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Here’s how Singapore is turning green and what you can do to support the cause. This takes everyone’s help. No man is an island. Oh, except for us.
Make being green a daily routine.
First, shift away from car culture. Public transport is already a massive part of our lives, but if you do desperately need a ride, hitch with GrabHitch, GrabTaxi’s new carpooling service.
Embrace rubbish, too. Don’t become a hoarder or anything, but be aware of what you throw away. This is when those three little R’s come in – reduce, reuse and recycle.
Save energy and use less water. Wash clothes on cold temperatures; it’ll make your clothes last longer too. So that’s a bit more time between trips to H&M. And use less plastic, and therefore less energy, by taking reusable bags on your weekly Cold Storage run.
Join a tree planting with the PM himself and make our island into a true City in a Garden. The Community-in-Bloom program already has 20,000 very volunteer gardeners and 1,000 community gardens.
Conserve what we already have.
Sustainability is all about repairing rather than replacing. And we’re not just talking stilettos and leather loafers.
Our island is home to over 7,000 heritage buildings, and about 6,500 of these are shophouses. Singapore’s first conservation projects were shophouses in Tanjong Pagar in 1987. Now, there’s a lot of hidden creativity going on behind the walls of old buildings.
Live and work in sustainable spaces.
More Singaporeans are factoring in sustainability into decisions about jobs, careers and home life. For example, working from home saves fuel and transport costs. (Working in pajamas seems pretty sustainable too.) Still, not all of us have that luxury. And some would just procrastinate the whole day if we did have that luxury.
Luckily, there are buildings and workspaces that take sustainability seriously and serve as an example for other, future building projects.
Keppel Land’s Ocean Financial Center in the greeniest of green Marina Bay, encompasses 19,000 to 23,000 square feet of column-free office space, which makes for efficient, energy saving floor plans. The building also includes 23,000 square feet of vertical green wall, four levels of roof gardens to reduce surface temperature and improve indoor air quality. Triple glazed full height glass walls provide natural lighting and minimise indoor heat gain.
Indeed, Ocean Financial Centre is the first office development in Singapore to achieve the Platinum Green Mark Award in 2008.
Take a look inside the iconic OFC, and see why it’s one of the best working environments on the island. Click here for more information on Keppel Land’s hard working offices and sustainable buildings.
Photos: National Environment Agency
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