The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands Retains the Prestigious LEED® Gold Certification
As featured on the Sands Confidential blog
Marina Bay Sands has made another breakthrough with its sustainability efforts with the ArtScience Museum securing the prestigious LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification under the Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance rating system. This makes it the the first museum in Asia Pacific to obtain the globally recognized sustainability achievement. The iconic museum excelled in some of the highest environmental performance standards in the areas of water, energy and waste management, as well as sustainable purchasing, set forth by the LEED rating system.
Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the rating system is an industry- leading program that recognizes excellence in design, construction and operation of green buildings. The certification process involves third-party technical reviews and verification of registered projects based on the highest and most stringent standards of quality and integrity in sustainability, across a wide range of areas such as indoor environment quality and the use of environment-friendly products.
“This award reflects the success of our environmentally-sound practices in design and construction, as well as operations,” said Kevin Teng, Executive Director of Sustainability at Marina Bay Sands. “The fact that the ArtScience Museum is the first museum in the region to get this award speaks volumes to our commitment in reducing environmental impact.”
World-renowned architect Moshe Safdie created the innovative lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum, intersecting art with sustainability into the building’s overall design. Key sustainable features of the museum include natural daylight illuminating the interiors of the museum, as well as the seamless integration of a rainwater harvesting system into the building.
Other sustainability highlights at ArtScience Museum:
- Energy saving initiatives such as the use of LED lights and a programmable lighting system, which enables the museum to be 47 percent more energy efficient than similar rated
- Water efficiency achieved through the museum’s Rain Oculus feature, where nearly 1,400,000 liters of rainwater is recycled each year. The water is reused for landscaping, water feature maintenance and toilet
- More than 50 percent of the museum’s office and cleaning supplies are certified sustainable
- A rigorous waste management strategy, which resulted in over 50 percent of all operational waste – such as paper, cardboard and plastics – is recycled
- Activities and events are hosted to educate and engage the museum’s staff in sustainable practices such as measuring and recycling waste
As a museum that explores the intersection of art, science, technology and culture, ArtScience Museum is also home to Into the Wild: An Immersive Virtual Adventure. This virtual reality experience welcomes visitors into a lush digital world of Southeast Asian rainforests, where pangolins, tapirs, tigers inhabit, encouraging visitors to take action to help preserve natural wildlife and plants through planting of a virtual tree.
Since it began operations in 2010, Marina Bay Sands, through Las Vegas Sands’ sustainability program, Sands ECO360, has remained committed to reducing the company’s environmental impact at all of its properties and has helped the Singapore property attain multiple accolades, including the prestigious 2015 UFI Sustainable Development Award by the Union of International Fairs (UFI) and the Green Mark Platinum Award by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority. Marina Bay Sands also houses the first MICE facility, Sands Expo & Convention Centre in South East Asia to obtain the ISO 20121 Sustainable Events Management System certification in 2014.
Las Vegas Sands’ Las Vegas properties that are LEED® include The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, the first Integrated Resort with this certification on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as Sands Expo & Convention Center.
