure:
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 43

SYDNEY
Green Buildings Policy
Overview
With an ambitious plan set to reduce
carbon emissions by 70% by 2030,
Sydney has introduced “Greening your
Business” sustainability program which
is composed of the following four
pillars:
1. Smart Green Business designed to
assist program participants, about
70 firms, to reduce energy and
water costs and improve waste
management.
2. With over 10 years of operation,
the CitySwitch Green Office,
a program for office-based
companies, provides its
participants with guidelines to
improve sustainable business
operations via support of program
manager, access to case studies,
regular workshops, and a yearly
awards providing recognition for
environmental leadership.
3. Better Buildings Partnership has
been created to support the
efforts and commitment of leading
commercial property owners to
Sydney 2030 vision. It has already
cut the energy costs by USD 30
million a year since the year of
establishment.
4. Environmental upgrade finance
(please see further section
“Financial incentives” for details)
As per Green Buildings, the city built
stock is assessed by national Australian
Green Buildings rating systems such
as Green Star and NABERS. In addition,
Sydney is the first government in
Australia to be certified as Carbon
Neutral under the National Carbon
Offset Standard.
Energy Efficiency
policies
The city of Sydney has set the Energy
Efficiency Master Plan with the following
11 enabling actions:
1. Safeguard energy savings –
by maintaining core existing
programs.
2. Improved building compliance –
ensure buildings meet standards
and codes.
3. Raising the bar – increasing
minimum practice.
4. Show by doing – best practice for
City of Sydney owned buildings.
5. Education, training and capacitybuilding
– working with businesses
and residents.
6. Building tune-up program –
optimising building controls and
operations.
7. Building retrofit program – plant
and equipment upgrades.
8. Access to finance and incentives
– funding to improve energy
efficiency.
9. Ratings and disclosure – for
sectors where there are gaps.
10. Sector targets and monitoring – for
feedback and evaluation.
11. Equity – for low income sectors.
Energy benchmarking
/ Disclosure of
information
The city has designed benchmarks
for water use of business operations
illustrated by key business activity
indicator (KBAI). KBAI is a measure of
how much water an efficient business
uses for specific activities. Furthermore,
GHG and water use performance
have also benchmarks developed by
National Australian Built Environment
Rating System (NABERS).
Financial incentives
Sydney provides financial support
to sustainability initiatives in the
community through the Environmental
upgrade finance and Environmental
Grants Program. The Environmental
Upgrade Finance operates through a
contract known as an environmental
upgrade agreement (EUA) under
which lender provides capital to
the building owner to construct or
upgrade sustainable works. The loan
is further repaid through the City’s
existing rates collection process, as an
environmental upgrade charge (EUC).
The State-sponsored Environmental
Grants Program funds projects aiming
to increase environmental performance
and benefit to the City community.
Whereas, priority is given to projects
aligned with Sustainable Sydney 2030.
44
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

DUBAI
Green Building Policy Overview
In 2012, Dubai Municipality (DM) launched the Green Building
Regulations and Specifications code for public buildings and
later in 2014 for private commercial buildings. The purpose
of the code is to increase resource-efficiency of buildings
and to support Dubai’s Strategic Plan. The green buildings
in Dubai are also assessed in accordance with the Estidama
Pearl Rating System. Although this system is designed by and
tailored to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (the country’s capital
and home to the federal government), its principles and
indicators are applicable to other Emirates such as Dubai as
well.
As per “greening” the existing old-aged built stock initiative,
the local Green Building Council introduced the Technical
Guidelines for Retrofitting Existing Buildings in 2015, which
implies refurbishment works with the purpose of increasing
energy and water efficiency.
In terms of the city’s Green Building achievements, Dubai has
managed to – in a short period of time - green 8.4% of the
city’s built stock via international rating and certification tools
as well as the local Estidama Pearl Rating system. The city also
has the world’s largest LEED Platinum government building
which achieved 66% reduction in energy consumption and
48% reduction in water consumption.
Energy Efficiency policies
energy efficiency requirements and labeling systems
on water fixtures, lighting, electrical appliances and air
conditioners. Furthermore, ESMA banned the import of
inefficient incandescent lamps into the country in July 2014.
As part of Dubai’s smart city initiative, Dubai Electricity and
Water Authority (DEWA) aims to install 250,000 smart meters
and deploy smart-grid to automate power consumption in
all residential, industrial and commercial properties by 2018.
DEWA has also launched the “Shams Dubai” smart initiative
in 2015 to encourage building owners to install photovoltaic
solar panels to generate electricity from renewables.
Energy Benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
The department for energy conservation and energy
efficiency of Ministry of Energy are enforcing the energy use
efficiency by establishing a database and local benchmarks
for various energy consuming sectors across the UAE.
Financial incentives
Dubai in partnership with the private sector has allocated
USD 544.5 million funds for the plan of retrofitting 100,000
buildings to meet green buildings standards. Aiming to
reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2030, Dubai
also allocated USD 13.6 billion for renewable energy projects.
In terms of energy efficiency, the Emirates Authority for
Standardization & Metrology (ESMA) has set mandatory
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 45

“One of our main mandates is to increase
awareness of the benefits of green building
among industry stakeholders and as such
we regularly organise focus days, workshop
and training. In addition, this year we are
also working on a Green Building Toolkit,
to further educate industry and community
by sharing green building tips. The Toolkit
is an interactive communication web tool
that provides relevant information on
green buildings, allowing visitors of varying
technical capacities to understand how
different aspects of green buildings are
applied to schools, offices, and homes.”
– Saeed Al Abbar, Chairman of Emirates Green Building Council, United Arab Emirates
46
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

BEIJING
Green Building Policy Overview
Issued in June 2013, the key highlights of Beijing’s Green Building Action Plan:
• Asks that all new public and private buildings constructed in Beijing must achieve a 1-star rating (out of 3-stars) under the
Chinese Green Building label-3 (more commonly known as 3-Star rating) and accumulated new green building area should
be at least 35 million square meters.
• Encourages government-invested and public buildings sized >20,000 m 2 to follow the requirement of China Green
Building Standards 2-Star or above.
• Promotes the development of green eco-demonstration areas such as the Future Science and Technology City.
During the period of the 12th Five Year Plan from 2011 to 2015, Beijing plans to construct at least ten ecological
demonstration zones. All buildings within these zones must meet a minimum 1-star certification; with at least 40% of the
buildings achieving a 2-star level or higher.
Financial incentives
The Chaoyang District in Beijing recently included LEED certifications to their existing incentive structure in which LEED Gold
buildings will receive a one-time incentive of USD1.53/square meter of certified space, and LEED Platinum buildings will receive
USD 3.06/square meter of certified space. Subsidies are also offered for 2-star and 3-star certified project amounting to USD
3.44/square meter and USD6.12/square meter respectively. For both 1-star and 2-Star certifications in the aspects of design
and operation, subsidies ranging from USD 1.2 thousand to USD 1.5 thousand are offered per project.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 47

SHANGHAI
Green Building Policy Overview
In 2011, the City of Shanghai was the first city in China
to launch a “green standard” in construction to facilitate
the promotion of energy efficiency and is actively working
towards China’s 2020 aim to green at least 30% of new
buildings constructed from 2012. Introduced in mid 2014,
the Shanghai Municipality 3-Year Green Building Action Plan
(2014-2016), in principal requires:
• New civil buildings be constructed in accordance with
green building standards 1 Star and above, and
• Large public and government office buildings sized
above 20,000 square meters to be constructed in
accordance with green building standards 2-Star and
above.
Enforced on all new and existing buildings, initiatives such
as Special Planning Shanghai’s Green Building and Eco-City
comprises of government policies, plans and regulations, and
professional guidance.
Energy Efficiency policies
The various energy management policies in place include:
• Shanghai City Building Energy Saving Projects Special
Support Measures (2012) – inclusive of ways the
government will provide energy monitoring and
management to building projects, and offered subsidies
in effort to promote energy saving, green building
features.
• Regulation of Shanghai Building Energy Conservation
(2011) encompasses the most comprehensive energy
policies for the building sector in Shanghai.
• Shanghai Energy-Efficient Building Design Standards
guide encourages contractors to use energy-efficient
materials and to adopt energy saving technologies for
heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting public buildings.
Energy Benchmarking / Disclosure
of information
Systematic monitoring of green building standards is in place
and energy audits are conducted. In addition, public buildings
are required to implement sub-metering, and monitor
and report its energy consumption data to the Municipal
Construction and Transportation Committee.
Financial incentives
The Shanghai government will be investing up to
approximately USD 1.29 million in subsidies which will be
awarded to buildings with green features including China
Green Building Label certified projects, prefabricated
projects, new and existing buildings with high energy
efficiency, on site renewable energy, amongst many.
48
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Marina Bay, Singapore
Conclusion
This chapter has laid out the major, notable policies/codes, targets, and incentives
developed by the 10 cities in our study. Each city has established its own targets
and an accompanying policy or action plan to serve as guiding principles to
support and grow its number of green buildings and reduce its environmental
footprints.
Tokyo began its green building journey in 2002 (the earliest of all 10 cities) and
introduced a ‘Cap-and-Trade Program’, the world’s first carbon trading scheme, in
2010. Today, the program is being replicated in neighbouring Asian governments
and continues to spark interest in surrounding Metropolitan areas. Despite its
early start, Tokyo’s green building landscape and performance rank below cities
such as London, Singapore and Paris. Findings from ‘An Analysis of Comprehensive
Effectiveness of Tokyo’s Climate Policies’ (Kamei, 2013) put forward certain reasons
- generally, little information have been provided to building owners to employ
energy-efficiency equipment and latest green technologies for their buildings,
there has been a lack in subsidies for building owners to upgrade the facilities and
while CO 2
emissions from a building heavily relies on the energy use of tenants,
this policy centers around building owners.
New York has numerous initiatives enabling its green building movement but
its GGBP has become one of the most comprehensive sets of energy efficiency
policies in the United States, and targets the City’s largest existing buildings.
However, the City is also trailing behind on its green building landscape and
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 49

Singapore’s success in its green
building agenda can be attributed
to being a pioneer in the industry
coupled with having put in place a set
of comprehensive and bold policies
for the construction of its buildings.
By 2008, the City amended its
Building Control Act, requiring all new
construction and retrofits of existing
buildings to achieve, at minimum, a
Certified rating under the Green Mark
Scheme. It’s Green Building Masterplan
is comprised of policy instruments
designed to enforce minimum
environmental standards for building
codes, stimulate the private sectors,
promote research and development
in environmental sustainability and
grow Singapore’s appetite for green
buildings.
performance possibly because, like
Tokyo, it is one of the largest and oldest
mega-cities in our list of Global Cities;
in addition, most of NYC’s initiatives
have only targeted large buildings,
casting aside ~50% of the city’s floor
space – mainly residences and small
business, where opportunities for
energy reduction are also plentiful.
Also, beyond meeting the NYC Energy
Conservation Code requirements in
force at the time of renovations by
2025, there is no obligation to make
any capital improvements based on
the energy information generated.
With that said, ‘One City: Built to Last’,
a comprehensive 10-year roadmap
spanning 2015 to 2025 aims to target
every public and private building
requiring energy upgrades and
might be just what the City needs to
instigate a significant change in its
environmental impacts.
While Beijing and Shanghai newly
joined the green building movement
in 2013 and 2014, their results are
already apparent in their total green
building area. In Q1 2015, both cities
were the top 2 out of 10 cities in
terms of green building area (nearly
20 million sq. m.), surpassing major US
cities such as Chicago, New York and
Washington D.C. They also managed to
achieve a higher-rating (LEED and local
certifications) green building area of 14
million sq. m. taking up approximately
75% of total green building area.
Attempting to compare and rank the
numerous codes, incentives and targets
across cities would pose a challenge
due to the volume and diversity of such
initiatives. However, the effectiveness
of policies and targets can be linked to
and determined by the performance of
the city in terms of the rate of adoption
of green buildings (i.e. Green Building
landscape), and the performance of
green buildings in the city (i.e. Green
Building performance and efficiency),
and the performance of the city on the
overall green level (i.e. Green Culture
and Environment) as respectively
described in previous chapters, and the
following one.
50
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

CHAPTER 7
GREEN CITY
CULTURE &
ENVIRONMENT
Do Global Cities enable a
Green Building Agenda by
Fostering a “Green City”
Environment?
Sustainability is at the core of economic,
social and environmental initiatives
worldwide. Green buildings result in
energy and water efficiency and saving,
while further decreasing the impact on
the environment. This, in turn, fosters the
productivity, creativity and innovation in the
cities’ community. As such, the community
with developed green city culture and
environment will further streamline the
sustainability efforts to increase the total
number of green buildings. As a result, it is
a circle where the sustainable environment
and communities’ commitment to it are
intertwined, the latter serving as the driving
force.
Thus, this chapter looks at whether cities
adopt a climate action plan, have set targets
to reduce their CO 2
emissions, and evaluates
whether they are actively addressing waste
and energy by implementing green solutions
such as waste recycling and renewable
energy technologies.
Gardens by the Bay & Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 51

In ranking of this category, the ‘usual
suspects’ in global green city rankings come
to the forefront. Sydney, Paris and New York
take the top 3 spots, and Singapore is just
shy in 4th place.
Once metrics are looked at individually, the
top performers are somewhat scattered.
Sydney and Paris, in particular perform
well in terms of having single digit citywide
CO 2
emissions, with 6 and 7 million
metric tonnes, respectively. New York is
the standout renewable energy performer
with the 17% of the city’s energy coming
from renewable sources. Sydney is the
clear winner when it comes to recycling;
Sydney recycles nearly 70% of the city’s
waste. Finally, surprisingly, the 3 Chinese
cities ranked in the top 3 when it came to
CO 2
reduction targets, aiming to reduce CO 2
emissions by over 3% per annum.
Figure 22. Ranking of Global Cities based on Green City Culture
and Environment
Green City Culture and Environment
Sydney
Paris
New York
Singapore
Hong Kong
London
Tokyo
Dubai
Shanghai
Beijing
21.71%
21.61%
19.49%
19.22%
18.87%
17.61%
13.72%
12.00%
11.86%
27.79%
Source: Solidiance Research and Analysis
Climate Action Plan
A Climate Action Plan is a set of strategies
aiming to embark upon sustainability and
climate change action. Its primary goal is to
guide the efforts and keep the city on the
path of carbon emissions reduction. Since
such goal means shifting from a fundamental
patterns of urban development, buildings
and consumption, the Climate Action Plan
goes far beyond CO 2
reduction.
Actions to improve a city’s building energy
and water use efficiency ultimately leads
to a city’s greater resilience to the impacts
of climate change. The top 10 Global Cities
listed have each outlined the steps of the
plan such as renewable energy use in
power plants, transportation, and buildings,
reduction of energy waste and greenhouse
gases.
Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Tokyo, Japan
Chinese cities Beijing and Shanghai, despite
the absence of Climate Action Plans set,
have adopted policies in line with the goals
of Climate Action Plan. For instance, Beijing
has set Clean Air Action plan, which tackles
transportations’ carbon emissions. The city
will also shut down 2,500 polluting firms in
2016 aiming to shift from coal consumption
to clean energy.
52
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

CO 2
emissions
Global CO 2
emissions mainly reflect the world’s fossil energy consumption and make up a substantial
65% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Plotting out the emissions of the 10 Global Cities in Figure 23,
Beijing and Shanghai rank the lowest due to the cities’ significant contribution of CO 2
emissions, while
Sydney and Paris take the lead with much lower quantity of emissions – approximately 6 and 7 million MT
in 2014/15.
Figure 23. City-wide CO 2
Emissions, normalized per capita and per GDP
City-wide CO 2
Emissions (Million Metric Tons)
142
160
41 43 43 45 46
62
6 7
Sydney Paris London Hong Kong Dubai Singapore New York Tokyo Beijing Shanghai
City-wide CO 2
Emissions (Metric Tons) per Capita
18
1
3
5 5 5 6
7 7
8
Sydney Paris Tokyo London New York Hong Kong Shanghai Beijing Singapore Dubai
City-wide CO 2
Emissions (Kg) per GDP
0.2688
0.2810
0.0104
0.0261 0.0329 0.0381 0.0487 0.0517
0.1026
0.1235
Paris Sydney New York Tokyo London Dubai Hong Kong Singapore Shanghai Beijing
Source: C40 Cities Report, Cities’ Government Website
By normalizing the CO 2
emissions per capita and per GDP (Figure 23), Sydney, and Paris remain as top
performers. However, while New York and Tokyo show more positive performance after normalization,
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai exhibit poor per capita performance in comparison with the other
cities.
According to IPCC, to limit global warming to 2°C as agreed on by the world’s governments at a 2009
meeting in Copenhagen, global GHG will need to be reduced by 40% to 70% by 2050. In response, the
top 10 Global Cities have pledged to reduce, or limit the growth of emissions by setting respective CO 2
reduction targets to be achieved within the coming years (Figure 24).
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 53

Figure 24. CO 2
Reduction Targets By City (2014)
CO 2
Reduction Targets
Shanghai
Beijing
Hong Kong
Sydney
Dubai
Paris
Tokyo
Singapore
New York
19% reduction
36% reduction
50% reduction
70% reduction
30% reduction
25% reduction
25% reduction
11% reduction
40% reduction
Per Annum %
of reduction
3.80%
3.60%
3.33%
2.91%
1.88%
1.56%
1.25%
1.10%
1.00%
London
25% reduction
0.83%
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
Source: C40 Cities Report, Cities’ Government Website; Solidiance Research & analysis
To address the high levels of city-wide emissions in Beijing and Shanghai, the cities established relatively high targets to be
achieved within a 5- to 10-year period amounting to more than 3.5% per annum. At the other end of the scale are Singapore,
New York and London with reduction targets of 1% p.a. and lower.
Waste recycling
Waste recycling is becoming crucial for sustaining the environment and avoiding extra pollution of the city. It helps in saving
resources and energy, generating revenues and minimizing landfill costs. Governmental institutions, private businesses, and
residents are all responsible of keeping their surrounding clean with minimal effect on the environment. This is why many
cities are proposing new initiatives concerning waste recycling and management.
For the purpose of our study, current performance of the 10 Global Cities on waste recycling was assessed to identify which
cities are taking action on this matter.
% Waste Recycled by City
Figure 25. Percentage of Waste Recycled by City
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
~68%
60%
37% 34.5% 34%
23%
17% 16%
2%* 2%*
Sydney Singapore Hong Kong Paris London Tokyo New York Dubai Shanghai Beijing
Source: C40 Cities; UNEP; Cities’ Government Website; Solidiance Research and Analysis
*Note: Figures for Shanghai and Beijing were estimated based on the available data on China’s waste recycling and renewable energy
consumption.
54
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

Sydney and Singapore topped the list by achieving respectively high percentages of recycled waste (68%
& 60%). In fact, Sydney set an interim waste strategy which purpose is to provide sustainable waste and
recycling services through 2030. It includes six key focus areas: (1) producing less waste, (2) maximizing
resource recovery, (3) having green infrastructure integration, (4) reducing greenhouse emissions, (5)
introducing solutions for waste problems, and (6) cleaning the streets.
As for Singapore, the city is following an integrated solid waste management system that concentrates
on waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Waste-to-energy incineration plants are also adopted to reduce
waste volume in the most efficient way.
In comparison, the cities of Shanghai and Beijing scored the least among the 10 cities as they don’t show
a clear plan for addressing waste recycling and reduction, and do not adopt a city-specific climate action
plan.
Consumption of Renewable Energy
Renewable energy technologies are clean sources of energy which have a minimized impact on the
environment than any traditional energy source. They are most of the times part of any city’s climate
action plan, and considered as a good practice to reduce CO 2
emissions. The 10 Global Cities were
evaluated based on their consumption of renewable energy and results are shown in Figure 26.
Figure 26. Percentage of Renewable Energy Consumed by City
new york
BEIJING
PARIS
TOKYO
Hong kong
17% 10% 10% 10% 9% 7% 6% 3.7% 1% 1%
SYDNEY
SHANGHAI
LONDON
SINGAPORE
dubai
Source: C40 Cities; UNEP; Cities’ Government Website; Solidiance Research and Analysis
With constant and close coordination between the public and the private sectors, New York City
managed to achieve the highest score for renewable energy consumption. Solar, wind, biomass and
hydro are the renewable sources with the greatest short-term potential to provide significant amounts of
energy for New York.
Sydney is also putting lots of effort into adopting renewable energy technologies through its city master
plan. In Beijing and Shanghai, efforts in renewable energy also involve heavy investments in wind farms.
On the opposite side, Hong Kong and Dubai still have a long way to go, where the two cities’ use of
renewable energy is very low. Recently, Dubai have committed to provide 5 percent of its energy demand
from solar power by 2030.
Waste Water Recycling
Wastewater recycling is also worthwhile to look at when evaluating the city’s green culture. Wastewater
can be an important and valuable source of alternative water. However, it demands appropriate
management and processing before it can be reused due to contaminants. The given metric was not
included in the ranking because the publicly available data is only at country level.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 55

High Park, Hong Kong
Conclusion
City-level green initiatives are essential
for measuring the sustainability culture
of the city, and how it fosters a green
environment – which directly and
indirectly enables the green building
agenda. The top 10 Global Cities have
adopted various policies and regulations
in line with the goals of their individual
Climate Action Plans. To reduce CO 2
emissions, all 10 Global Cities have set
targets to achieve within a period of time.
London and New York started their CO 2
reduction plans in the 1990s, which also
explains how both do well on green city
initiatives.
New York performs particularly well in
renewable energy consumption (#1) and
London performs above average when
ranked in their efforts for waste recycling
and renewable energy consumption.
Both Sydney and Hong Kong have set
higher than average CO 2
reduction
targets amongst the 10 cities, and have
also proven themselves as they perform
noticeably well with low levels of city-wide
CO 2
emissions and high percentages
of waste recycling. Cities like Beijing,
Dubai, and Shanghai have newly joined
the movement (in 2010), which explains
why the three lag behind on the waste
recycling metric, and for Dubai on the
renewable energy consumption.
“In SE Asia we see several ASEAN initiatives that will help
in harmonizing policies which ideally approach similar
corporate levels as the European Union. Renewable energy is
becoming a larger part of the energy profile for cities. In the
United States the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) has
implemented a Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and
Planning (Cities-LEAP) program which is led by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This program looks at
the Energy Profiles of 23,400+ U.S. cities and is focused on
promoting more efficiency of the use of energy in cities.”
– Scott Dunn, Vice President at AECOM, Malaysia
56
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

CHAPTER 8
CASE
STUDIES
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 57

Abu Dhabi
a Case Study for Building Holistically Green Cities
Case Study
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi represents the world’s current benchmark for sustainable R&D
and sustainable city development.
58
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

BUILDING GREEN CITIES INITIATIVE
Achievements and highlights
Background:
In 2008, Masdar was launched: and announced as the world’s
most sustainable low-carbon city. The city currently has one
of the world’s largest efficient built stocks.
The companies operating in this Free Zone must be
sustainability-focused. Furthermore, the city vehicles must all
be powered by renewable energy.
TARGETS:
• Masdar has nearly 1.5 gigawatt of renewable energy
capacity deployed contributing to Abu Dhabi’s target of
7% renewable energy capacity by 2020
• According to American Society of Heating, Refrigerating,
and Air-Conditioning Engineers & Estidama Pearl
Building Rating System, the energy and water
consumption by buildings demands has reduced by 40
per cent
International Renewable Energy
Agency HQ
It is the UAE’s first Estidama Pearl Building Rating System
certified Four Pearl building project. The structure consumes
42% less energy than global energy-efficiency standards and
64% less than typical buildings in Abu Dhabi. Rooftop solar
photovoltaic panels generate more than 340,000 kilowatthours
per year.
POLICIES:
• All buildings in the city must fulfill a minimum Estidama
Pearl Building Rating System certification of three pearls
requirement (equivalent to LEED Gold)
• Building materials used are of 90 per cent recycled
aluminium, low-carbon cement, and locally-sourced
materials
Masdar Institute Campus
The buildings on campus consume:
• 95% less in domestic hot water energy;
• 75% less in cooling demand;
• 70% less in both electricity and potable water.
The smart energy-management, shading and recycled
building materials enable the structure to reduce the heat
in the summer and use solar panels to generate renewable
energy.
Siemens Middle East HQ
It the first LEED Platinum certified building structure in Abu
Dhabi which has a capacity to reduce energy consumption
by 45 percent (compared to ASHRAE standard) and water
consumption by 50 percent (compared with the LEED
baseline).
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 59

BOSTON
a Case Study for Green Building Leadership
Case Study
Boston’s green building leadership surfaced when the Mayor’s Green Building Task Force
recommendations were executed in a holistic green building plan. With impressive results
thus far, green building is now ingrained into the development DNA of the city.
60
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

BUILDING GREEN CITIES INITIATIVE
Achievements and highlights
Background:
Boston was the first in the nation to require a green building
standard (US Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System)
through municipal zoning requirements, known as Green
Building Zoning in 2007.
GHG
reductions
since 2005
• City wide GHG: 17%
• Government Ops GHG: ~25%
• Commercial GHGs: 21.5%
TARGETS:
• Reduce energy consumption across
all city-wide large and medium-sized
buildings:
• 40 million sq. ft. buildings - 12.5%
• 60 million sq. ft. buildings - 5%
• 20 million sq. ft. buildings - 25%
• 15% energy use from co-generation &
10 MW of commercial solar
• GHG reduction goals: 25% below
2005 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050
POLICIES:
• Article 37 requires all large-scale projects (>50,000
square feet) to meet LEED certification standards and
separate Boston Green Building Credits.
• “Stretch” Energy Code requires new residential and
commercial buildings to achieve approximately 20%
better energy efficiency than the state’s base energy
code.
INNOVATION DISTRICT
Innovation District on the South Boston waterfront is a
geographical area for clean tech and biotech companies
to grow their businesses in Boston. The area has grown
rapidly over the past few years, adding over
4,000 new jobs in over 200 new companies, including many
green-tech companies such as EnerNOC, Fraunhofer, and
Sustainserve.
• The Renew Boston energy efficiency program was
launched in 2010 to catalyze clean energy solutions
across all sectors of Boston innovative network of energy
efficiency and alternative energy service providers.
Since January 2011, Renew Boston:
• Conducted >7,000 comprehensive energy assessments
and over 1,500 insulation improvements in Boston
homes, saving residents over USD 2 million a year in
energy costs
• Completed 700 energy upgrades for small businesses,
saving over USD 650,000 a year
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 61

Copenhagen
a Case Study for Energy Efficiency Policies
Case Study
Copenhagen’s Energy Efficiency policies and technologies have made a great example for
other cities to follow in order to achieve sustainable building and energy conservation.
62
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

ENERGY EFFICIENCY INITIATIVES
Achievements and highlights
Background:
Copenhagen intends to become carbon neutral by 2025.
As such, the city has set ambitious targets for sustainable
buildings and been adopting many inventive approaches
to create the buildings which meet the requirements of the
future.
TARGETS:
50%
of the electricity supply will
be converted to wind power
by 2020
40%
reduction in energy
consumption in municipal
buildings by 2025 compared
to 2010 level
20%
reduction in heat
consumption by 2025
compared to 2010 level
60,000 sqm
of solar panels to install on
new and existing municipal
building projects by 2025
CRADLE-TO-CRADLE: CONFERENCE
PAVILLON
The building materials used are 100% degradable and 100%
recyclable materials.
• Solar cells on the roof are angled due to premise of
being used most effectively;
• A thermal pump generates 3x the heat energy
consumed in electric energy, thereby saving up a surplus
of energy;
• Green walls have a potential to clean and cool the air,
while at the same time improving the indoor comfort
experience.
• Copenhagen is one of the world leaders in reusing
building materials with a recycling rate of more than
90%. This is due to wide applicability of cradle-to-cradle
concept (demolition and reuse of construction waste) in
the construction sector.
• Copenhagen is also one of the world leaders in smart
grid development. In 2014, it was ranked as number one
on the list of European Smart Cities. As such, it serves as
a cluster for test and demonstration of smart building
technologies.
SMART GRID: ENERGYFLEXHOUSE
Danish Technological Institute and Henning Larsen Architects built
two eco-house labs designed to guide the future green building
practices. It comprises of two structures: (1) a technical lab intended
to study and test innovative green systems and materials, and
(2) a living lab – the first Danish energy neutral living eco-house.
Energyflexhouse is a nation-wide project aiming to research and
adopt new sustainable green building systems.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 63

Melbourne
a Case Study for Greening the City through Green Buildings
Case Study
The City of Melbourne uses a unique and ambitious set of complementary strategies,
comprising of national, provincial and city government policies to better the energy
efficiency of its commercial buildings and attain carbon neutrality by 2020.
64
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

BUILDING GREEN CITIES INITIATIVE
Achievements and highlights
Background:
Launched in 2010, The City of Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings
Program aims to provide a platform to engage both building
industry stakeholders to catalyze the retrofit of 1,200
commercial buildings (around two thirds of the commercial
building stock) within the next 10 to 15 years, forming a
key component of the City’s Zero Net Emissions strategy to
become a carbon neutral city by 2020.
TARGETS:
~38%
Improvement in energy efficiency
in the commercial building sector
(equivalent to 383,000 tonnes of GHG
emissions p.a.)
5bil liters
Reduction of potable water use in the
commercial sector.
The City of Melbourne has been
certified carbon neutral by the
National Carbon Offset Standard
Carbon Neutral Program in 2013.
138
Largest concentration of Green star
rated buildings of any Australian
capital city.
Increase the average National
Australian
Built Environment Rating
System(NABERS) rating of
commercial buildings in the city
of Melbourne to 4 stars by 2018
(roughly sums up to an average
increase in energy efficiency of 40%
per building).
USD 2bil
Drive in private sector investment
8k jobs
Creation of green jobs – environmental
and sustainability consultants,
engineers, etc.
Buildings above 5,000 m 2 are required to prove a 5-Star
Green Star certification potential, in turn reducing energy
consumption & potable water use up to 50%, producing 45%
fewer emissions than those built to minimum building codes.
POLICIES:
An Energy, Water and Waste Efficiency policy applicable
to 90% of new buildings was established to incorporate
sustainability at the design stage.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 65

OSLO
a Case Study for Green Building Designs and Concepts
Case Study
Powerhouse Kjørbo is an important demonstration project for refurbishing existing
properties into plus-energy buildings. The building was transformed from being part of the
energy problem to becoming part of the energy solution.
66
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

POWERHOUSE CONCEPT
Achievements and highlights
Collaboration
Objectives
Collaboration of companies
dedicated to building energy
positive buildings
• Entra Eiendom
• Skanska
• Snøhetta
• NGO ZERO
• Hydro
• Sapa
• To renovate and/or
construct energy positive
buildings that annually
generate more energy
than they use during their
lifetime
• To demonstrate that it is
possible to build energy
positive buildings, not just
in the southern regions of
the world, but also in cold
Norway
• Powerhouse Kjørbo in
Norway
• Powerhouse Brattørkaia in
Trondheim
• Powerhouse Telemark in
Porsgrunn
Powerhouse Kjørbo, located near Oslo, opened in April 2014.
By optimizing and combining existing technologies in new
ways, the two office buildings from the 1980s were renovated
into energy positive buildings.
Green Aspect
10%
less water use than a typical
commercial building
100%
energy savings and positive
energy
Social Aspect
97%
of construction and
demolition waste was
diverted from landfill
70%
lower carbon lifetime carbon
emissions compared with the
reference building
• Good natural daylighting
• Workspaces with access to external views
• Healthy indoor air quality
• Safe undercover bicycle parking
• Good shower and changing facilities Priority parking
spaces for electric vehicles
Projects
Economic Aspect
80%
Electricity cost reduction in comparison
with a Norwagian office building
CERTIFICATION
Most environmentally friendly office buildings
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 67

San Francisco
a Case Study for Commitment in Building Green
Case Study
San Francisco’s Green Building ordinance requirements, initiatives and incentive programs,
together represent the strictest, most ambitious, most comprehensive policy approach to
the built environment undertaken by any city in the United States .
68
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

GREEN BUILDING INITIATIVES
Achievements and highlights
Background:
San Francisco has historically been an early adopter of
environmental legislation. The City has been committed
to sustainable, equitable, and healthy buildings since its
1997 Sustainability Plan and the nation’s first green building
requirements for city buildings in 1999
POLICIES:
• New commercial construction and alterations greater
than 25,000 sq ft. is required to meet a LEED Gold
standard.
• New residential buildings must meet either LEED
or California-based GreenPoint rated standards.
Certification is not compulsory, but projects committing
to LEED Gold certification receive priority in permitting
queues .
• All municipal projects are required to attain LEED Gold
certification.
• All new construction projects of any size or occupancy
must:
• Meet the California Green Building Standards code,
• Beat California’s Title 24 (2008) Energy Standards by
a minimum of 15%,
• Meet stringent stormwater management standards,
• Recycle at least 65% of construction and demolition
debris, and provide for collection of recycling and
compost from occupants in operation.
#2
70%
97%
40%
CBRE National Green Building
Adoption Index Rankings
Total certified sq.ft of Green
buildings
Total certified sq.ft of Energy
star buildings
Total certified sq.ft of LEED
buildings
More than 4 million square feet of municipal facilities totaling
USD 6.4 billion in capital investment have met the LEED Gold
certification requirement, or are on track to meet them.
San Francisco’s goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
reduction are: 25% below 1990 by 2017, 40% by 2025 and
80% by 2040. By 2010, emissions were 14% below 1990
levels.
GHG reduction targets
25%
40%
80%
2017F 2025F 2040F
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 69

Vancouver
a Case Study for Green Building Policies
Case Study
Vancouver is evidently progressive in the development and execution of their green
building policies. Driven by end results, the City has set ambitious targets for all 10 goal
areas in their Greenest City 2020 Action Plan.
70
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

GREEN BUILDING INITIATIVES
Achievements and highlights
Background:
The green building code implemented for all developments,
encompass policies for rezoning, large developments, higher
buildings, and district energy use.
Its “Greenest City 2020 Action Plan” won
the World Green Building Council (WGBC)
Government Leadership Award for Best
Green Building Policy (2013).
TARGETS:
• All buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be
CARBON NEUTRAL in operations.
• Energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing
buildings to be reduced by 20% over 2007 levels.
POLICIES:
• Projects applying for rezoning (about 50% of new
development area) to be certified LEED gold and show a
20% to 50% improvement on the local energy code, and
• Large developments explore and use renewable or
district energy systems when viable .
• Vancouver’s General Policy for Higher Buildings requires
the city’s tallest buildings to achieve a 45% reduction
in energy use compared to 2010, to encourage green
building design beyond prevailing policy.
• The Province of BC levies a carbon tax of $30/MT of CO 2
on about 70% of BC GHG emission sources. Launched
in 2008, it is revenue neutral - having been balanced by
reductions in personal income and corporation tax rates.
31%
Current
renewable energy
use
The Vancouver building by-law is
recognized by the WGBC as a world leading
green building policy.
150+ 50%
LEED Certified
Projects
Increase in green
building design &
construction
(2010 to 2013)
Vancouver’s Rezoning Policy exceeds the Vancouver Building
By-Law by 22%, meaning that new buildings have to be that
much more efficient if they are built on rezoned land.
The greenest city action plan is projected to reduce 33% of
emissions by 2020 with green buildings & district energy
initiatives meeting 42% of that goal.
290,000
Tons of emissions saved p.a.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 71

Conclusion
Green buildings presents itself globally
as an opportunity for generating
sustainable growth.
When considering just some of the
benefits of building green, it is easy
to see why this is a strategic initiative
worth pursuing for many cities and
countries, which are trying to mitigate
their negative footprint on the
environment, reduce the operational
costs of these cities, and sometimes
add additional sources of revenue (e.g.
eco-tourism, competitiveness, green
job creation, etc.).
This white paper compared the
performance of ten Global Cities –
Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, London,
New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore,
Sydney, and Tokyo – with regards to
Green Buildings. Each of the cities
were analyzed to assess each city’s
green building policies and targets,
adoption of green building certification
and construction projects, and the
efficient performance of the city’s built
environment.
The purpose of the paper was to
benchmark and publish the green
building performance of these
Global Cities, in order to contribute
to knowledge-sharing, reveal bestpractices,
and better understand what
is best working for cities on the global
green building stage.
This white paper has found Paris to
be top ranking (1st) in its pursuit of
developing a leading Green Building
city. Paris is indeed excelling on Green
Building efficiency and performance;
this can be clearly observed from
having the lowest CO 2
emissions and
energy consumption from buildings.
Despite having normalized most of
the metrics in this report by GDP and
population, the fact that the city’s
land area and population being the
smallest and the GDP being the 4th
largest among the 10 cities gives Paris
an advantage. Small cities emit less
CO 2
and consume relatively less energy
than other big cities, and tend to be
more efficient.
Paris also was the second city to
perform well on the Green Culture
and Environment dimension
following Sydney. The city showed
positive performance on city-wide
CO 2
emissions (2nd), city-wide CO 2
emissions per capita (2nd), and
city-wide CO 2
emissions per GDP
(1st). In fact, Paris clearly puts (1)
GHG emissions reduction, (2) Energy
consumption reduction, and (3)
Renewable energy consumption at the
center of its climate action plan.
Unlike many cities in our ranking, Paris
seems to focus all of its efforts on
achieving the set goals by encouraging
green urban planning, implementing
strict regulations on buildings,
and providing safe energy supply.
Interestingly, Parisian developers seem
to have a strong preference for the
international BREEAM certification
over the city’s local HQE green building
standard for this very reason: HQE
seemed to be more stringent, and
more challenging to achieve.
Instead of setting a target of greening
a percent of its built stock in the future
(i.e. focusing on the numbers), Paris
has focused its effort on the endresult
– setting quantifiable targets
for energy efficiency and building
performance. Many cities in our ranking
still focus on activity-based goals (ie.
number of green building certifications
issued), rather than setting city-wide
performance-based goals (% reduction
of energy consumption by buildings).
Singapore followed Paris, and ranked
second overall. The city excels in its
green building landscape, and green
building policies and targets. In fact,
both local and international certification
standards in Singapore are yielding
high-performance in green building,
and proving to be efficient. Singapore
has rapidly joined the green building
movement to reach the largest number
of certified green buildings – using both
global (LEED and BREEAM) and local
(Green Mark) certification systems,
with over 2300 green buildings on its
cityscape to date.
Beyond the outstanding number of
certified green buildings on Singapore’s
skyline, the overall efficiency and
performance of the built stock in
Singapore is also performing strongly,
indicating the city’s commitment to
sustainable performance. Singapore,
as a government, is clearly ecoconscious
and committed to pushing
and monitoring the green building
agenda; this is illustrated by the strict
72
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

action plan being implemented which
aims to green 80% of Singapore’s total
built stock by 2030. The city is already
encouraging all stakeholders to get
involved in greening the city, monitoring
energy consumption, and seeking
solutions for enhancing the well-being
of people, and the quality of the built
stock.
It is initially surprising that New York
does not fare as well as expected on
the Green Building metrics. Although
the city possesses the 2nd highest
GDP, it is far more densely populated
in comparison to the other cities
with similar land area. Firstly, when
evaluated for its built stock, NYC
showed that it still has a long way to
go for greening its buildings (only 5%
of the city built stock is green). NYC’s
buildings also consume very large
amounts of energy (80%) as well as
emit a large volume of CO 2
(74%),
which explain the poor performance
on the Green Building Efficiency and
Performance dimension.
However, NYC does manage to be in
top 3 on Green City metrics. This is
because the city performs exceptionally
well on the renewable energy
metric, and invests a lot of efforts on
encouraging energy re-use. Moreover,
although the city has one of the highest
city-wide CO 2
emissions figure (which
can be attributed in part to its large
population), this figure shows better
results when normalized per capita and
per GDP pushing NYC to top 5 on these
metrics. It seems that NYC is indeed
investing a lot of effort on greening
the entire environment, but the city
may require more focused attention to
green buildings, as they still contribute
the most to CO 2
emissions and energy
consumption. NYC has announced
many sustainable city initiatives in
recent years, which will take time to be
implemented and to show performance
gains in a report such as this; that said,
it will be very interesting to see how
NYC fairs in future rankings.
In contrast to NYC, Sydney would have
topped the list of Global Cities for
green buildings if only it performed
better on its built landscape. Sydney
ranked first on green building culture
and environment and managed to rank
second on green building efficiency
and performance, but does not have a
strong number of green buildings on its
skyline. Despite this, Sydney emits the
least CO 2
, recycles the most waste (as
a percentage of total waste-to-landfill),
and consumes more renewable energy
than the vast majority of the other
cities (with the exception of New York).
Thus, Sydney was close to being in
the top 3 if it did better on its green
building landscape, but having only 6%
of its total built stock “certified green”,
totaling only 67 green buildings, Sydney
slid in the rankings.
Cities are making a lot of efforts in
order to turn their built stock green,
and many best practices are being put
in place for other cities to learn from.
For instance, Abu Dhabi has built the
world’s most sustainable low-carbon
city – Masdar City – which currently
has one of the world’s largest efficient
built-stocks, and is comprised of only
certified buildings; Masdar is still in its
infancy, but provides a glimpse into
how future cities could be designed.
Beijing has set interesting plans to
construct ecological demonstration
zones, within which all buildings must
meet a specific certification standard.
Dubai has launched the “Technical
Guidelines for Retrofitting Existing
Buildings” handbook in both English
and Arabic, to educate owners,
operators, and end-users on ways to
reduce energy and water use, enhance
the longevity of the building stock, and
improve habitant’s well-being.
Though energy efficiency and CO 2
emissions are being measured by
most Global Cities today, it was
disparaging to find that water
consumption figures were difficult to
gather. Water is arguably the most
precious resource on earth, and to not
have city-wide consumption figures
in 2014 is unacceptable. We look
forward to future Green Building City
Rankings which include water efficiency
performance measures.
Overall, the green building movement
in the past 10 years has witnessed
exceptional growth, and we have seen
“new cities” such as Dubai, Singapore
and Shanghai make significant gains.
We have also seen older cities like NYC
struggle with its old infrastructure and
growing population. But Paris proves
to us that old cities do not have to
be trapped and weighed down by
aging infrastructure; a strategic and
methodical approach to retrofitting can
dramatically improve efficiency.
All in all, the intensifying efforts and
action plans aimed at greening the
built stock in a city is important, not
only to reduce the impact on the
environment during construction, but
also for the buildings to operate in a
green and more efficient matter. Green
buildings are the pillars to building
more sustainable cities around the
world; and building more sustainable
cities around the world is integral to
achieving sustainable development
and preserving our world’s resourcing
for present and future generations.
The Global Cities in our ranking shows
us that the green building movement
is alive and well, and that there are a
myriad of approaches to building and
greening a city’s built environment.
There is no “right approach” and every
city must adjust its strategy based on
where in its sustainability journey each
city finds itself. The key is to focus on
driving gains in performance metrics,
versus focusing and measuring green
building activity alone. In the green
building race, the end-result and bigpicture
of living in sustainable, efficient
and low-consumption cities is more
important than how many buildings can
be labeled as “green”.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 73

“In relation to the rise in green consumerism
globally and Singapore’s vision of becoming a
cleaner, greener, smarter and more sustainable city,
we see unlimited possibilities for greater innovation.
By championing various tenant engagement
initiatives, we are glad to have helped our tenants
use less energy and reduce their carbon footprint
through changes in behaviour and daily operations.”
– Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer at City Developments Limited
74
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

ANNEX I.
NUMBER AND RANKING OF LEED CERTIFIED PROJECTS BY CITY
When looking at the absolute or total number of internationally accredited green buildings (ie. LEED), the highest number
of LEED certified building projects is in Chinese cities (Shanghai and Beijing), followed by Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore
(Figure 27). While Tokyo does not rank in the Top 5 LEED certified building cities, it is worth noting that the Japanese capital
is an absolute leader in highly-certified LEED building projects, as 82% of its projects are Gold and Platinum (Figure 28).
Figure 27. Total Number of LEED Certified Green Buildings
by Project Type
Figure 28. Percentage of LEED Highly Certified Green Buildings
Total Number of LEED Certified Green Buildings by Project Type
% of LEED Highly Certified Green Buildings
LEED Platinum Projects
LEED Silver Projects
LEED Gold Projects
LEED Certified Projects
% of LEED Highly certified Green Buildings
1
Shanghai
223
1
Tokyo
82%
2
Beijing
116
2
Hong Kong
80%
3
Dubai
104
3
Shanghai
76%
4
Hong Kong
65
4
Singapore
71%
5
Singapore
38
5
Beijing
70%
6
London
33
6
Dubai
62%
7
Tokyo
22
7
Paris
58%
8
New York
21
8
New York
57%
9
Paris
12
9
London
30%
10
Sydney
5 10 Sydney 20%
Figure 13. Total Number of LEED Certified Green Buildings
by Project Type
Source: Solidiance Research & Analysis based on Figure 13
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 75

ANNEX II.
CITY-WIDE ANNUAL WATER CONSUMPTION
Figure 29. Annual Water Consumption by City (in billion litres, 2012)
3,355
1,453
n/a
492 493 503 540
178
296 310
Paris Tokyo Singapore Dubai London Beijing Sydney Hong Kong New York Shanghai
Source: China Statistical Yearbook by National Bureau of Statistics of China, Quantity of Water Consumed and Number
of Consumers by Type of Consumption Report by Dubai Statistical Center, Water Resources in Hong Kong by Legislative
Council Secretariat, State of the Environment report for London by Greater London Authority, History of Drought and
Water Consumption by NYC Environmental Protection, Sydney Water Annual Report, Tokyo Statistical Yearbook by Tokyo
Metropolitan Government HP
76
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

ANNEX III.
CAVEATS
Metric
Comment
Top Ten Global Cities
The Global Cities were adopted from The Globalization and World Cities
Research Network (GaWC) approach. As per GaWC, Global Cities are heavily
ranked based on economic factors, followed by political and cultural factors.
Total Number of Buildings
Total Number of Green
Buildings
Total Number of
Credentialed Professionals
Energy Consumption from
Buildings
Water consumption from
buildings
Green Building Code
Green Building Targets
% of Waste Recycled by the
City
% of Renewable Energy
Consumed by the City
City-wide Wastewater
Recycling by the City
Greenery per capita
Total number of buildings account only for high-rise buildings (A multi-story
structure between 35-100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from
12-39 floors) and skyscrapers (A multi-story building at least 100 meters tall)
A sum of LEED, BREEAM and locally certified green building projects
A sum of LEED, BREEAM and local green building certification systems’
credentialed professionals
Note: Green buildings in China (Beijing and Shanghai) are certified by
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Department.
Figures for Paris, Shanghai and Beijing were estimated based on the % of
energy consumed from the building sector country-wide.
Due to lack of available data, the given metric is not included in the ranking
A set of green building standards and requirements
Only specific green building target out of the built stock (a percentage
target) has been taken into consideration
Figures for Shanghai and Beijing were estimated based on the available data
on China’s waste recycling and renewable energy consumption.
Figures for Paris, Shanghai and Beijing were estimated based on the % of
energy consumed from the building sector country-wide.
Due to the available data being of country level. the given metric is not
included in the ranking
Due to lack of available data, the given metric is not included in the ranking
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 77

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Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

AUTHORS
DAMIEN DUHAMEL
CEO and Managing Partner Asia
Damien is the CEO and Managing Partner of Asia at Solidiance. Damien brings with him more than 17
years of consulting-related experience in the Asia Pacific region and has worked with leading Fortune 500
multinationals and government-related projects on market growth strategies in Asia. Recognized as an
innovation and competitive strategy expert, he frequently holds presentations and is often interviewed on
the topic. Damien holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
ERIKA MASAKO WELCH
BD Director, Middle East & Head of Sustainability Practice, Asia
Erika manages Solidiance’s relationships in the Middle East from our Abu Dhabi office in the United Arab
Emirates. She brings over 8 years of strategy consulting experience, specifically in sustainability management
and long-term organizational growth strategies. She has worked with leading corporations and government
institutions on the development and implementation of company-wide sustainability strategies. Erika holds
a BSc from McGill University, Canada and a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from the
University of Cambridge, UK.
Sarah Khalil
Consultant
Sarah is a consultant based out of Solidiance’s Beirut office, in Lebanon. Sarah specializes in examining
markets for radical innovation and growth opportunities, with a specific focus on the Middle East. Sarah
obtained her MSc in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Warwick (UK).
Yiing Chyi Lim
Consultant
Yiing is a consultant based in our Singapore office. Yiing excels in researching and analysing growth in the
Asia Pacific region. Her work experience spans over industries such as construction, healthcare, power &
utilities, manufacturing, fleet management, airports, and shipping. Yiing graduated from Oxford Brookes
University with a First Class Honours in Bachelors of Science.
Inkar Yerzhanova
Analyst
Inkar is an Analyst in Solidiance’s office in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. She has excelled in researching and
quantifying client performance across various sectors in Asia from green buildings, construction, to market
regulations. Inkar earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Economics from KIMEP University.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 81

Standard Chartered Office, Hong Kong
82
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings

ABOUT
US
What We Do
Soldiance is a corporate strategy consulting firm with focus
on Asia, from Turkey in the West to Japan in the Far East. We
advise CEOs on make-or-break deals, define new business
models and accelerate Asia growth. Through our 12 offices
across the Middle East and Asia Pacific, we provide our
clients with a better understanding of intrinsic regional
issues. To learn more about how Solidiance has helped
many Fortune 500, Middle Eastern & Asian Conglomerates
to succeed in Asia, please visit:
http://www.solidiance.com/clients.
What We Are Focusing On
Our industry experience is centered on industrial
development, construction materials, green buildings,
and urbanization. Our Asia-wide market entry and growth
strategy services provide the required insights and the
necessary roadmap to capture a profitable market share
in the region.
Our Footprint
Solidiance has offices in China, Germany, India, Indonesia,
Lebanon, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
We are fast expanding and always on the lookout for
exceptional people.
Top 10 Global Cities for Green Buildings 83

OUR
OFFICES
solidiance
http://www.solidiance.com
info@solidiance.com
China
Suite 2101, Hong Kong Plaza, No
283 Middle Huaihai Road,
Shanghai 200021
Indonesia
BRI Agro Building
6th FLoor - Unit 612
Jl. Mampang Prapatan Raya
No. 139A, Jakarta 12950
Lebanon
Suite 517, 5th Floor, Markaziah
Building – Beirut Central District
Myanmar
4th Floor, Shwe Gon Plaza Kabar
Aye Pagoda Road
Bahan Township, Yangon
Myanmar - 11201
Singapore
Suite 07-05
High Street Centre,
1 North Bridge Road
Singapore 179094
UAE
Suite 402D - Dark Green Building,
TwoFour54
Sheikh Zayed Road
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
PO Box 769338
Germany
Gardeschützenweg 139
12203 Berlin
India
Suite M-38/1 3/Floor,
IBC Tower. Middle Circle,
Connaught Place,
New Delhi – 110001
Malaysia
23A-02, 8 Lorong Binjai
Kuala Lumpur 50450
Philippines
Unit 2105, Tycoon Centre Pearl
Drive, Ortigas Centre Pasig
City, Metro Manila
Thailand
Interchange Tower 21
#2109 - 21F
399 Sukhumvit Road
North Klongtoey, Wattana
Bangkok 10110
Vietnam
Suite 704,
Satra Dong Khoi Building
58 Dong Khoi street
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City