SGBC Green Building Conference 2010 and WorldGBC International Congress 2010
August 5, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Design and Buildings, Events, Singapore
| September 13, 2010 | to | September 16, 2010 |
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WorldGBC International Congress 2010
The WorldGBC International Congress 2010 is a 2 day congress from 13 – 14 September 2010. 13th September 2010 is designed specifically for GBC Members, and registration is restricted to WorldGBC Members. 14th September is open to those interested in learning more about the latest trends and updates on international green building.
The congress will provide a platform to:
Learn: from green building thought leaders who will share strategies for market transformation, policies that accelerate green building practices, and how to tackle global climate change while meeting local priorities.
Network: with representatives from GBCs in more than 70 countries, and strengthen our collective voice.
Connect: with delegates from a range of professions and industries, including engineers, architects and academics, bankers, building contractors and suppliers, planners, policy makers, property developers and product manufacturers.
Gain inspiration: at green building tours of the best Green Mark Platinum projects in Singapore, and learn more about the region’s latest eco-friendly building materials, energy-efficient solutions and green design at BEX Asia.
Influence: the uptake of sustainable, affordable building around the world.
Share: ideas and information, and contribute to the WorldGBC’s agenda in the lead up to COP16 in Mexico this December.
Inaugural SGBC Green Building Conference
SGBC Green Building Conference is a 1 day conference on 15 September 2010, and it will focus on green issues concerning the building and construction industry with more emphasis on green building technologies and green building designs as well as the retrofitting existing buildings. SGBC Green Building Conference provides a platform for our industry players to know and learn more on the Valuation and Financing Green Buildings, and the Green and Sustainable construction.
Green Mark Building Tour
The Green Mark Building tour on 16 September is specially arranged for participants to witness and experience green buildings in operations. The tours will create awareness amongst overseas delegates on BCA Green Mark Scheme which is more suitable for the tropical climate, and at the same time, it will demonstrate Singapore’s technical expertise, capabilities and R&D in green building developments.
BEX Asia
A concurrent event with World GBC Congress and SGBC conference will be BEX Asia, Southeast Asia’s green building exhibition. This exhibition is focused Build Green featuring eco-friendly, energy efficiency building materials, design and architecture for the future of sustainable environments. This event brings together industry practitioners, professionals and key buyers across the regions to learn, network and do business with Southeast Asia’s developing economies.
Visit the conference website for more details and registration.
2nd Annual Sustainable Cities 2010
| September 27, 2010 | to | September 30, 2010 |
2nd Annual Sustainable Cities 2010
Location: InterContinental Hotel, SINGAPORE
Website: www.sustainablecitiesasia.com
The 2nd Annual Sustainable Cities 2010 this 27 – 30 September 2010 in Singapore will show you successful urban planning strategies that will help your business achieve its sustainability objectives, meet green building standards, cut costs and increase company profits.
International authorities, developers, architects and leaders from related industries will gather in Singapore to discuss key issues and trends, regional legislation and policies, investment opportunities, green technological innovations and solutions associated with developing sustainable cities of the future.
Hear from some of Asia’s leading architects, urban planners and property developers, including ACLA, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Broadway Malyan Asia, Bakrie Pangripta Loka, Surbana, Arup UK, Sime Darby Property, Lend Lease, Singapore Institute of Planners, Jurong Consultants, Cardiff University, CB Richard Ellis, Energy Market Authority Singapore, Dimond Architects, ASrIA, Arup China, and BioRegional China.
Sustainable Cities 2010 is your strategic platform for investment opportunities, partnerships, learning and networking.
Contact Name: Eileen David
Contact Email: Eileen.david@ibcasia.com.sg
Contact Tel: +65 – 6508 2458 / +65 – 6508 2400
Contact Fax: +65 – 6508 2407
Organiser Name: IBC Asia (S) Pte Ltd
Organiser URL: www.ibc-asia.com
National Sustainability Conference 2010
July 1, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Business and Organisations, Education and Environmentalism, Events, Singapore
| July 29, 2010 | to | July 30, 2010 |
The Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES), National University of Singapore and the Workplace Research Centre (WRC), University of Sydney are jointly organising The National Sustainability Conference 2010, entitled “Environmental Up-Skilling & the Green Collar Industry”. This conference builds on the Climate Change @ Work series of conferences which take place in Australia and promote achieving sustainability in the workplace through sustainable leadership and management practice.
This conference will promote achieving sustainability in workplaces through sustainable leadership and green business solutions. The main themes of the 2010 conference will centre on important management issues, such as how sustainability practices will affect workplace relations, skill demands and career opportunities, to operational issues such as carbon emissions mitigation practices in the workplace. It will feature case studies from companies who will be showcasing how they have driven and developed sustainable business practices in their organisations.
For more information and to register please go to our website www.nationalsustainabilityconference.com
Grace Tan, Sustainability Executive (Singapore)
Office of Environmental Sustainability, University of Singapore
Phone: +65 6516 1983; Email: grace_tan@nus.edu.sg
Office of Environmental Sustainability
2 Estate Office Drive, Singapore 117587
National University of Singapore
T: +65 6516 1983; F: +65 6778 6031
Karen Treacy, Events Coordinator (Sydney)
Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney
Phone: + 61 2 93515624; Email: karen.treacy@sydney.edu.au
Workplace Research Centre
Storie Dixson Wing, H10
Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
T: +61 2 9351 5626; F: +61 2 9351 5615
Explore Simple and Cost-Effective Ways to Maximise the Use of Our Existing Recycling Infrastructure
May 26, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Government and Policies, Singapore, Waste and Materials
Grace Chua from the Straits Times wrote an article yesterday on Recycling: Time to get our act together. She suggested some laws and improvements to increase the recycling efforts of households and businesses.
Before considering her suggestions for households, I would suggest that the National Environment Agency (NEA) explore simple and cost-effective ways to maximise the use of our existing recycling infrastructure, which often is underutilised or misused.
The National Recycling Programme (NRP) has been implemented at HDB estates and landed properties since 2001, where residents are given either recycling bags or bins for recyclables, which are collected once every 2 weeks from their doorsteps. With the NRP, households can recycle conveniently and do not even have to walk downstairs to the nearest recycling bin or walk out of their house to the chutes to recycle. Households can also make use of the recycling bins near their flats since there are one set of recycling bins for every five blocks of flats.
For households in condominiums and private apartments, they can recycle through the recycling programme at their residence as it is mandatory from 2008 for all condominiums and private apartments to put in place recycling programmes.
With the existing recycling infrastructure, the NEA should aim to maximise its usage and tweak it to increase recycling, before deciding to implement new laws, place more bins or add more separate chutes system, which is likely to increase business costs and be passed on to the residents.
To make full use of the existing recycling infrastructure, the NEA could study simple and cost-effective ways to “nudge” households and increase recycling participation. In the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the authors pointed out two common misconceptions on change, which we can adapt to help increase recycling.
One, “what looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity”. We need to provide crystal-clear direction to the households on the recycling programme. Some questions to ask: Are the households aware or clear about the NRP in terms of why there is a need to have the programme; how the programme works; what items can be recycled; how the collection is done; how frequent is the collection, and where the recyclables end up? Can we appoint volunteer recycling ambassadors or guides to help the residents? Can we use more mass media and social media to explain the recycling programme and spread the message?
Two, “what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem”. We need to make it easier for the households to recycle by tweaking the existing recycling infrastructure. Some questions to ask: How to make it easier for households to remember the recycling dates; identify what items can be recycled; and find the nearest recycling bin? Can we place a reminder on each rubbish bin and chute to remind residents to recycle? Can we provide data for comparing recycling performance for each estate or block? Can we use social media and smartphone apps to remind residents on their recycling collection dates? Can we place better images of recyclables on the recycling bags or bins to show clearly what items are recyclable?
The NEA should study simple and cost-effective ways before implementing new laws, bins or systems whose increased costs could be borne by the residents.
Besides recycling, it is also important to focus more on reduce and reuse. There is a sequence to the widely known 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. “Reduce” should always be practised first to minimise or prevent the waste from being generated in the beginning. Next, “Reuse” the generated waste over again for the same or different purpose. Lastly, “Recycle” the waste so that it can be processed and used as a new material. Recycling still involves energy and resources to process the used material, and should be done last.
An edited version was published at ST Forum Online.
Green Future Solutions Starts mywaterbottle Campaign to Encourage the Use of Refillable Water Bottles and Reduce Single-Use Bottled Water
April 29, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Climate Change, Education and Environmentalism, People and Lifestyle, Singapore, Waste and Materials
Green Future Solutions started its first green campaign called mywaterbottle on 22 April 2010, Earth Day. mywaterbottle is a non-profit campaign to encourage more Singaporeans to use their own refillable water bottles, instead of buying or taking single-use bottled water.
mywaterbottle Goals
mywaterbottle aims to achieve the following goals:
1. Create awareness on the environmental impacts of single-use bottled water and encourage people to use refillable water bottles.
2. Show that tap water is safe to drink and tastes just as good as bottled water.
3. Make it easy to choose and buy affordable refillable water bottles that are safe for both environment and health.
4. Build a map of mywaterbottle refillers (water coolers, cafes, restaurants, food and beverage outlets, etc) for easy and free refilling of water bottles.
5. Showcase events that encourage participants to bring their own refillable water bottles. Read more
The Rebound Effect Happening for Earth Hour?
March 29, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Climate Change, Energy and Transportation, Singapore
A shorter version of our previous article, Earth Hour – The Asymmetry Principle vs The Rebound Effect, was sent to the various newspapers before Saturday’s Earth Hour (attached below).
The reason why we wrote the letter and sent it to the media is because we worry that The Rebound Effect could be happening with more people switching to other substitute activities that consume more energy during Earth Hour. We wanted to remind everyone that we must take action to conserve energy daily and ensure that our actions do not contribute to the problem we are trying to solve.
Unfortunately, it seems that our worries came true. Today Online reported today that:
This year, the 400 Earth Hour participants in Singapore contributed to electricity consumption falling by 23 megawatts on Saturday – a drop that represented a mere 0.021 per cent of average electricity consumption for Saturdays, according to the Energy Market Authority (EMA).
The total reduction was only roughly half that of last year’s Earth Hour, when power consumption fell 42 megawatts.
World Wide Fund for Nature’s Earth Hour campaign manager Ms Carine Seror said: “There could a number of factors – people could have turned off the lights but not the air-conditioning. We’ll be asking EMA to help us interpret the numbers.”
This year’s Earth Hour saw more participants and organisations taking action with electricity consumption dropping by 23 MW, but this was half of last year’s 42 MW drop. Why is this happening? This is serious and has deep implications for future actions. The organisers must find out what’s wrong.
Is it due to The Rebound Effect?
Our letter to the media:
Earth Hour is back again and takes place this Saturday. Earth Hour is not just about switching off lights; it’s about two key forces at work – The Asymmetry Principle vs The Rebound Effect.
The Asymmetry Principle as described by the energy economist Peter Tertzakian, states that a unit of energy saved at the consuming end (lighting a light bulb) amplifies into multiple units of energy saved at the source (at the natural gas well). This is due to the inefficiencies and energy losses in fuel production, electricity generation, electricity transmission, and conversion to useful work.
When you switch off your lights or appliances during Earth Hour, it is not merely the act of pressing a switch but the amplifying effects of conserving the energy resources upstream. However, energy conservation must be done by everyone daily to make a significant difference such that The Asymmetry Principle plays out. Annual Earth Hour actions will be insufficient to effect an actual change in the reduction of energy resources.
The Rebound Effect refers to the behavioral responses to the introduction of energy efficiency measures, which tend to offset the actual benefits of the measures. For example, if you replace a 20W light bulb with a 10W energy efficient bulb, the energy saving should be 50%. However, the actual energy saving is usually less than 50% because as you pay less for lighting, you tend to be less concerned with switching it off. The increased usage thus eats away the energy savings from the more efficient bulb.
The Rebound Effect can be adapted to explain that actual energy savings could be less than expected savings from energy conservation. When you reduce energy from one activity but use more energy by switching to other substitute activities, the actual savings is less than expected savings. Everyone should support Earth Hour but we have to remind ourselves that the Earth Hour activities we take part in should not be using more energy as compared to our usual activities.
We need to see more of The Asymmetry Principle and less of The Rebound Effect. We need more people to switch off their lights and reduce their energy consumption daily so as to amplify the energy savings at the source. We need less people to switch to other substitute activities that consume more energy. So remember for this year’s Earth Hour, everyone must take action to conserve energy daily and ensure that our actions do not contribute to the problem we are trying to solve.
my paper published an edited version of our letter today:
Today published an edited version of our letter on 30 Mar.
Greenpeace University
March 27, 2010 by Eugene
Filed under Education and Environmentalism, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
CALLING ALL YOUNG ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS FROM INDONESIA, SINGAPORE & MALAYSIA
Greenpeace South East Asia are seeking its next generation of leaders…future caretakers and activists for the Earth!
Could this be ‘YOU’?
Are you ready for the opportunity of a life time? To make a positive change for our environment? To stand up and make a real difference in an effort to protect our planet?
Become part of the ‘GREENPEACE UNIVERSITY’ Program, and not only achieve all of the above, but learn the skills and gain the experience to become an environmental activist of the future.
Commencing 14th June 2010, this exciting, first of its kind program in South East Asia consists of a 6.5 week direct learning program, delivered through systematic and guided training as well as relevant and ‘real’ hands-on practical experience. The course program is free of charge.
Participants will be ‘submerged’ into the world of Greenpeace. Here they will gain high level exposure to all major facets of our operation as well as essential training in skills such as basic campaign training, project management and research techniques. Based on this themed training, participants will be given the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a fully supervised, practical manner through a series of stimulating, real and relevant challenges and campaign placements.
Students successfully completing the program will be awarded a certificate of achievement upon completion.
To be eligible for this exciting program, you must meet the following criteria:
- Ability to speak, read and write in English language;
- Between 18 – 25 years of age;
- Committed and passionate towards saving the environment;
- Energetic, enthusiastic and willing to work hard, to learn and to be constantly challenged;
- Self confident, proactive and results orientated;
- Team player, with a ‘can do’ attitude;
- Ability to work in a multicultural environment;
- Able to fully commit to 6.5 week, full-time program (approx. 38 hours per week) on a volunteer basis*
Eligible candidates who wish to apply should forward their resume (2 pages), an application cover letter explaining why they wish to become the new voice of our planet and join Greenpeace University, as well as a 500 word essay (in English), addressing one of the following topics:
- Should economic development come at the expense of our environment?
- What is civil society’s role in environmental protection?
- Many businesses now say they are ‘green’. Many communities now have ‘green’ initiatives. Is this enough to protect our environment for future generations?
Applicants should send their application to:
Indonesian Applications: gpu.id@greenpeace.org
Singapore Applications: gpu.sg@greenpeace.org
Malaysian Applications: gpu.my@greenpeace.org
Become an environmental activist of the future and join Greenpeace University!
* Note: Financially disadvantaged applicants may apply to the program on a partial scholarship basis in which a modest stipend towards transport and accommodation may be awarded to the successful applicant/s. Interested applicants may request a Greenpeace University ‘Partial Scholarship’ Application Form by writing to chelsey.james@greenpeace.org. All scholarship applications should be submitted together with the general program application for the selection panels consideration.
Applications close 16th April 2010
For more information, feel free to visit our Greenpeace University website at:
www.greenpeace.org/gpu
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