Eight winning solutions to be trialled at Jurong Lake District to create greener infrastructure

SINGAPORE - Imagine stepping into a building with just the right air-conditioning temperature when it is raining and chilly outside. That could soon be possible with a smart building management system created by Singapore start-up Zuno Carbon.

With real-time and historical data like the power consumption of a building, time of the day and the amount of human traffic, the predictive model can forecast a building’s temperature and humidity requirements about four hours in advance.

It then generates recommendations for optimal settings of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to balance energy efficiency and the building occupants’ comfort.

Explaining a scenario where the temperature in a building may rise because of crowds, and the HVAC systems may need to be adjusted to maintain optimal thermal comfort, co-founder of Zuno Carbon Jason Wong said the solution helps to make the transition more seamless.

Thermal comfort refers to when a person does not feel too hot or cold indoors, and is determined by humidity, temperature and air movements.

“Reacting to the sudden increase in temperature due to high traffic and manually adjusting it will put a strain on the HVAC system and the power consumption,” said Mr Wong.

“So our solution predicts the thermal comfort required and make necessary adjustments automatically. The pre-emptive moderate adjustments reduce the spike in power consumption, resulting in energy (savings) and up to 10 per cent cost savings,” he added, noting that this is also more sustainable for the environment.

The solution will be piloted on a small scale at Jurong East shopping mall Jem, and could be scaled up to the rest of the development and subsequently modified to suit other Lendlease buildings if it is assessed to be effective.

This is one of eight innovative projects that won the first Jurong Lake District (JLD) Innovation Challenge held from Feb 24 to May 5. The projects were unveiled at an awards ceremony held at the URA Centre on Tuesday.

Organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the competition saw participating teams proposing novel urban solutions for challenge statements issued by the stakeholders in JLD.

They include CapitaLand, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital, Lendlease Global Commercial Reit, Science Centre Singapore, SMRT and the Land Transport Authority.

The challenge statements covered various topics such as reducing carbon emissions, energy usage, waste and resources as well as achieving a car-lite environment.

In his speech at the awards ceremony, the Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration, Mr Desmond Lee, said

JLD will be Singapore’s largest business district

outside the Central Business District.

This presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to sculpt the future of urban development in Singapore as it pursues a greener and more sustainable and inclusive city, said Mr Lee.

Giving examples, he said the Government wants all new developments in the JLD to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, five years earlier than the national target. Every building that comes up will also fully replace any greenery that is lost due to development, with features like vertical greenery, sky terraces and landscaping.

“Turning this vision into reality is an ambitious undertaking. It is not something that government planners can achieve on our own. For JLD to lead the way in urban sustainability, we will need innovative solutions to produce greener and cleaner infrastructure.

“We must therefore harness the ingenuity and enterprise of different segments of society: academics, businesspeople, researchers, students, NGOs, start-ups, everyone,” he added, noting that this was the reason for the competition.

More than 100 submissions were received from start-ups, established companies and research institutes. The eight winners were selected by a panel comprising representatives from JLD stakeholders and government agencies “for their potential in reducing resource usage and waste, improving energy efficiency and commuting experiences, community engagement and inclusivity”, said URA and SNDGO in a joint statement.

Another winning solution is the joint submission by Internet-of-Things company iZeeM and waste-management firm Otto. Their proposed smart recycling centre consists of smart bins with embedded sensors and image-recognition technology that track volume, types of waste and recyclables being thrown in, as well as when and by whom.

iZeeM founder Sandee Yap said that AI cameras deployed will be able to detect if there is contamination in the smart recycling bins.

The data collected from the smart recycling centre allows building owners to support and engage tenants with low recycling rates to improve their recycling behaviour.

“This is important for the building operators, as when the amount of waste drops and the amount of recyclables goes up, they can manage their cost of operations. That’s because the more waste you collect, the more you have to pay, as the incinerator plants charge by how much waste is burnt,” said Ms Yap.

The solution will be piloted at IMM and the Nordic European Centre in International Business Park.

Each winning team was awarded a cash prize of $50,000 to support the production of prototypes that will be piloted at JLD stakeholders’ premises by July 2024.

Agencies and stakeholders will review their effectiveness, with a view to potentially scaling up the solutions and deploying them in other areas of JLD and beyond to benefit more developments and the wider public.

Digital solutions such as navigation applications and a gamified application to encourage sustainability will be test-bedded with small communities within JLD to assess their effectiveness and receptiveness, before being enhanced to benefit more users.

The winning solutions will be exhibited at the URA Centre until Aug 12.

Other winning solutions