Towards a Sustainable Tomorrow

by Lim Li Qin

Singapore launches the Sustainable Singapore blueprint, an important and evolving document of strategies for sustainable development.

Singapore is pressing on with its sustainable development efforts despite the current economic downturn.

The comprehensive plan, which aims to enhance Singapore’s status as a lively and liveable city well-loved by its citizens, will focus primarily on resource efficiency.  Among other proposals, at least 80 percent of all buildings in Singapore will be energy-efficient by 2030.

Unveiled last month by the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development (IMCSD), the new blueprint also details other key goals and initiatives for sustainable development in the next two decades.  Some $1 billion will be set aside in the first five years, despite the recession, to turn this into reality.

“The temptation is to slow down our efforts in the area of sustainable development while we tackle the immediate economic challenges.  However, the two are not mutually exclusive,” said National Development Minister and co-chair of the committee Mah Bow Tan at the launch of the blueprint. 

“Even as we tackle the short-term challenges, we must build capability for our long-term development,” he said. “Sustainable development must remain a national priority, in good times and bad.” 

“What we enjoy today is what was put in place many years ago.  So if you want to face the challenges of the future, you really have to start now, you really have to start today, and it’s going to take us a long time,” Mr Mah added.

New Initiatives

Solar-Powered Public Housing

For a start, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will install solar panels on the rooftops of 28 existing HDB precincts and two new ones.  Each block within a precinct will have about 70 solar panels.

Costing some $31 million in total, this pilot project will be the largest solar test-bedding scheme in Singapore.  It is part of a bigger plan by the HDB to reduce energy consumption in the common areas of housing estates by a third by 2030.  So going by current electricity tariffs, it could take about 25 to 30 years before actual savings from the solar panels could be realised. 

“Solar is still quite expensive,” Dr Wong Liang Heng, HDB deputy director for sustainability and building research said.  “But we still want to test it out to learn more about this technology and also to build up the capability in Singapore.”

Green Buildings

Meanwhile, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has also introduced a $100 million Green Mark Incentive Scheme to encourage building owners to enhance their building’s energy performance. Building owners can now draw on this scheme to retrofit their buildings with green features.

As for private buildings, BCA and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will offer developers incentives in the form of bonus Gross Floor Area if their developments attain higher Green Mark ratings.

URA will even grant additional floor area over and above the Master Plan Gross Plot Ratio control for developments attaining Green Mark Platinum or GoldPlus.  These higher ratings will also be incorporated as land sales requirements for new developments in selected strategic growth areas like Marina Bay and Downtown Core, Jurong Gateway, Kallang Riverside and Paya Lebar Central. 

In addition, all existing public sector buildings will need to attain at least the Green Mark GoldPlus standard by 2020.  This is to illustrate the Government’s commitment to sustainable development.

By attaining these ratings, energy consumption is estimated to reduce by 25 percent.

Clean Transport

The Sustainable Singapore blueprint also calls for greater use of clean transport and technology to reduce the carbon footprints.  Clean transport technology trials will be conducted. The trials will cover diesel hybrid buses, electric vehicles, as well as diesel particulate filters.

Beyond that, park connectors will also be lengthened from 100km to 360km, and $43 million will be invested into implementing cycling networks in selected HDB towns over the next five years.

 

Nationwide Effort

From utilising technology to create eco-friendly public housing and providing incentives to encourage developers to build greener buildings, to persuading people to appreciate the value of conservation, the Sustainable Singapore blueprint clearly highlights the importance of joint efforts among the people, private and public sectors.

In fact, the blueprint was the result of extensive public consultation.  Over the span of a year, the IMCSD met with members of the public and leaders of non-governmental organisations, businesses, grassroots organisations, academia, media, as well as local mayors.  More than 700 people contributed their views through various focus group discussions, and members of the public submitted over 1,300 suggestions.

“We have set concrete targets in the blueprint for 2020 and 2030 to guide our work.  These targets are what we have worked out from the bottom up with various stakeholders, and we are confident that we can achieve this,” said the co-chair of the IMCSD, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.  “Achieving our goals will require a whole-of-nation effort.”

It would be easy to legislate and impose fines and taxes to force people to be more eco-friendly, but the Government would not go down this route.  Instead, the Government would educate the public and make them see the value of conservation, he added.

And it does not stop there.  As new challenges and opportunities emerge, the blueprint will also evolve in tandem. 

“We will take a five-year period to review as we go along because things may improve, technology may offer new solutions and then we will revise it accordingly," Dr Yaacob said.

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