Going green

Source : Business Times - 3 Nov 2008

What does Singapore need to do to become a model city of the future in terms of its use of energy? How can businesses contribute to this goal?

Cheong-Chua Koon Hean
CEO
Urban Redevelopment Authority

ENSURING energy conservation and efficiency in cities is an essential part of managing global energy use. Cities house half of the world’s population today and account for 75 per cent of global energy consumption, mostly in buildings and transport.

In Singapore, managing our city’s energy use requires a multi-pronged approach. A key strategy is good land use planning. By planning for compact, mixed-use and public transport-oriented developments and self-sufficient towns with essential facilities, we reduce the need to travel and reliance on cars. Energy-efficient infrastructure, such as the district cooling system which we have introduced in Marina Bay, and energy-efficient buildings also reduce cities’ energy use. Passive design strategies including micro-climatic planning such as leveraging on the cooling effects of winds and breezes, the provision of greenery and capitalising on sun-shading within the built environment, are further measures to reduce energy use for artificial ventilation and cooling.

Meeting the energy challenge that the world faces requires everyone to play a role. Businesses can play their part by making energy conservation an important part of their business plan and deciding how they choose to conduct their business.

Individuals also play a part as achieving energy efficiency falls back ultimately on the habits and choices we each make. ‘Green cities’ need ‘green constituents’.

Kwek Leng Joo
Managing Director
City Developments Limited

BEING a small dot on the world map, it is indeed a tall order for Singapore to be a ‘model’ city in terms of energy consumption in the short term. However, businesses and individuals should do their bit to contribute to this goal. CDL, as a developer providing spaces to live, work and play, is firmly committed to conserving the environment and to influencing our stakeholders to do the same. While energy usage is inevitable, the key is to ensure responsible and efficient use of it.

The government can play a key role by providing guidelines to encourage efficient use of energy in industries, offices and perhaps even in homes. Corporations, however, must lead the way by incorporating innovative green technology into the hardware and find solutions within their operations to reduce energy consumption. The solar panel industry can also be encouraged to engage in more R&D, given our tropical climate, to make solar panels more affordable.

As a green developer, we have taken a proactive approach in investing in green features and technology to mitigate the impact of our development on the environment for a few years now. We have been developing low-energy consumption buildings and our vision is to build ‘zero-energy’ buildings in the near future.

For instance, our upcoming development at 9 Tampines Grande will embrace the largest use of photovoltaic panels and hot-water solar panels in Singapore to-date. It will be used to generate renewable energy for basement carpark lighting and lobby air-conditioning. We estimate that we can benefit from energy-savings amounting to 2.7 million kWh per year. Singapore succeeded in closing the water consumption loop and we are confident of closing the energy consumption loop with the strong leadership of government leaders and private sector participation.

Beyond the hardware, users play a vital role in reducing energy consumption be it at home or at work. Numerous outreach programmes such as Project Eco-Office and Green Office Label have been introduced to inculcate good green habits among our office tenants. Last year, as a major landlord, we initiated the innovative pilot programme, 1°C Up, in 11 commercial buildings. We received astounding support from our tenants who make up thousands of office workers. These businesses and their staff have become accustomed to this higher temperature and we hope that they will also make similar changes at home.

Khoo Chin Hean
Chief Executive
Energy Market Authority

SECURITY of supply and competitive energy price will be the twin concerns facing all cities. Balancing these concerns becomes even more challenging as the cost of environmental sustainability is priced into energy. This may have the effect of either driving up costs or limiting the use of traditional fossil fuels or both. On the other hand, it will also open up opportunities for new technologies.

Using energy efficiently is imperative. This can start at the personal level. Each and every consumer can play a part by putting a stop to unnecessary consumption. While helping the environment, the individual consumer will at the same time incur a lower expenditure on energy. In addition, consumers can make a deliberate effort when buying appliances to choose those that are energy efficient. The same applies to businesses.

At the system level, the government has taken measures on a broad front to engineer our city for efficiency. These measures include providing guidelines and recognition through awards to promote energy efficient buildings, recycling and energy efficiency labelling. Even in transportation, the measures taken by the government to prevent congestion will lead to higher efficiencies in energy consumption.

These are fundamentally about attitudes and mindsets of our people and businesses.

Singapore will also have to continually review and ensure its policies and infrastructure are ready to embrace new sustainable technologies when these become cost competitive and commercially viable. Better still, if our businesses are adept in developing such technologies, we will reap commercial and environmental benefits.

Greg Russell
Senior Vice-President, Asia
Telstra International

EVERYONE agrees that environmental conservation is critical to our future and that more can be done to protect our planet. Not only does energy efficiency translate into reduced greenhouse gas emissions, it can also generate significant cost savings, especially in today’s economic climate.

As with all developed countries, commercial buildings are big power-guzzlers and account for a large chunk of power-production related emissions. For example, many customers approach us to look at the entire data centre from an environmental perspective as the high-density servers they host can create significant hotspots, which then leads to increased demands to power and cool the racks. Such increases in power and cooling demands only result in greater electricity consumption.

From a mid- to long-term perspective, businesses need to carve out a clear, phased strategy for the adoption of energy-saving systems - for example, using ISO approved Life Cycle Assessment Models to improve their carbon footprint and also improve productivity. We have helped various companies make the change, and while it is not necessarily easy, the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term investment of mapping out a clear strategy to go green.

Neil McGregor
Managing Director
PowerSeraya

WITH rising concerns over energy security and cost, as well as environmental protection, it is important to adopt an integrated energy strategy that incorporates more sustainable development solutions, especially in resource-constrained Singapore where energy options are, by and large, limited to fossil-based fuels.

Businesses, especially those from the energy-related sectors, can contribute towards this goal by adopting renewable processes to optimise resource use, intensifying efforts in expanding the energy efficiency and environmental benefits of their operations and taking ownership in educating the public on energy conservation.

For example, PowerSeraya has harnessed the use of technology to build the world’s first large-diameter Seawater Reverse Osmosis desalination plant to maximise its operational efficiency and become self-sufficient in water. By next year-end, our new clean burning co-generation plant will also significantly lower our carbon footprint by up to 40 per cent. Energy efficiency training courses for our customers have also been organised through our retail arm, Seraya Energy, so they are aware of the benefits of energy audits.

Francois Lancon
President Asia-Pacific
Nortel

SINGAPORE should require businesses to commit to reducing their corporate carbon footprint and to using more energy efficient products. This has the twin benefit of contributing to environmental sustainability while significantly reducing power consumption - which directly benefits a company’s bottom line.

At Nortel, our engineers globally have been following our ‘Design for Environment’ principles for over a decade to develop energy efficient products. Today, companies can save up to 40 per cent of their energy consumption for data networking equipment by making informed choices. Technology adoption can help businesses large and small play their part. Solutions such as Unified Communications and Telepresence can help companies work more efficiently and reduce travel needs and office space with all the costs and environmental impact they entail.

Derek Goh
Executive Chairman/Group CEO
Serial System Ltd

SINGAPORE as a tropical city state should be a model solar energy city. The tripartite partnership of government, business and community in harnessing solar energy should be forged.

HDB should install solar panels on roof-tops of HDB blocks to tap the solar energy in the day and convert it for use in the night.

JTC could install solar panels for JTC estates/properties to convert solar energy for commercial use within each district park.

Just as we have overcome the water supply issue with Newater, NEA should embark with A*Star on a national solar energy R&D project to commercially generate solar energy to reduce our high dependency on fuel energy.

At the same time, we should also embark on an energy recycle programme to harness energy from waste and other sources.

Lim Soon Hock
Managing Director
PLAN-B ICAG Pte Ltd

SINGAPORE can and will become a model city of the future on the use of energy when all the 3Ps - public, private and people sectors - collectively achieve a quantum leap in using energy right. An important prerequisite must be that this translates into tangible and quantifiable outcomes, that qualify as global benchmarks.

Using energy right not only means conserving energy, using it less and more efficiently, but also adopting innovative ways of recycling and harnessing other forms of energy, to create a sustainable eco-system for energy generation and consumption.

As a country, it is heartening to note that we have begun taking concrete steps, ahead of many others, in pursuit of this worthwhile objective, following the immense efforts put in by our government to promote energy conservation and management, through the various outreach programmes, such as the Efficient Energy Campaign and the BCA Green Mark, through working with key stakeholders, such as the Building and Construction Authority.

I applaud the government for the timely introduction of the 10 per cent Energy Challenge to encourage all companies, households and individuals to cut energy consumption by 10 per cent for now, and hopefully, more in the years to come. While this is a good start, I am confident that Singapore will strive to go beyond this, to explore and invest in more innovative and sustainable ways of generating and consuming energy. Tremendous opportunities exist for the greater exploitation of available resources, such as solar energy, besides oil and natural gas, as well as of technologies, that can tap our existing R&D infrastructure.

Our government can consider establishing Singapore as an Energy Research Centre, which can focus on achieving new breakthroughs in the efficient and more affordable use of solar energy, the only natural resource which we have in abundance. A breakthrough would fast-track the achievement of the goal and put Singapore on the world map on the use of energy, like what we have achieved with Newater.

Businesses can contribute to the goal of Singapore becoming a model city of the future for energy use, by being creative and daring to be so, as an imperative to save costs. Here I am reminded of an article that I read recently concerning Club Watt in Rotterdam; it became the first sustainable dance club which boasts a new type of dance floor that harvests the energy generated by partygoers’ jumps and gyrations and transforms it into electricity that contributes to powering the lighting in the club!

With no natural resources, other than the abundant supply of solar energy, Singapore really has no choice but to embark on this path to become the model future city for energy use. Our open economy and large scale industrialisation also mandate that this challenge be astutely managed for us to continue to remain competitive.

Singapore will have enough energy if all of us play our part to use it the right way: conserve and consume less, and if I may add, in a smart way as well: recycle.

Noboru Oi
Group CEO
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

A FRONT-PAGE story in The Business Times on Oct 24 stated that 70 per cent of Singapore’s electricity demand comes from businesses and industries. Separately, Senoko Power - which received this year’s President’s Award for the Environment - recently said that the power generation industry accounts for about a quarter of global carbon emissions.

Put two and two together, and the implication is obvious. Reducing industrial consumption of electricity is crucial for Singapore to become a model city in terms of optimising energy consumption and reducing greenhouse emissions.

On the governmental level, we ought to encourage more companies to develop or embrace energy-efficient methods of running their front-end, midstream or back-end business processes. At the same time, R&D-focused companies should devote more resources towards engineering and implementing ‘green’ solutions that reduce customers’ carbon footprints. Additionally, end-users must recognise that such applications offer long-term energy and cost savings that thoroughly justify the initial capital outlay.

Large corporations might also consider formulating a global environmental policy that defines long-term goals in energy consumption, greenhouse emissions or other areas. Globally, Fujitsu Limited - Fujitsu Asia’s parent company - has announced a series of initiatives designed to eliminate seven million tons of carbon emissions by 2010, and 30 million tons by 2020. We plan to achieve these targets via developing more “green” products and solutions, improving internal processes (such as materials procurement or manufacturing techniques) and other strategies.

It is also imperative to note that climate change is a global issue and hence a concerted worldwide effort is required to mitigate its effects. Thus, the international community - Singapore included - must eventually formulate and ratify a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Eric Hoh
Vice-President, Asia South Region and Head of Global Account, Asia-Pacific and Japan geography
Symantec

GOVERNMENTS, businesses and even individuals need to reduce their carbon footprint and use greener and cleaner technologies that are energy-efficient. Singaporeans should realise that while there may be increased short-term costs associated with selecting greener technologies, these are outweighed by the longer-term performance and environmental benefits.

To be a model city, businesses in Singapore have to discover the operational savings achieved by going green, such as containing utility costs, optimising data centre power requirements, and reducing energy inefficiencies from heat-generating equipment. Enterprises running large data centres should consider virtualisation to consolidate their servers and storage hardware. This will maximise storage use, reduce the number of physical servers, and eliminate duplicate data. Going green can also be doing something as simple as turning off office lights during breaks and reducing unnecessary copying or printing.

Here at Symantec, we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint by conserving natural resources - we sell about a third of our consumer products online to avoid packaging altogether. We believe in embracing our technologies and implement green practices in our own data centres, helping us minimise our energy and carbon footprint. Ultimately, environmental responsibility makes good business sense as it results in concrete savings and is an effective tactic for retaining customer loyalty and trust.

Gavin Selkirk
Corporate Senior Vice-President & General Manager
CA Asia Pacific & Japan

IT managers pay close attention to consumption because data centres can use 30 times more energy per square foot than ordinary office space. Implementing IT solutions dramatically reduces an enterprise’s carbon footprint, which is essential to preserving Singapore’s precious natural environment.

Independent research showed that 7 million kilowatts were used globally every hour to drive servers in 2005, while another 7 million kilowatts were burned to cool them.

Another study warns that energy spend will become the second largest operating cost in 70 per cent of data centres by 2009 and that 50 per cent of the world’s data centres will not have enough electricity to meet their power needs by end of 2008.

At CA, we firmly believe that IT holds enormous potential to reduce carbon footprints for business communities and the world.

Howard Hunter
President
Singapore Management University

IN the long term, solar energy offers the best possibilities for Singapore. In the near term, simple conservation methods can be effective.

With modest changes in thermostat settings and the timing of air conditioning usage, we reduced annual electricity costs by about 10 per cent. More aggressive conservation steps are being considered.

Hans-Dieter Bott
Managing Director
Siemens Pte Ltd

SINGAPORE, already a hub for urban solutions, has great potential to become a hub or laboratory of environmental sustainability. But to do so, it needs to create and modify infrastructure elements, to ensure reliable and efficient supplies of energy without contributing to climate changes; as well as offer incentives or perhaps even make some regulatory changes, to make greener lifestyle viable and desirable.

Siemens has been a long-term partner in delivering eco-friendly technologies and solutions to Singapore. Our innovations boost the efficiency of power generation and transmission technologies while substantially reducing CO2 emissions. Even our energy-saving lamps from Osram help to decrease CO2 output. And we continue to develop innovative technologies to produce energy in the most ecologically friendly, cost-effective and efficient way.

One of our latest innovations is the world’s most powerful gas turbine that has a capacity of 340 megawatts, and a combined cycle efficiency of over 60 per cent. And very importantly, it reduces CO2 emission by 212,000 tonnes a year.

We see our constant research and innovation of eco-friendly technologies as a responsible and sustainable way of doing business. It is a simple principle whereby we develop products and solutions with the future and the environment in mind.

Liu Chunlin
CEO
K&C Protective Technologies Pte Ltd

ALTHOUGH oil prices have come down recently, the long-term prognosis is that they will head higher as oil becomes a scarcer commodity with growing population and affluence. We need to be a model tropical city of excellence not just in terms of economic growth and living environment but also the responsible use of energy. This is what I see of Singapore of the future:

Google Earth view of Singapore - green, blue and photovoltaics. That is, lots more greenery and water bodies to keep temperatures down in the face of global warming. It will be three-dimensional green as roof tops and facades are planted with vegetation. And in between the green and blue, we will see more photovoltaics. The price of oil would have gone up and costs of photovoltaics come down to exploit our tropical sun and this technology.

More efficient use of energy in industries, offices and lifestyle - the high oil prices will make efficient usage of energy at the micro-level necessary and worthwhile, for example, in air-conditioning and manufacturing processes. I would see more al fresco activities in a new definition of physical comfort.

A compact city with -

* highly connected public mass transport system. Reliance on cars will not be tenable as it is today, and owning a car will indeed be a luxury.

* a communications infrastructure to make telecommunications and wireless IT communications ubiquitous and cheap. This will reduce the need to move around and will support the high-tech, knowledge-based industries Singapore is developing, including R&D. One will also see more home-offices.

For the above, many businesses will align their activities out of sheer necessity to reduce cost, for example, cut air-conditioning and travel bills. Some businesses will exercise corporate social responsibility by support for currently expensive energy technologies like hybrid cars and photovoltaics.

Ravi Rajendran
General Manager, Asean
Hitachi Data Systems

WHILE data centres are considered the largest consumers of energy, it is here that the highest energy savings can be realised.

With ever-rising energy costs, local companies need to adopt new technology that increases the utilisation and shelf life of their IT infrastructure.

Traditionally, data centres operate with a 30-40 per cent utilisation rate. The challenge here is to increase utilisation rate so that less physical infrastructure is required to maintain the same service levels.

Virtualisation technology dramatically increases utilisation so that unnecessary storage infrastructure can be eliminated.

It is imperative for data centres to implement new technology that can slash energy consumption. For example, supporting external storage devices that spin down when idle can reduce power consumption significantly.

Also, in order for local companies to achieve world-class status in terms of energy management, there needs to be more synergy between IT and facilities planning departments. This will ensure that the space and energy considerations complement the scalability and performance requirements of the IT infrastructure.

Darren Thomson
President & CEO
Manulife

THE Singapore government’s ongoing efforts to urge Singaporeans to embrace green habits are commendable. It has led to a heightened awareness of the need and urgency to conserve energy on a national level.

Although regulations and campaigns have contributed much to increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy usage, there is a lot more that can be done to conserve energy, no matter how small. When it has become second nature to every Singaporean to switch off the lights when they leave the room, share vehicles or take public transport instead, and so on, then we can start to consider moving towards becoming a model city in terms of energy use.

Businesses can reiterate the energy conservation message by reminding staff to switch off lights and computers when they are not in use, encouraging them to submit good ideas on how to reduce energy usage in the office, and rewarding energy saving ideas which help the company to reduce operation costs. In addition, we can save substantially on energy by setting aircon temperature at 25 deg C instead of freezing cold levels very often experienced in our public buildings and public transport.

Charles Reed
CEO
DOCOMO interTouch

SINGAPORE needs to take a leaf out of the experience of model energy-efficient countries like Japan and Hong Kong. Without domestic sources of fossil fuels and volatile oil prices, these countries have successfully diversified their power sources over the years, becoming far less dependent on oil while fostering a culture of conserving. A simple example is the use of hybrid and LPG cars. In Japan, over 20 per cent of all cars on the road are low-emission vehicles while less than one per cent of Singapore’s vehicles come under that category.

While investing funds towards future investment in research, development and technology may be one of the ways to make use of our resources wisely, educating the population on the importance of conserving energy is the first step towards a collaborative effort that would have a long-term and larger effect eventually. More measures need to be put in place that directly impacts the public.

Businesses can also play a part by promoting such energy conservation programmes within their organisations as well as make a more conscious effort to adopt energy efficient technologies and green business practices. At the same time, artificially subsidising alternative energy is not sustainable. I would prefer to see ‘carbon’ tax implemented to ensure that the inefficient users of fuels will pay for their detrimental impact on the environment.

Kanwal Nain Sahney
Managing Director
Specvision

THIS calls for an integrated ‘public-private-corporate’ participative approach, needing profound attitudinal change in our individual outlook towards energy consumption. When conventional energy reserves like oil, gas and coal are fast diminishing, Singapore must foresee this challenge and harness renewable sources like wind, water and nuclear energy for its high density population.

The government must continue to build environment friendly and energy efficient structures like Changi T3, ensuring ‘free-flowing’ traffic with convenient public transport etc.

Individually, we must contribute by using energy efficient electronic/electrical devices, regularly maintaining and judiciously using automobiles and switching off devices when not in use.

Corporates should pitch in by optimising power consumption in office/factory buildings, minimise work-related travel and encourage remote/tele-working, recycle paper/propagate paperless office concept, staff carpooling and efficient production processes.

Energy conservation is a movement needing whole-hearted contribution by every Singaporean to make it a model future city that is truly world class and the envy of the world.

Bill Padfield
Chief Executive Officer
Datacraft Asia Limited

OUR focus has been to reduce carbon emissions, rather than simply reduce energy consumption. The motivation is to become better global citizens rather than simply to reduce costs. As a business we have created Greencraft, which is an initiative to address our own carbon emissions that includes our participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP6). We scored very well (as part of the global disclosure by our parent company Dimension Data).

It’s a good starting point to measure and publicly declare our emissions. We then have a third-party consultancy group helping us drive these emissions down over the next few years. Our focus has been

1) measure and reduce our own emissions,

2) prepare services and solutions that help our clients do the same,

3) educate and increase awareness among all our employees.

Teng Yeow Heng Michael
Managing Director
Corporate Turnaround Centre Pte Ltd

SINGAPORE needs to protect our limited land and air space from any form of pollution. The clean energy industry sits very well with our overall strategy of environmental cleanliness which should promote the use of solar power, fuel cells, wind power, energy efficiency and carbon services.

Thus, Singapore should position itself as the model city in the use of clean energy. Businesses can support the use of such energy in manufacturing plants and commercial buildings. They should also closely work together with the energy researchers in tertiary institutions, relevant government agencies and the energy policy makers.

Peter Barge
CEO, Asia Pacific
Jones Lang LaSalle

FORTY per cent of greenhouse gases come from buildings, so cities like Singapore can make a significant contribution in this area.

Being a highly urbanised society that has a great track record of being able to embrace and drive change, the city has a great opportunity to be a world leader in green buildings and in the conversion of the current built structures to sustainable environments for its citizens and its visitors to live and work in. Energy usage, conservation and innovation are critical to this challenge.

Lim Kong Puay
President & CEO
Tuas Power Ltd

AS world economies continue to expand, countries need to address the challenge of an ever-increasing demand for energy. Singapore can take the lead in tackling the issue by becoming an advocate of energy efficiency. To become a model city of the future, Singapore can demonstrate its ability to optimise its use of energy.

Businesses can contribute to this goal by conducting regular energy audits to identify ways to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities and equipment. They can also incorporate energy-saving measures into the design of their facilities. Wherever possible, businesses should look at adopting energy-efficient technologies in their processes as well.

Sam Yap S G
Group Executive Chairman
Cherie Hearts Group Int’l Pte Ltd

SINGAPORE’S consumption of energy needs to be tackled using a two-pronged approach, supply side and demand side.

On the supply side, Singapore should leverage on its position as a research and development (R&D) hub to take the lead in exploring and developing next-generation energy solutions, such as solar power. Businesses can play a role to support such initiatives, either through direct commercial investments or via corporate social responsibility efforts like donating money to fund the research.

As for the demand side, Singapore must manage the consumption of energy. For instance, the government could step up efforts to improve our public transport infrastructure, for example, extend MRT lines and monitor the service level of public transport companies more stringently. This will make public transport a more appealing choice for Singaporeans and reduce our consumption of vehicle fuel. On a lighter note, I commend the latest efforts taken to share energy tips on how to reduce household electricity consumption.

Goh Chong Theng
General Manager Singapore
Rabobank International

THE Business Times recently reported that industrial demand accounts for 70 per cent of Singapore’s electricity consumption. Thus, to become a model city of the future in terms of energy usage, we might want to concentrate our efforts towards ‘green’ electricity generation and sustainable power consumption.

I remember that Senoko Power recently announced a major initiative to convert some oil-fired plants to cleaner, gas-fired plants. I think that such plans for ‘green’ electricity generation are laudable because they allow the country to shift its power production capacities from more carbon-intensive fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives.

To encourage sustainable power consumption, Singapore could perhaps find more ways to exploit the incentives provided by the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows countries to earn Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, which can be bought by other nations that have committed to emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

Rabobank has been performing CER transactions under the CDM mechanism for over two years. Recently, we expanded our sustainable energy and carbon credits businesses to Singapore and the region because of the opportunities - for both business growth and social contribution - in these markets. With these in mind, we hope to work with environmentally responsible companies in various sectors in viable energy efficiency projects that contribute towards sustainable energy consumption.