Singapore Highlights Collective Efforts For Sustainable Development
Opening Address by Ms. Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, at the Opening of Green Building Exhibition 2009 on Thursday, 10 December 2009 at City Square Mall.
Mr Liang Eng Hwa,
Mr Quek See Tiat
Chairman
BCA
Dr John Keung
CEO
BCA
Mr Chia Ngiang Hong
Group General Manager
City Developments Limited
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
I am pleased to be here at the opening of BCA’s Green Building Exhibition. The theme of this exhibition – “Let’s Build a Green Future”, spells the way forward for Singapore’s built environment as well as our way of life.
Significance of Green Buildings to Sustainable Development
In recent years, sustainable development has gained huge momentum all over the world. You may have read and heard about on-going discussions on climate change in Copenhagen and how wide reaching the implications are. Governments around the world are responding and committing to reduce carbon emissions. Singapore is no exception. As a responsible global citizen, we have offered a carbon emissions reduction of 16% from the Business as Usual (BAU) emissions level by 2020.
Achieving this target will not be easy and would require the joint effort of businesses, households and individuals. Every sector, including the building sector, will have to contribute towards reaching our national target. Today, our buildings and households account for about half of our nation’s total electricity consumption and we can contribute by making our buildings more energy efficient. Each of us can take steps to reduce our energy and water consumption and adopt environmentally-friendly behaviour like recycling.
This Green Building exhibition marks the start of a 2-year programme to ‘Educate’, ‘Explore’ and ‘Excite’ Singaporeans to “green” our built environment. I will now share with you some of the exciting programmes lined up and also our plans to nurture a strong and capable team of green professionals.
Green Building Exhibition
The Green Building exhibition showcases our efforts in greening our buildings and the contribution of our green building professionals. Through the interactive exhibits and games, we hope to excite Singaporeans about ‘green living’. A model “green” home has been set up to help us better understand the benefits and cost savings of living in a green home. This exhibition will be roving the shopping malls and the heartlands over the next 2 years to bring the ‘green’ message to as many as possible.
Engaging the Youth
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has also organised many activities to involve our youths in this green movement. A painting competition based on the theme of “My Green City, My Green Home” was organised for secondary school students. These paintings encapsulate the hopes of our next generation and provide us with a glimpse of what the future of Singapore could be. I would like to congratulate the winners whose masterpieces are on display today, and I am sure that many will be inspired by their vision.
BCA has also teamed up with City Developments Limited (CDL) to launch a green building design competition for tertiary students. The competition will require teams to use green technology to retrofit an existing building to achieve the highest Platinum Green Mark rating. This design challenge is representative of the real challenges we are facing today: to retrofit and enhance the energy efficiency of our existing building stock to meet our sustainable development goals. I would like to encourage our aspiring builders, engineers and architects to take on this challenge and help us find solutions.
Green Professionals
The exhibition also showcases the innovation of the professionals in the design and development of our green buildings. Their work signifies the importance of a new growth area and the demands of the green professionals.
The greening of our built environment requires concerted efforts among all stakeholders. We need professionals and technicians with green skills to design and build eco-friendly buildings equipped with the technology to conserve our energy and water resources. BCA has estimated that we would need to train and upgrade about 18,000 to 20,000 green collar professionals over the next 10 years to meet our own needs. There will also be strong demand regionally for green buildings and green professionals, as Singapore is well positioned to be a regional hub for green buildings.
Therefore, we will need more young talents to join the industry and support our future efforts on greening the built environment. BCA has been working in partnership with the industry to promote careers in the built environment to students in the secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and universities. In addition, the BCA academy, in collaboration with established overseas universities, provides specialised training and post-graduate courses in environmental sustainability and green building design. These courses are ways for our professionals to upgrade themselves to be at the forefront of green building technology.
To the young students who are here with us today, you will play an important part in shaping the future of Singapore. I believe that a career in the built environment will provide immense satisfaction, as you will play an important role in protecting our environment. It will also open doors to a wide and exciting range of career opportunities both locally and globally.
Private sector involvement
I am also glad to see that the private sector is supporting the green building movement. We are here today at City Square Mall, Singapore’s first eco-friendly mall which obtained the BCA Green Mark Platinum rating, the highest achievement in green buildings.
The recent formation of the Singapore Green Building Council (SBGC), led by the private sector, will help boost the development of ‘green’ buildings in Singapore. The Council members are industry leaders who are passionate about “greening buildings. With their leadership, I am confident we can become one of the top centres for “green” buildings and technology in the tropics.
World Cities Summit
There will be many more upcoming events to encourage businesses, professionals and individuals to play their part in sustainable development and reduce our carbon footprint. Next year, Singapore will be hosting the second World Cities Summit from 28 to 30 June. The theme for the World Cities Summit 2010 is “Liveable and Sustainable Cities for the Future”. The summit will discuss the challenges and solutions to leadership and governance, building eco-friendly cities and fostering harmonious and sustainable Communities. In addition, there will be a variety of community events and competitions to engage students and the public. I would like to invite all of you to join the World Cities Summit next year.
Conclusion
The greening of Singapore’s built environment will be exciting and challenging. Our building owners and tenants need to work together. The industry needs to design and build for future environmental sustainability. Together, we can put Singapore on the world map as one of the tropics’ leading “green” cities. But more importantly, it will help us protect and enhance the quality of our living environment for us, and our children.
The Green Buildings Exhibition shows what we have accomplished in the last 5 years, but it also shows us how much more we can achieve in our journey towards environment sustainability.
I hope it will be interesting and inspiring to all of you. I now announce the opening of the Green Buildings Exhibition. Thank you.
Topics: BCA, business, carbon emissions, clean energy, Economy, education, energy, environment, Governance, government, green, Green Building Exhibition, green buildings, households, individuals, private sector development, renewable energy, Singapore, students, sustainable development, technology, tropics, water consumption, youth
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