Malaysia's largest property developer, Sime Darby Property's (SDP) unique Idea House was awarded the much-coveted Platinum Green Mark recognition at Singapore's Building and Construction Authority (BCA) 2011 Awards, Thursday night.

This is the first time that BCA, which is under the Singapore government, is awarding a Platinum recognition in the residential category and what more, to a Malaysian developer.

Managing director of Sime Darby Property, Datuk Tunku Putra Badlishah Ibni Tunku Annuar, received the award on behalf of the company.

Commenting on the award, he said the achievement was even more meaningful for Sime Darby Property as BCA had raised the bar further for the Green Mark Awards this year, and with the award being the first ever Platinum Green Mark awarded to a project or developer in the residential category in Malaysia or Singapore.

"It reaffirms our commitment to building sustainable communities," he added.

The Green Mark Awards was launched by the BCA to promote environmental awareness in the construction and real estate sector.

Meanwhile, Thursday's event saw more than 2,000 professionals and practitioners from the construction industry celebrating their achievements and contributions to the building industry at the biggest gathering ever at the Resort World Sentosa.

Guest of honour, Minister for National Development, Mah Bow Tan, also launched the inaugural Construction Productivity Award at the event.

To complement the national drive for productivity, BCA introduced the new Construction Productivity Award (CPA) to recognise outstanding firms and industry practitioners for going the extra mile to achieve productivity improvements at the firm and project levels.

It is aimed at encouraging employers and employees alike to take ownership and strive for improvements in productivity.

A total of 31 awards for construction productivity were given out at the ceremony.

Kevin Wong, chairman of the CPA Assessment Committee said: "The construction productivity award received strong support from the industry with 85 nominations in its inauguration launch.

"Considering that the productivity movement just started about a year ago, this is an encouraging sign that the industry is making some headway in productivity improvements," he said at the award presentation ceremony.

Under the Projects category, five were conferred the platinum awards and seven were conferred the gold. The award recognises projects that have adopted labour-efficient designs and construction methods.

A leading developer in Singapore, City Developments Ltd (CDL), bagged more than half the productivity awards under the Projects category, with their Platinum award winning projects including ARTE@Thomson, Parc Emily, St Regis Hotel and Residences and TheSail@Marina Bay. - Bernama