May 2009 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

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Greenpage Singapore’s growing green awareness By Camiel Frijlink It is no secret that the idea of thinking green has not yet conquered the hearts and minds of all Singaporeans: unnecessary freezing temperatures in air conditioned and poorly isolated buildings, a separate plastic bag for each item bought in the supermarket, massive car use instead of public transport/cycling etc. But current economic and environmental progresses are leading Singapore towards green energy. With threat of fossil fuel scarcity in the coming years, the policy makers are now realizing the value of promoting renewable energy and being free from oil dependency. Harmful effects of these fossil fuels are now being emphasized and environmental issues on climate change are making renewable energy a popular term nowadays. Hence things are changing rapidly, given the many green initiatives that are recently launched or supported by Singaporeans and Singaporean companies. One of these initiatives concerns the high energy consuming track lights of the F1 circuit. For Singapore’s 2008 GP, 1,500 custommade lighting projectors were installed along the 5.067 km street circuit and pit lane to ensure neardaylight conditions, with a luminosity of 3,000 lux per lamp. This is about four times brighter than a typical stadium and thus far from environmental friendly. Now the Italian company Valerio Maioli’s Motor Sports Green Powered (MSGP), in an attempt to find a greener way to light up the circuit, plans to set up a centre in Singapore to test new sources to power the track lights, starting with this year’s race in September. If successful, the solution could also be used to reduce energy consumption in other areas such as pit buildings and temporary facilities in the circuit park. The equipment needed for the green test centre is also being sponsored A ‘greener’ F1 in 2009? by several Singaporean companies and MSGP is currently waiting for a location for the test centre, that yet has to be appointed by the Singaporean government. The initiative is also supported by F1 president Bernie Ecclestone. To create more ‘green awareness’ amongst the Singaporean youth, the Enviromental Challenge Organisation (ECO) was set up in 2002 (www.ecosingapore.org), run solely by volunteers. ECO has a practical approach and, for example, supports the Things You Can Do - 7 Easy Green Habits project. This project stimulates taking public transport, rejecting and reusing plastic bags, turning off electrical appliances completely instead of standby mode, cutting down the use of water heaters, using refillable stationery and changing from air-con to fan, or setting the air-con temperature at 25 degrees or above. Don’t know where to find recycling bins? No worries, Zero Waste Singapore website answers all your green questions (www.zerowastesg.com). The website - an initiative of Green Future Solutions, a Singapore-based business that promotes action for a green future through internet websites, events, presentations, publications and consultancy - even provides the possibility to conduct a ‘waste audit’. Another example of the changing attitude towards environmental issues in Singapore is the Asian Green Energy Investment Summit, that will be held in the Sheraton Towers coming 21 and 22 May (http://www.ahrals.com/greenenergy). The summit will concentrate on international developments and the latest trends in the Asian energy sector, aiming to bring Asian policy regulators, technology developers and investors within the renewable energy sector toghether. It will showcase Asian policy frameworks and identify new developments and challenges faced by organizations in renewable energy sector. Green Singaporean projects/joint ventures can also be found abroad. Recently Keppel Corp, a Singaporean company and the world’s largest builder of oil rigs, won a $518-million contract from Ineos Runcorn to build an energy-from-waste heat and power plant in Britain. The plant, one of the largest waste and renewable energy projects in the United Kingdom, will serve the Greater 10 Vol.19 • No. 4 • May 2009
Greenpage Manchester area, and will be completed in 2012. According to Keppel Corp the plant will have an annual capacity to treat 420,000 metric tonnes of solid recovered fuels from household wastes and can supply about 270,000 megawatts of electricity and 500,000 tonnes of steam. The massive Singaporean support for the international Earth Hour project, an initiative of WWF, held last 28 March, confirmed that Singaporeans start to consider the environment seriously. More than 170 government agencies, educational institutions, NGO’s and 430 (mainly large) companies participated in Earth Hour. Thousands of people showed up at the Botanical Gardens, Singapore Flyer, Merlion, Esplanade Park and many other places, to celebrate Earth Hour by candle light while many national monuments and iconic buildings around Singapore were switched off. Most recently (April 2009) CapitaLand has been recognised as a corporate sustainability leader by two international sustainability benchmarks. CapitaLand is one of Asia’s largest real estate companies, headquartered and listed in Singapore and focusing its services on growth cities in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The first benchmark is the newlylaunched Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index, which comprises Asia Pacific’s leading companies in terms of sustainability. CapitaLand is the only Singapore real estate company in the index. The Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index captures the top 20% of the largest 600 companies in Asia Pacific based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria. Separately, CapitaLand has also been included in the Sustainability Yearbook 2009, one of the world’s most comprehensive Looking for recycling bins? publications on corporate sustainability. CapitaLand was identified as a Sustainability Leader in the real estate sector and is the only Singapore company in this year’s ranking. Above are just a few examples of the metaphorical changing climate in Singapore although – of course - there is still a lot work to be done. No doubt Singapore can deal with the environmental challenges it faces! Bizz Agenda HR Summit 2009 6 & 7 May Suntec www.hrsummit.com.sg SEMICON Singapore 2009 20 May - 22 May Suntec www.semiconsingapore.org Bio Fuels Summit 2009 25 May – 27 May Marina Mandarin www.biofuelssummit.com/ TFWA Asia Pacific and GATE ONE2ONE 2009 (Duty Free & Travel Retail) 10 May - 14 May Suntec www.tfwa.com 7 th APacCHRIE Conference 2009 (International Council on Hotels Restaurants and Institutional Education) 28 May - 31 May Suntec www.apacchrie09.org ISPE Singapore Conference 2009 (Life Sciences & Healthcare) 31 May – 2 June Suntec www.ispesingaporeconference.com 11 Vol.19 • No. 4 • May 2009
Page 1 and 2: Orange activities 2009 May 2009 MIT
Page 3 and 4: Prologue Dear members, I am proud a
Page 5 and 6: Review World Wide Fund for Nature (
Page 7 and 8: Business The workspace of… By Kar
Page 9 and 10: Event Agenda Singapore Arts Festiva
Page 11: SINGAPORE Simply Spa Singapore By G
Page 15 and 16: Interview paying a premium is worth
Page 17 and 18: Column By… Richard Soemita (O)KTV
Page 19 and 20: Embassy Info Dutch Movie: “Love i
Page 21 and 22: Association Info Job Seekers / Inte
Page 23 and 24: ADB’ers go Orange! John Bruinsma,

May 2009 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

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