Swire Properties’ latest development, Two Taikoo Place, showcases our most recent low-carbon building development strategies. A whole-lifecycle carbon management approach was adopted by the project team to identify opportunities to reduce emissions spanning the demolition stage, design stage, construction stage and operations stage. In 2022, we completed a cradle-to-site carbon footprint calculation for Two Taikoo Place, showing that the upfront carbon emissions of Two Taikoo Place were 76,783 tonnes of CO2e and 643.2 kg of CO2e per square metre construction floor area32. Similar to One Taikoo Place, the major carbon emission hotspots came from embodied carbon from concrete, rebar and structural steel, broke down as follows:

Breakdown of Two Taikoo Place upfront embodied carbon emissions

Scope 1 - Direct Emissions (Fuels): <0.1% Rebar & Structural steel: 54% Concrete: 30% Transportation of major construction materials: 5% Glass and timber: 5% Others: <0.1% Scope 2 - Indirect Emissions (Electricity): 6% Scope 3 - Other Indirect Emissions: 94%
32The calculation methodology and data sources were reviewed by the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
The initiatives employed during the various stages of building lifecycle are detailed below:
A. Demolition Stage:
The process of demolishing the existing old building achieved a high material recycling rate of over 88%. This included broken concrete from the substructure of the existing old building, which was sent to other sites for alternative disposal and to be used as backfilling materials. The H-beam and rebar were also recycled.
B. Design Stage:
Two Taikoo Place has been designed and built to the highest sustainability standards, achieving Pre-certified Platinum ratings for LEED, WELL and BEAM Plus.
Building Information Modelling (“BIM”) was used to optimise structural design, excavation and lateral support works to reduce structural steel usage, rock excavation and concrete usage. Prefabricated rebar and modularised pipe ducts were also used, optimising material use by avoiding cut-off wastage on site.
On the procurement side, nearly one hundred percent of the concrete had CIC Green Product Certification (Platinum rating), while structural steel and rebar with high recycled content and manufactured by the electric arc furnace process was also used.
C. Construction Stage:
Low-carbon strategies were adopted throughout the construction stage, including the use of:
  • A battery storage system to replace two traditional diesel generators used to power the two tower cranes – this avoided onsite air pollution and achieved lower carbon emissions
  • An electric forklift
  • B5 biodiesel
  • Metal scaffolding for external work – this replaced traditional bamboo scaffolding, reducing the use of timber and reducing construction and demolition waste
  • Reused timber
  • Recycled metal including rebar scraps generated from rebar fixing for structural works, H-beam and pipe pile
Swire Properties continued to support the BEC Power Up Coalition, designed to facilitate the early connection of construction sites to mains electricity. Swire Properties was one of the first to sign the Power Up Pledge, which is a commitment to optimise electricity use and avoid the use of diesel generators and other high-emissions electricity sources.
D. Operations Stage:
Two Taikoo Place has a broad array of best-in-class innovative energy saving technologies and initiatives to reduce its operational carbon emissions. These include:
  • High performance chillers and plant optimisation
  • EC plug fan in all air-handling units
  • High-efficiency lift motors with power regeneration
  • Heat recovery from exhaust air
Two Taikoo Place also uses several on-site renewable energy systems:
  • B100 biodiesel waste-to-energy tri-generation system
  • Solar photovoltaic panels
  • A wind turbine – the first wind turbine installed in our global portfolio
These are expected to generate on-site renewable energy equivalent to approximately 6% of total landlord’s building energy.
Two Taikoo Place also uses a market-leading Neuron Digital Twin system that utilises artificial intelligence to analyse and “learn” from large, historical data sets to optimise the efficiency of its building systems. This knowledge is then deployed to establish trends, forecast energy usage, optimise the running of a multitude of building systems, and detect faults, which allows for predictive maintenance.
We will also install electricity sub-meters to facilitate electricity use monitoring and management by tenants.

Swire Properties
Sustainability Report 2023
is released.

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