SUPPORTING THE SDGs & CLIMATE ACTION

WWF invited new members and supporters of WWF to SSA for an orientation session, which featured a presentation on the WWF mission, sharings on conservation, a giveaway, and closing remarks by WWF’s CEO, Vivek Kumar. 

CDL and WBCSD co-hosted a private breakfast session at the SSA Annex and offered an opportunity for 9 selected companies to engage with Professor Alexander Bassen, Chair of the GHG Protocol Independent Standards Board; EFRAG Board, CESGA Board. Topics discussed included: an update on European Sustainability Reporting Requirements in CSRD/ESRS for non-EU companies; the evolution of the GHG Protocol framework and implications for companies; a peer-to-peer exchange of best practices and challenges in adapting to evolving GHG landscape. Attendees include senior leadership from Google, Olam, PwC, KPMG, UOB, Keppel, April, and more.

At this event, Soristic organised sharing sessions by industry experts: Ms Khalijah Binte Masud, Director – Advancement, SUSS, on the topic “Fundraising Fails: What to Avoid for Success”; Ms Yap Su-Yin, Non-profit Board Director on the topic “Impact Matters for Funders”; and Mr Pong Yu Ming, CEO, Give.Asia, on the topic “Successful Online Fundraising Campaigns”. This was followed by the launch of the Third Edition of Singapore’s Biggest Philanthropic List and a networking session.

Held at the SSA, GCNS hosted their Year-End Celebration, which featured an open mic pitch session in which members were able to pitch their business or project, as well as a networking session where members were able to explore potential collaborations for the next year. 

In the evolving landscape of sustainability, understanding and accurately reporting an organization’s carbon footprint is more critical than ever. This workshop, organised by B Lab Singapore, equipped participants with an introductory understanding of carbon reporting, and hands-on skills required to define organizational and operational boundaries. By the end of the session, participants had more clarity on emission inventories material to a company.

This session explored what’s shaping the future of the sustainability within the region; including both the barriers to creating lasting impact, and emerging ideas that have the potential to entrench deep and fast transitions in the world’s systems.  The event kicked off with opening remarks by CDL’s CSO Ms Esther An, and comprised a panel featuring Farah Sanwari, Senior Manager, Strategic Development, Singapore International Foundation; Kia Jiehui, Founder & Commercial Director, Shin Seiki; Oriana Brine, Climate and Sustainability Consultant, Boston Consulting Group; Sarah Ichioka, Founding Director, Desire Lines; and moderator Sumi Dhanarajan, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Forum for the Future. This event served as a platform for connection across Forum’s network of changemakers, businesses and programmes on the forefront of the pursuit of a just and regenerative future.

WWF held their annual closed-door townhall at the SSA which comprised an address by their CEO, Vivek Kumar, as well as two panels.

Held at the SSA, HER Planet Earth presented Gobi Rising – Women Leading Climate Action in Mongolia, an inspiring event showcasing the transformative role of women in addressing climate change. The evening featured the premiere of Gobi Rising, a compelling short documentary that followed the journey of 16 women across the Gobi Desert as they collaborated with The Nature Conservancy to promote sustainable herding practices and empower local communities. The event included opening remarks by HER Planet Earth’s Founder Christine Amour-Levar and CDL’s CSO Esther An, a film screening, a panel discussion with ​Jacqui Hocking, award-winning filmmaker, and a networking session.

This session is designed to familiarise participants with the Digital CERT (Carbon Emissions Reporting Tool), an essential platform for tracking and managing carbon emissions effectively. Hosted by the UN Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS), the onboarding session provided participants with step-by-step guidance on using the tool to meet reporting requirements, streamline sustainability initiatives, and contribute to organizational decarbonisation goals.

Held at the SSA and organised by The Matcha Initiative and The Transmutation Principle, AlterCOP 29 was a remote alternative to COP29. The aim was to foster regional and local collaboration, and keep people informed about COP happenings in real time although they could not physically be there.

Over 1,700 attendees came through the SSA & Annex across the two weeks and joined panels, workshops and masterclasses on the following subjects: Climate Change & Climate Justice; Waste & Circular Economy; Resilience & Adaptation; Green Finance & Investments; Energy & Decarbonisation; Human Capital, Youth, Bridging the Generational Gap; Biodiversity, Carbon Markets & Nature Based Solutions; Sustainable Cities & Tourism; Resource Management; and Transport & Supply Chain.

CDL’s CSO Ms Esther An gave the welcome remarks on the first day and joined the panel “Energy Transition & Decarbonisation in Singapore and the region” with SMS Dr Koh Poh Koon on 15 Nov.

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which provides an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, this 2 day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

The MSE-MOE engagement session, attended by 150 participants, featured insights on Go Green SG 2025, with presentations from MOE, Valour Primary School, Yishun Secondary School, and City Developments Limited. Key topics included funding, campaign milestones, and ideas for green initiatives. The event also offered networking opportunities, a guided tour of City Square Mall, and an eco-workshop for registered participants, making it an engaging and informative session on sustainability.

Held at SSA, Punggol Secondary School hosted a Learning Journey attended by approximately 50 key personnel, including Heads of Departments and Senior Teachers. The CDL Sustainability team gave a tour of the SSA and Annex, and also shared on CDL’s sustainability journey. The programme aimed to foster professional growth and collaboration, with a particular focus on sustainability.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Held at the SSA, this two-part event celebrated the powerful connection between innovation and leadership in sustainability, showcasing advancements in carbon removal and recognising women leaders who completed the WBCSD LEAP Program. The first part featured a panel discussion on “Long-Term Thinking in Corporate Sustainability,” bringing together influential voices, including Dr Christoph Gebald, Co-CEO of Climeworks, a new WBCSD member in carbon removal technology. The panel explored carbon removal as a transformative industry essential for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Speakers drew from the recent C-Suite guide on carbon removal co-authored by WBCSD and Climeworks, highlighting how embedding long-term thinking within corporate strategy empowers sustainability teams to drive meaningful change.

The event’s second part was the LEAP Graduation Ceremony, celebrating 56 accomplished women leaders from companies across various sectors globally. These leaders completed the WBCSD LEAP Program, a unique initiative focused on women’s leadership in sustainability. Over the past year, they undertook modules on General Management at Esade in Madrid, Leading Sustainability at Yale University, and Business Sustainability at the National University of Singapore. This ceremony honoured their achievements, recognising their roles as sustainability champions.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

Designed primarily for business owners, senior management and senior executives of SMEs and organisations in Singapore, SEC’s ‘Putting Sustainability into Practice for Business’ Course in partnership with Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) aims to equip participants with the knowledge and basic understanding to undertake sustainability transformation within their organisations.

This two-day workshop, held in collaboration between Student Energy NUS and Energy CoLab, provided a comprehensive training to young professionals in Singapore to enable them to develop a deep understanding of the energy-climate nexus. The immersive experience featured six modules from the IRENA-Italy Action for Climate Toolkit, designed to equip participants with a comprehensive understanding of critical energy and climate issues. Through engaging interactive activities, attendees explored these challenges from both global and local perspectives, and fostered a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of energy and climate policies. This workshop not only aimed to enhance knowledge but also to inspire actionable solutions that participants can implement in their own communities. 

Shaper PachaMama Talks, is a Global Shaper Initiative from the Hub of Singapore that presents different topics on Sustainability and Climate. The members of the hub cover themes that are important for the youth. At this event held at the SSA, they presented topics on carbon markers, renewable energy, building energy efficiency and more.

In celebration of World Food Day, The Transmutation Principle held food-related workshop at the SSA. Topics covered food waste, food production, food habits, food supply chain, food packaging and difficulties faced and solutions to overcome each issue. 

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

During their learning journey to the SSA and City Square Mall, students from Temasek Polytechnic gained valuable insights into sustainability and zero-energy concepts. At the SSA, they explored how the building operates as a net-zero energy space, powered by solar panels and designed with energy-efficient systems, as well as green building practices and how the Academy serves as a hub for environmental advocacy and education. At City Square Mall, students saw first-hand how sustainability is integrated into a commercial space, with energy-efficient designs, green features, upcycled materials and ongoing efforts to promote eco-friendly practices among tenants and shoppers. This journey deepened their understanding of how sustainability can be applied in real-world urban settings and commercial operations.

These sessions, organised by SGTech, are 2-hour, intimate sessions for non-listed companies to find out how the SGTech SGP enables them to produce their first ESG report for banks, tenders, investors etc. They will also get closed-door small-group sessions with SGTech’s Appointed Implementation Partners as their first complimentary consultation on their business needs. This event is open to public participation from SME Leaders of any sector who are interested in getting their ESG Reports done.

The CDL SME Supplier Decarbonisation Programme introduces CDL suppliers to the new decarbonisation initiative. It was launched earlier this year in collaboration with Global Green Connect, carbon accounting IT solution providers, and DBS Bank, with support from Enterprise Singapore. This information session provided suppliers with the details to the Queen Bee programme and address any questions that might have.

The Inter-University Environmental Coalition met SMS Dr Koh Poh Koon at the SSA Annex to update him on their plans and progress for Academic Year 2024.

EY Singapore’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services team organised “Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Sustainability Assurance”  at the SSA to share about the evolving landscape on sustainability assurance and how Singapore companies can navigate through it. The session featured a panel discussion comprising CDL’s CSO Ms Esther An, DBS’ CSO Mr Helge Muenkel, EY’s Assurance Partner Mr Ken Ong, and moderator EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services Partner, Mr Praveen Tekchandani.

Themed “Forward Faster Towards Business Sustainability to Achieve Decarbonisation, Digitalisation, Disclosure and Defence”, the 11th Hong Leong-CDL Group Annual Sustainability Forum was held at the SSA and attended by over 65 directors, senior management and staff of the Hong Leong and CDL Group of Companies. CDL’s CSO Ms Esther An kickstarted the forum with an introductory presentation, which was followed by presentations from each speaker, including Professor Lawrence Loh, Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability at NUS Business School as our anchor knowledge speaker on key subjects of interest to corporate leaders; Mr Michael Tang, Head, Listing Policy & Product Admission Head, Sustainable Development Office SGX RegCo; Ms Yean Chong, Executive Director at SGTech Partner, Asia Pacific at Brand Ex Machina; Mr Eric Lim, Chief Sustainability Officer at UOB; and Mr Brad Weir, Head of Analytics ASIA, Aon. The panel discussion then ensued, and the session concluded with a closing by CDL’s Group CEO, Mr Sherman Kwek.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

SDG Open Hack Singapore is an atypical hackathon that provides experiential learning of SDGs, organised by GGEF – a purpose-driven social enterprise set to promote innovation, sustainability and leadership. This hackathon encourages local students across various disciplines to come up with innovative solutions for societal and environmental issues linked to the UN SDGs. After seven education institutions campus editions, the winning teams gathered at the SSA for a final showdown and to celebrate their achievements. Four teams will be selected to win sustainability experiential trips to Japan and Bali plus internship opportunities.

The Fashion Pulpit held a trinket tray workshop at the SSA and participants learned how to mark, cut and pin textiles to create their own upcycled patched trinket tray.

Through a collaborative effort between CDL and Greenprint Singapore, the African Gordon Institute Master’s students were given the unique opportunity to visit the SSA. This collaboration provided the students with valuable exposure to the Academy’s sustainability initiatives and green building technologies, emphasising how partnerships in sustainability can drive impactful learning experiences and foster a deeper understanding of zero-energy buildings and sustainable urban development. Additionally, they learned about Greenprint Singapore, an innovative platform that drives sustainable development by leveraging data, technology, and partnerships. The platform facilitates tracking, reporting, and monitoring sustainability metrics, fostering collaboration between stakeholders, including businesses and communities. This exposure helped students understand how technology can enhance transparency and drive impactful sustainability efforts.

AVPN’s regional management convened in SSA for a retreat in advance of its annual Board Retreat. Scheduled at the mid-year of the AVPN financial year, it provided an opportunity to consolidate, review and map AVPN’s strategic activities moving forward.

Held at the SSA, the third meeting of the Climate Change Motion Committee was set up to look into recommendations to support SMEs in the green transition towards a low-carbon economy and ensure that it is a just and inclusive journey. The session kicked off with a sharing by MP Louis Ng on the motion statement, consultation processes and recommendations. This was followed by a Committee discussion on the recommendations for the climate change motion. The meeting concluded with a summary by MP Louis Ng on the discussion and next steps moving forward.

The Ministry of Sustainability and Environment (MSE), National Youth Council, and National Climate Change Secretariat established the Climate Youth Development Programme (CYDP) in 2023 to strengthen the Government’s partnership with youth in advancing climate action and sustainable development. Upon completion of the CYDP, youth will be a part of the Climate Youth Community (CYC), which is a community of youth leaders that the Government engages, cultivates and deploys in the environment and climate space. Prior to the fireside chat with MSE Minister Grace Fu, CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An, gave a welcome to the youths and shared about the SSA space, after which there was an open space discussion for participants to network and share the progress on their sustainability projects. 

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which will provide an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics. This 2 day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

SCTP Smart Building and Smart City Programme (Intake 2) is a six-month program designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in the sustainable and smart industries. Given CDL’s strong reputation in these areas, Global Green Connect organised a visit to CDL’s SSA for the learners. CDL’s CSO Ms Esther An welcomed the participants and gave an introduction into CDL’s sustainability journey, and this was followed by a Q&A and a tour of the SSA and SSA Annex.

Jointly organised by The Matcha Initiative and the German Chamber of Commerce, this event delved into into how sustainability is shaping and changing the economy and society, its relevance to young people, and how they can contribute to global sustainability efforts, whether as sustainability professionals or in their current roles. Speakers comprised Jakob Lambsdorff, CEO, ALBA Singapore; and Remi Cesaro, Founder/Director, Zero Waste City.

Sustainability is changing the way businesses are operating and performing, as well as redefining industry terms and KPIs. One such illustration is how organisations are managing resources, no longer just to manage and improve the company’s economic efficiency, minimise costs, and maximise profits. Instead, how the utilisation of resources affects social and environmental factors is now a key indicator of a business’ resource efficiency, as well as how sustainable and responsible their resource management is. The Matcha Initiative’s event was a ‘welcome back’ to its network, and invited participants to explore one of three key elements of sustainable resource management through an interactive and engaging workshop. Participants learned about the issues and challenges related to key resources (Plastic or Biodiversity) or to alternative business models (Circular Economy), as well as what are some existing solutions to improve the landscape of resource management and material utilisation.

Organised by Singapore Leaders Network (SGLN) as part of the SGLN Fellowship Programme’s Action Learning Project series, this event brought together leaders from diverse sectors to share insights on how cities, which account for over 70% of global CO2 emissions, can play a pivotal role in the fight against climate change.

Speakers comprised Ellery Sutanto, Head of Exchange, Climate Impact X; Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited; De Rui Wong, Senior Vice President, GIC; and Gillian Koh Tan, Chief Sustainability Officer, MAS. Their perspectives illuminated how carbon markets and sustainable finance are crucial in accelerating the transition to low-carbon economies. Beyond the mechanics of carbon markets, the conversation also highlighted the role of ESG-focused investments in creating long-term value. 

The SYCA x Stridy Teach-in is a collaborative event designed to raise awareness and foster understanding of the plastic crisis worldwide and in Singapore. By combining hands-on environmental action with educational discussions, this event aimed to engage participants in both the immediate and systemic challenges posed by plastic waste. The event served as a platform to educate citizens on common misconceptions linked to plastic waste and the broader context of sustainable plastic management. At this session, SYCA and Stridy conducted an urban cleanup in the vicinity of City Square Mall. After the cleanup, Stridy conducted a sharing on the issues of littering and waste management in Singapore. Following Stridy’s sharing, SYCA presented on the Global Plastics Treaty, how local issues are a reflection of a wider global issue and what participants can do about it. 

Some 40 ITE students and their lecturers from ITE College East attended an engaging talk hosted by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An at the Singapore Sustainability Academy as part of their learning journey. Esther shared invaluable insights on sustainability practices, innovations that drive sustainable urban development and the importance of environmental responsibility in today’s world. The interactive session sparked thoughtful discussions among the students, encouraging them to think critically about their roles in shaping a sustainable future. This experience not only enriched their understanding of sustainability but also inspired them to further develop their careers in estate management and motivating them to become proactive advocates for sustainability within their communities.

The Cocoa Association of Asia’s International Farmers Network Forum was hosted at the SSA and comprised an interactive workshop that brought together cocoa farmers from around the world and provided an opportunity to share insights, challenges, and best practices. Focus areas of the forum included: sustainable farming practices, innovative technologies and methods, climate change adaptation, market access and trade, community development and farmer cooperation, and regulations and government incentives. During the event, the Cocoa Association of Asia facilitated small group discussions and and groups reported their outcomes to each other, helping to build connections across the global cocoa farming community.

Held at the SSA, the CBM Vendor Day featured an interaction event with CBM’s significant partners and vendors for the purpose of sharing initiatives, building relationships, collaboration and networking.

At this workshop, participants explored the creative journeys of the 9th Singapore Young Photographers Award judges Zac Tan & Juliana Tan. Aspiring artists and art enthusiasts alike discovered the stories behind their work, their unique approach to photography, and the inspiration that drives their practice. This was followed by a photo editing session with Zac Tan, in which he guided participants through the essential techniques and tools of Adobe Lightroom from file management, colour retouching, to file delivery. 

Climate Hack 2024 kicked off with a half-day virtual Climate Conference at the SSA where attendees had the opportunity to learn about key causes of climate change and its impacts, as well as some of the solutions implemented to mitigate and adapt to climate change; explore the roles of the public, private and people sectors, as well as the benefits of collaboration; dive deeper into specific challenge themes and; share their thoughts and perspectives with other participants.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Organised by the Climate Change Motion Committee, the dialogue featured MP Louis Ng on a Motion in Parliament on providing support for businesses in the green transition. MP Louis heard from banks, businesses and trade associations on the challenges that businesses, especially SMEs, face in this green transition.

Held at the SSA, the inaugural meeting of PAP’s Climate Action Group was led by Dr Koh Poh Koon and Co-chaired by Mr Louis Ng. In this meeting, the PAP Climate Action Group came together to discuss and plan meaningful ways to address the urgent issue of climate change. The meeting served as a platform for like-minded individuals passionate about environmental sustainability and committed to making a positive impact to Singapore and the planet.

Designed primarily for business owners, senior management and senior executives of SMEs and organisations in Singapore, SEC’s ‘Putting Sustainability into Practice for Business’ Course in partnership with Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) aims to equip participants with the knowledge and basic understanding to undertake sustainability transformation within their organisations.

The One Young World Send-off, held at the SSA, gave this year’s Singapore delegates a chance to meet with other delegates and also connect with One Young World Ambassadors who have attended the Summit in the past. The session kicked off with a welcome by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An, and also featured a dialogue between Samantha Thian, One Young World ASEAN Coordinating Ambassador, as well as Mr Jean-Dominique Ieraci, High Commissioner of Canada, who shared about the vibrant city of Montreal, the host for OYW 2024.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

This session evolved around the following topics: commonly faced issues with the evolving disclosure frameworks; converging different perspective and market forces for sustainability; adoption rate of ESG reporting frameworks across large, mid-market, and small enterprises; and overcoming sustainability data silos and streamlining data harmonization across teams using technology. Panelists featured on the panel discussion comprised Dr Allinnettes Adigue, Director ASEAN at GRI; Justin Ma, Executive Director of Sustainable Finance at Standard Chartered; Gerard Lim, Director of Regional Transformation at Motul Asia Pacific; and Hari Nair, CEO and Co-founder at Zuno Carbon.

The CDL SME Supplier Decarbonisation Programme introduces CDL suppliers to the new decarbonisation initiative. It was launched earlier this year in collaboration with Global Green Connect, carbon accounting IT solution providers, and DBS Bank, with support from Enterprise Singapore. This information session provided suppliers with the details to the Queen Bee programme and address any questions that might have.

The #WeGotThis Youth Dialogue is a dynamic leadership programme tailored for aspiring young leaders aged 18-30. Through interactive sessions and project showcases, participants delve into groundbreaking initiatives that blend innovation with environmental stewardship, fostering a community of forward-thinkers. This programme aims to inspire, educate, and empower youth to spearhead positive change in the realms of technology and sustainability.

In this session, topics explored included: how innovation and tech links back to nature and conservation; environmental stewardship/leadership; and science communication.

Photographing with Intention is a workshop designed to explore the camera as a tool for visualising and expressing one’s inner thoughts and emotions. Much like other art forms, photography offers a compelling alternative for self-expression when words fall short. Through a guided activity, participants were encouraged to immerse themselves in the mindful practice of photographing with intention. The workshop aimed to foster self-awareness and highlight the benefits of slowing down to connect more deeply with the creative process.

These sessions, organised by SGTech, are 2-hour, intimate sessions for non-listed companies to find out how the SGTech SGP enables them to produce their first ESG report for banks, tenders, investors etc. They will also get closed-door small-group sessions with SGTech’s Appointed Implementation Partners as their first complimentary consultation on their business needs. This event is open to public participation from SME Leaders of any sector who are interested in getting their ESG Reports done.

The NEA Forum for Supervisors is held annually to serve as a platform for knowledge exchange and continuous improvement within the organisation. Comprising supervisory staff from various departments, this cross-functional group meets yearly to discuss best supervisory practices, address challenges, and identify opportunities for development.

Organised by B Lab Singapore and Vero, this workshop aimed to demystify the 50 shades of greenwashing that are prevalent today, and how brands and businesses can avoid them.

CDL’s Sustainability Team hosted an internal Sustainability Committee kick-off meeting for its upcoming Integrated Sustainability Report 2025, where employees were updated on changes to global frameworks and disclosures and the upcoming ISSA 5000, an upcoming international sustainability assurance standard. The session began with an introduction by CDL’s CSO on CDL’s reporting journey and framework, rankings and ratings, followed by a presentation by EY on updates to assurance standards and requirements affecting CDL, and what employees should expect for the upcoming audit and assurance process, and concluded with a sharing by PwC on ISSB requirements, identification of SROs and materiality validation, as well as the 4th Climate Change Scenario Study.

At this event, SUSS Living Soil Asia shared quantitative and qualitative findings from their soil fieldwork research, and also discussed their reflections on the research process and outcomes with partners and invited guests. The Living Soil Asia team also aimed to bring together the soil community (NParks soil scientists and staff, community gardeners, Living Soil Asia’s partners and friends) to connect and share experiences.

Globally and locally, more businesses are pivoting towards sustainable practices and requiring suppliers to implement and report on their businesses. This workshop kicked off with an Overview of Corporate Sustainability, and delved into ESG risks and opportunities, benefits of adopting sustainability with insights into importance of identifying and prioritising stakeholders and matters of importance to them, and understanding how to start sustainability reporting in non-onerous ways with use of the RICE assessment tool.

Clean Creatives, a movement of advertisers and PR professionals cutting ties with fossil fuels, organised an interactive game night with trivia about fossil fuels, ad campaigns and discussed how they can come together to support climate action in Singapore.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

Hosted at the SSA, People’s Association organised a service quality appreciation event for four integrated hubs in Singapore – Wisma Geylang Serai, Tampines Hub, Heartbeat@Bedok and One Punggol. The event aimed to reinforce the importance of service excellence culture; celebrate and recognise staff for their hard work; and show appreciation to staff and improve their well-being by building a caring and conducive workplace/environment for them.

The 14th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award Final Judging session spotlighted 10 finalist teams from various universities that gave impressive presentations on their proposed sustainability strategy and initiatives on their respective case companies: CBM Pte Ltd, Keystone Cable, GUAVA Amenities, Alsco, Mandai Wildlife Group, iWOW, Toll Group, Mitsubishi Electric, Pacific International Lines, and Umami Bioworks.

The panel of judges comprised CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An; GCNS’ Executive Director Ms Esther Chang; Singapore Exchange Regulation’s Listing Policy & Product Admission Head and Sustainable Development Office Head, Mr Michael Tang; National Youth Council’s Director of Partnerships Lab, Ms Karen Lee; Stewardship Asia Centre’s Research & Engagement Senior Vice President, Mr Sunil Puri; WTW’s Managing Director Mr Shai Ganu; and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment’s Deputy Director (Climate Adaptation), Energy and Climate Policy Division, Ms Petrina Leo.

We marked a significant milestone for CDL with the SSA Annex officially opening its doors on 25 July 2024. Opened by Guest-of-Honour Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat, the opening ceremony saw more than 200 of CDL’s 3P partners and friends in attendance to celebrate the special occasion.

The 2,690 sq ft SSA Annex is an extension of the existing 4,300 sq ft SSA that was opened in 2017, marking Singapore’s first major People, Public and Private (3P) ground-up initiative that supports global and national goals to tackle climate change.

SSA Annex aims to promote sustainable practices, advocate for a low-carbon economy, and engage in businesses and the community. Intentionally built with conference facilities for in-person and virtual meetings, it anticipates uniting partners to develop innovative solutions that help advance collaborative efforts in climate action. It also houses classrooms and a gallery for sustainability-related training programmes and advocacy events, through engaging and educating partners and attendees, including members of the public.

CDL hosted 80 NUS students from 22 different countries at the SSA on a learning journey which featured a keynote address by CSO on CDL’s sustainability integration, innovation, stakeholder partnership to drives business resilience and contribution to a sustainable future. Following the keynote, a panel discussion titled “Innovating Towards a Sustainable Future” featured leaders of sustainability-focused startups, who discussed various topics, including the inspirations behind their ventures, investment challenges, and the importance of sustainable innovation.

The CDL SME Supplier Decarbonisation Programme introduces CDL suppliers to the new decarbonisation initiative. It was launched earlier this year in collaboration with Global Green Connect, carbon accounting IT solution providers, and DBS Bank, with support from Enterprise Singapore. To expand outreach, CBM reached out to their vendors, and CDL’s main contractor Woh Hup volunteered to support the programme. July’s session was lead-managed by Woh Hup and saw an increase in participation from sub-contractors. The next session for CBM will be held in September 2024.

At this workshop, SYCA introduced participants to the concept of safe streets, and the importance of considering factors such as safety, convenience and accessibility for diverse groups in urban planning. Environmentalists have always championed carbon-lite travel, but is the low-carbon transport mode always safe and accessible, and if not, how can we do better? SYCA conducted a presentation in the SSA followed by an outdoor walk outside of City Square Mall for participants to better grasp through first-hand experience the content that was shared in the classroom. They returned to the classroom to do a simple mapping exercise of the “hot spots” identified in the streets, and ideated what could be done better for safer streets. Participants came from a diverse array of backgrounds and shared many interesting perspectives from their experiences living in different parts of our tiny city-state.

Green Bootcamp @ North West provides a platform for youths to ideate and lead the way as green change makers in the community. Youths are encouraged to think out of the box, and device innovation solutions to address pressing environmental issues. Through a series of insightful talks workshops by subject matter experts, participants are expected to learn and incorporate the knowledge into their proposed solutions. This year, the pitching by teams and award presentation was held at the SSA, and was graced by Mayor of North West District Mr Alex Yam.

Under the New Colombo Plan (NCP), the University of Newcastle (Australia) brought 40 business students from Newcastle to Singapore from 25 June to 7 July 2024. The objective of this NCP-sponsored trip was to provide exposure for UON students to important issues in Singapore such as Sustainability, Culture, and Governance, which GCNS helped to share on.

Organised by ESGuru Pte Ltd and hosted by the World Peasant Association, the Global Summit on Sustainable Agriculture involved those from the global agriculture business to share their experiences and facilitate discussions to contribute to the 30 by 30 goal in Singapore. The five panels hosted at the SSA revolved around issues such as Global Food Security, ESG in Agriculture, Decarbonisation & Carbon Credits, New Agricultural Technologies, and Investment & Funding in Agriculture. H.E. Mr. Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, High Commissioner of Rwanda; H.E. Mr. Francisco Tenya Hasegawa, Ambassador, Embassy of Peru; H.E. Mr. Eivind S. Homme, Ambassador, Embassy of Norway; H.E. Ms. Zelenko Kateryna, Ambassador, Embassy of Ukraine; H.E. Mr. Alex Tilman, Ambassador, Embassy of Timor-Leste; H.E. Mr. Sengkeo Pouangpadith, Ambassador, Embassy of Laos; and H.E. Ms. Emily Follett, Deputy High Commissioner, Australian High Commission were in attendance and gave keynote speeches.

This year’s Green Parade 2024 dove into the insights of university students, exploring their visions for what Singaporeans need to do to to combat climate change and promote sustainability. The Green Parade Bootcamp invited students from various universities to participate in discussions, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative efforts to turn sustainability insights into actionable plans.

The event featured speakers from the Climate Youth Development Programme / COP28 Youth delegate Ms Lee Kiang Ng, Ms Sriva, Mr Naeem Nadzri; Ministry of Sustainability and Environment Government’s Chief Sustainability Officer Mr Lim Tuang Liang; and Guest-of-Honour MP for Jalan Besar GRC, Dr Wan Rizal.

NSS’ inaugural event, “Fun with Feathered Tales and Songs” revolved around melodies and stories inspired by our avian friends. Along with other tales, topics explored included: 1) How does Chinese culture perceives magpies (喜鹊) compared to the Western culture? 2) Did the popular children’s Malay song, “Bangau oh Bangau”, refer to the heron or stork? From timeless childhood rhymes to cherished folk melodies, the audience immersed themselves in a rich tapestry of heritage, birdsong, and folklore from the region. Personal stories behind bird-inspired names and varied habitats that these winged wonders call home were discussed as well.

Organised by the CDL Sustainability team, the Intertidal Adventure with Biogirl MJ invited CDL staff to learn about Singapore’s natural environment and importance of conservation through a guided intertidal walk at Changi Beach, followed by a biodiversity workshop at the SSA.

Held at the SSA, CDL’s Project Department hosted their quarterly EHS event to share EHS-related topics and present the Q2 audit results to all live project site teams.

Designed especially for business owners, senior management and executives of SMEs and corporations in Singapore, this course is intended to help participants acquire a better understanding and appreciation of sustainability-related risks, impacts and the importance of integrating sustainability into the organisation. Upon the completion of the course, participants will be equipped with the knowledge to undertake the sustainability transformation of their organisations.

The fifth instalment of SYCA’s workshop series sought to enable youths in Singapore to 1) understand what NDCs are as well as Singapore’s positive NDC trajectory over the last decade; 2) keep track of Singapore’s efforts and discuss potential enhancements to Singapore’s NDCs; 3) submit key discussion points as feedback if or when the government opens a public consultation for the 2025 NDC. It included an expert speaker presentation by Melissa Low from NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, fun team challenges, and a friendly debate.

Organised by The Transmutation Principle, this women-only workshop is based on the IPCC Working Group 2 findings on risks and impacts of Climate Change and equipped participants to take future-proof decisions and reduce climate change-induced risks in order to get ready for the unavoidable impacts to come. The Adaptation to Climate Change Workshops relies on collective intelligence: participants work together to identify adaptation options, assess them and make decisions combining impact and compromise. This session featured an introduction to the fundamental concepts and the methodology; the application of the method through a case study; and Mitigation & Adaptation strategies.

In celebration of World Oceans Day, GCNS held a briefing for their members on UNGC Communications on Progress (CoP), where attendees received updates on upcoming events and were able to meet each other in-person. The briefing featured a sharing by Ocean Purpose Project, as well as a CoP briefing and Q&A session.

At the Eco Train Pre-Launch Event: June Holidays Special: Rainforest Adventure with Biogirl MJ, participants learned about the forest ecosystem and native wildlife through an engaging workshop. The event also featured an announcement by CDL regarding the upcoming launch of the Eco Train, a decommissioned MRT train converted into a learning gallery and classroom. This initiative aims to provide an immersive educational experience on environmental conservation.

Singapore Youth for Climate Action (SYCA) and Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity (SYVB) held a collaborative event at the SSA on the topic of climate COP and biodiversity COP. The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) will see the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. Through this workshop, participants discussed and pondered: 1. The synergies between the climate COP and biodiversity COP 2. The challenges between biodiversity and climate solutions. 3. What are potential solutions or calls to action youths can call for.

The Matcha Initiative empowers individuals in their professional lives to accelerate the sustainability transformation. It publishes best practices, supplier lists, and buddies-peers who have walked the talk and can inspire. It offers training, masterclasses, talks and workshops. It organises a monthly evening to bring the community together and educate them on a sustainability topic.

In the Sustainable Supply Chain Best Practices Category, The Matcha Initiative looks at how to establish a sustainable supply chain strategy and measure performance, as well as detailing opportunities related to Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics & Distribution. It makes reference to Circular Economy and Eco Design, as well as Employee engagement. Engaging the entire supply chain in sustainability conversations will multiply the impact that any organisation can make towards a better world for people and the planet.

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which provides an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, this 2 day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

MAJU’s eight-week long Policy Experiential Programmes concluded with their closing ceremony at the SSA, where pre-tertiary students interacted with each other, as well as with speakers from the programme ranging from public sector professionals, academia and representatives from the social and people sector. At this event, MAJU displayed the winning entries of the programme, held a prize presentation, as well as a Q&A session with Member of Parliament Ms Nadia Samdin.

The CDL SME Supplier Decarbonisation Programme Roadshow gathered CDL suppliers to introduce them to the new decarbonisation initiative. The programme was launched in collaboration with Global Green Connect, carbon accounting IT solution providers, and DBS Bank, with support from Enterprise Singapore. This programme, which offers substantial financial support for SMEs until November 2025, underscores CDL’s commitment to fostering public-private partnerships to drive sustainability and decarbonisation efforts.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject. The course addresses the foundational questions on why we need to reduce emissions, what the accurate accounting of emissions will help achieve, and how appropriate target setting, and sharing on various approaches and solutions can equip and empower us to reduce emissions. The course aims to engage the participants in immersive and relevant content, a viable and systemic approach toward sharing solutions, and access to various tools and resources to jumpstart their carbon management and decarbonization journey. It also hopes to contribute to the achievement of Singapore’s targets of “net zero emissions by 2050” and peaking of emissions at “around 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2030”.

Themed “Driving Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Singapore”, this year’s Singapore International Foundation’s Journalist Visit Programme (JVP) visited CDL’s SSA to learn about initiatives by organisations in the private sector that contribute to Singapore’s national goals to tackle climate change, as well as sustainability and resilience-building efforts. The goal of JVP 2024 was to showcase Singapore’s efforts in these areas and in turn, for the journalists to write about it in their respective publications. CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An welcomed the journalists to the SSA and shared on CDL’s sustainability journey.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

In this collaborative workshop, participants learned about Singapore’s natural ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity. The panel session on the topic “Why Biodiversity Matters from Three Powerful Perspectives” featured Patti Chu, Head of Impact Investment at Silverstrand; Professor Veera Sekaran, Nature-Based Solutions Professor at National University of Singapore; Nasry, Executive Director of Singapore Youth Voices of Biodiversity; and moderator Marla, Biodiversity Collage Facilitator.

Nature Society Singapore’s annual general meeting, held at the SSA, comprised a Welcome Address by the President and Chairman of NSS, a review of the year and planning for the future, a treasurer’s report, the committee reports and special interest group reports, along with a discussion where members voted on proposed changes to the NSS Constitution.

The fifth edition of the “We Love Our Planet” Contest concluded at the final judging session at CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy. The judging panel comprised Ms Rachel Kelly, Radio Host and Climate & Finance Journalist, SPH Radio; Ms Audrey Chia, Associate Professor, Business & Medicine, NUS; Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL; Mr Raghu Reddiam, Director of Operations, GCNS; and Mr Nicholas Sim, Organising Chair, Bedok Grassroots Organisations, People’s Association. The session spotlighted top contestants who sent in the most engaging and inspiring stories under the Family, Preschool, Lower Primary, Upper Primary and Alumni Categories on the theme “Protect Our Ocean!”

The 14th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award case company briefing welcomed 10 participating companies and winners from the 2023 competition. GCNS Deputy Director of Knowledge and Strategic Initiatives Ms Chitra Venkatesh delivered her welcome address, sharing on the background of the competition and how companies can help to advance the SDG goals. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An then shared on the objective, history and vision of the competition, the impact created from the initiative, and how case companies can benefit from the collaboration. This was then followed by a virtual sharing from a past winning student team who provided tips to case companies on engaging with their student teams, and closed off with a Q&A and networking session.

This event featured a presentation and a panel of India’s main sustainability targets and challenges and how Singapore companies could play a role. Participants were able to understand the sustainability landscape in India, along with the opportunities and constraints it presents for businesses. Attendees heard from distinguished speakers as they discussed the national and regulatory outlook of India’s sustainability industry, and their take on various challenges and solutions.

Green and sustainable finance has the potential to fund and implement initiatives that contribute towards a more resilient and equitable society. For businesses, investors, and policymakers alike, a foundational understanding of the principles, operational mechanisms, and evolving market dynamics of green and sustainable finance is paramount. This course was specifically designed to equip non-finance professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to comprehend, articulate, and advocate for green initiatives effectively.

Climate finance is critical to addressing the climate emergency. To accelerate decarbonization, large-scale investments are needed to transition to a low-carbon global economy and to help societies build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. This session featured panellists: Ms Esther An, CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Melissa Moi, UOB’s Executive Director and Head of Sustainable Business, and Ms Rosalind Bazany, Antler’s Partner – Head of ESG and Impact, and moderator Mr Holger Beckmann, Coface’s Asia Pacific Human Resources Director.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

In line with Singapore’s pledge to achieve net-zero emissions, the construction and materials sector is stepping up to play its part. This session aimed to facilitate a collaborative dialogue on practical solutions and innovative approaches to advance sustainable construction practices, aligning with Singapore’s broader sustainability goals. To discuss these issues and share her views on ESG reporting in the built environment sector, Ms Esther An, CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer elucidated on CDL’s steadfast commitment to environmental sustainability, as well as the implications that regulations are expected to have for the built environment sector and its supply chain.

The panel session featured Ms An, along with Mr Jitender Khurana, APAC Systems & Services (S&S) Leader, Signify as well as Mr Ryusuke Kojio, Architect, Head of Sustainability and Circularity, Takenaka Corporation Asia Regional Headquarters. The panel was moderated by Derek Lee, Senior Business  Development Manager – BSI Group Singapore.

Companies that prioritise environmental performance, social responsibility, and good governance will be well recognised by leading global ratings and rankings. The Corporate Knights’ Global 100 ranking is considered the world’s preeminent sustainability equity index and gold standard in corporate sustainability analysis. As a benchmark for best practices in sustainable business, the Global 100 serves as a catalyst for broader adoption of responsible business and sustainability reporting practices across industries.

Hosted at CDL’s SSA, this session spotlighted Corporate Knights’ CEO Mr Toby Heaps  for a roundtable discussion on the topic of carbon reporting and strategies for closing the climate gap. The event brought together key stakeholders and experts, including leaders from companies listed on the Global 100, to engage in critical dialogue on carbon and climate reporting, and towards closing the climate reporting, investing and policy gaps.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

FiTree is a fresh seedling of a youth group made up primarily of tertiary students and graduates who gathered together with the intention of reminding the Singapore Muslim community to return to their fitrah (natural state) as true khalifah fil ardh (Stewards of the Earth). FiTree’s Hari Raya Open House aimed to introduce the organization and its green practices, grounded in Islamic principles, to the Muslim community and friends. This event serves as an opportunity for individuals to learn about FiTree’s initiatives, participate in interactive activities, and contribute to sustainable practices. This open house emphasizes inclusivity and outreach, encouraging attendees to bring friends and family along.

The fourth instalment of SYCA’s monthly workshop series sought to enable youths in Singapore to 1) understand what carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is; 2) learn more about what CCUS can look like in practice and in up-and-coming technologies; 3) ask questions and engage with environmental leaders in the public, private and research sectors. Speakers included: Professor Yeoh Lean Weng and Mr Putra Adhiguna, Energy Finance Analyst, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

For Earth Week 2024, Climate Fresk and friends came together for a evening of collaborative workshops:
– Climate Fresk: Understand the science behind climate change
– Adaptation workshop: Deep dive in a methodology to understand climate risks and investigate a case study about sea level rise in Singapore
– Digital Collage: Understand the impact of technology and the internet on the planet
– Biodiversity Collage: Understand the biodiversity crisis and its consequences for humans
– Construction Collage: Understand the environmental impact of the construction sector and its levers to embrace the energy transition
– Circular Economy Collage: Get to know the processes behind circularity and solutions to enable them at a large scale

Organised by LepakinSG, this public workshop aimed to understand and discuss Singapore’s coastal adaptation strategies and measures, and their impacts on the coastal environment. The workshop involved talks from LepakInSG as well as an expert in coastal engineering Arif Hussain, and environmental consultant Jacqueline Tham. Participants were able to ask the experts their questions about sea level rise and coastal adaptation. There was also a large-group discussion on the importance and impacts of sea level rise in Singapore.

In 2023, NSS underwent a strategic review, funded by the National Council of Social Service. NSS are actively recruiting and training people in education and outreach, clean-up events, nature guiding events, rewilding and advocacy work, to build capacity of their members. This Members’ Appreciation session aimed to achieve the following: 1) to recruit facilitators and trainers for events like forest clean-ups, river clean-ups, nature guiding, rewilding, International Horseshoe Crab Conference and more; 2) to welcome new members to NSS and encourage them to participate actively in events; 3) to appreciate existing active members and celebrate the work that has been completed in the past year.

Clean Creatives is a non-profit and global movement to help creatives and agencies cut ties with fossil fuel clients. They regularly host meetups around the world to discuss fossil fuel advertising and how they can come together to create climate action. At this event, they brought together marketing communications professionals from Singapore for a panel discussion featuring Lin Kuek from Vero and Taryn Mook from Mediatropy, two agencies in Singapore who have signed the Clean Creatives pledge.

Hosted at the CDL Singapore Sustainability Academy, this learning journey session for NUH featured CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An as she shared on CDL’s sustainability strategy and decarbonisation goals. The healthcare sector is a major contributor of carbon emissions and they are taking urgent steps to achieve net-zero by 2045. NUH will be undergoing major redevelopment of the campus over the next decade and saw it timely to learn from industry leaders on greener buildings, especially in design, construction, facilities maintenance, logistics, and more.

The AIVC (Air infiltration and Ventilation Centre) is the International Energy Agency’s information center on energy efficient ventilation. The AIVC offers industry and research organizations technical support aimed at optimizing ventilation technology. AIVC offer a range of services and facilities, including comprehensive database on literature standards, and ventilation data. AIVC conducted a 3-day Annex meeting including the board meeting from 15th till 17th April 2024 at Singapore Sustainability Academy. The session included IEA Annex 78 (Supplementing Ventilation with Gas-phase Air Cleaning, Implementation and Energy Implications), Annex 86 (Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality Management in Residential Buildings), Annex 87(Energy and Indoor Environmental Quality Performance of Personalized Environmental Control Systems).

A product of the Antarctic Climate Expedition in 2023, ‘The Remains of the Antarctic’ unveiled over 8,000 photo submissions taken by 120 expedition ambassadors, standing as a testament to the awe-inspiring sights witnessed amidst our planet’s southernmost wilderness. These pictures hope to educate and inspire everyone to preserve the remains of this magical region and the health of our planet for our future loved ones. The book launch event featured a sharing by Ocean Geographic’s Founder Mr Michael Aw, along with interactions with ACE Ambassadors to help participants understand the importance of ocean conservation, the negative impact of Antarctica’s melting ice sheets on our changing marine ecosystems, and how we can collectively take action to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The session began with the NTUC Tech Talent Assembly team diving deep into the intricacies of the Company Training Community grant as grant administrators, such as timeline, proposal, prequisites, and more. It followed with a sharing of SGTech’s strategic programmes like Career Conversion Programme & Sustainability Guided Programme and DT-SME.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Food waste is a waste stream identified in the Singapore Zero Waste Masterplan as an important component of our national waste management strategies for Singapore to become a Zero Waste Nation. Within Singapore’s food waste management hierarchy, redistributing unsold and excess food is second in order of priority, just after preventing and reducing food wastage at source. Food waste is also recognised by the public as a problem. In September 2020, a Good Samaritan Legislation Review Committee was convened in to study the twin problems of food waste and food insecurity. The Committee conducted extensive stakeholder consultations and the First Public Consultation in July to September 2021 on the proposed Good Samaritan Food Donation Bill. The Bill proposes to protect a food donor from criminal or civil liability in respect of any death or personal injury that results from consuming the food donated, provided that certain conditions are met. At this Second Public Consultation held at the SSA, MP Louis Ng presented the draft Good Samaritan Food Donation Bill and sought public input on the Bill.

The third instalment of SYCA’s monthly workshop series sought to enable youths in Singapore to understand what carbon markets are and look like in practice, learn more about voluntary carbon credits, their use and challenges associated and ask questions and engage with environmental leaders in the private and research sectors. Speakers included Professor Roman Luis Carrasco, Deputy Head of NUS Department of Biological Sciences, and Ms Hum Wei Mei, Head of APAC & Global Head Carbon and Environmental Products, Air Carbon Exchange.

Organised by GCNS, this Scope 3 workshop provided experienced Scope 1/2/3 practitioners with concrete and practical insights and ideas to better assess and calculate their company’s Scope 3 emissions.

CDL celebrated International Women’s Day with a session at the SSA that mimicked the Singapore parliamentary debate on the topic ‘Empowering Women for Climate Solutions’. The debate was moderated by the ‘Speaker’, and involved exchanges between ‘ministry’ representatives from MCCY, MSF, MOE, MOM, and members of the opposition. The ruling representatives included: Simarna Singh, Coco Veda’s social entrepreneur, who represented MOM; Priscilla Tan, CDL’s Sustainability Manager, who represented MOE; David Chua, National Youth Council’s CEO, who represented MSF; Kaamela Barvin, EB Impact’s Manager, who represented MCCY; and Grace Chiang, Steward Redqueen’s consultant and Sam Shu Qin, Our Singapore Reefs Co-Founder, who both represented the opposition party. Reuban Manokara, Prime Minister’s Office’s Strategy Group Assistant Director of Global Partnerships, represented the speaker.

At the end of the debate, the audience participated in a democratic vote to pass the bill, and table it into parliament.

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which provides an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, this 2 day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

ReFi Singapore is a climate tech collective that aims to build a multi-disciplinary approach to climate change and the causes of it. This session featured a deep dive into the intersection between the carbon markets and cryptocurrencies. It started with a lecture on the evolution of the carbon market, and then a live discussion between the guest speaker Rene Velasquez, carbon market evangelist and founder of the Carbon Exposure Project podcast.

The Nature & Wildlife Communication Workshop for Our Wild Neighbours’ stakeholders aimed to gather the best current practices and gaps in communicating for coexistence, and collate pointers on key messaging for  future communications. The workshop also identified areas/terms to exercise caution and how ACRES can achieve consensus between the groups.

This session was held to offer Nature Society Singapore’s team leads the opportunity to shape culture and align to NSS’ values and long term vision, to foster sense of inclusion among team leads and team members, and to evaluate progress and identify area of improvements.

In celebration of World Wildlife Day and the March Holidays, Just Keep Thinking presented a free workshop for the public on Singapore’s Wildlife. Through a bingo game session, Biogirl MJ shared all about Singapore’s native biodiversity, both on land and in the sea. Children and their families were able to learn how to play a part in protecting Singapore’s biodiversity.

Held at the SSA, The Adaptation Workshop explored the implications of adaptation to climate change as mitigation is no longer sufficient. Based on the IPCC Working Group II’s findings on risks and impacts of climate change, this workshop provided a methodology aimed at making the right choices regarding the integration of Climate Risks to the operations within the framework of a case study. The session equipped participants to make future-proof decisions and reduce climate change-induced risks, and relied on collective intelligence where participants worked together to identify adaptation options, assessed them and made decisions combining impact and compromise.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

The 14th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award competition briefing welcomed over 180 students from various universities, polytechnics, and junior colleges from Singapore. The session featured Ms Petrina Leo, Deputy Director (Climate Adaptation), Energy and Climate Policy Division, from the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, who shared on Singapore’s Third National Climate Change Study, SDG 13 and the SG Green Plan; CDL staff who shared on CDL’s business case; the 2023 Champion team who shared tips and advice on scoring well; and Ms Chitra Venkatesh, GCNS’ Deputy Director, who shared more information on the competition.

The second instalment of SYCA’s monthly workshop series “What in the world is… ESG!” aimed at allowing young people in Singapore to 1) understand what ESG really means and looks like in practice, 2) learn more about sustainable investing and sustainability reporting, and 3) ask questions and engage with environmental leaders in the private and research sectors. The session featured an expert sharing from Athena Thomas, senior consultant on climate and sustainability services at EY, as well as a panel discussion and Q&A with Athena, Betrand Seah, Senior Consultant at Paia Consulting and Weixiang Wang, ESG Professional.

The Sustainability Connect Symposium “Mobilizing Capital to Accelerate Climate Action – Robust ESG Analytics for Sharp Investment Decisions” saw a full house at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, and zoomed in on the role of ESG in driving sustainable finance to advance #climateaction.

The session opened with special remarks by Dr Jesús López Zaballos. PhD, Chairperson, EFFAS – The European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies Board, which was followed by the plenary session featuring Mr TAN Chee Wee 陈志伟, IMC Pan Asia Alliance’s Head of Sustainability; Ms Regula Schegg, Circulate Capital’s Founding Partner; Mr Fritz Mostböck, Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA), Erste Group Bank AG’s Head of Group Research and EFFAS’ Deputy Chairperson; Mr Anthony Cheung, CESGA, World Benchmarking Alliance’s Supervisory Board Member, and moderator Ms Esther An, City Developments Limited’s Chief Sustainability Officer. The event closed with a sharing on ESG integration in valuation by Prof Dr Alexander Bassen, EFFAS CESGA Academic Director and Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s inaugural Chair of the Independent Standards Board.

In 2022, UN Member States adopted a mandate to end plastics pollution. The instrument set the stage for governments to negotiate a comprehensive and legally binding treaty that will cover measures along the entire life cycle of plastics. This session, organised by Singapore Youth for Climate Action, explored how the treaty is applicable to Singapore and what elements to look out for, focusing on picking up skills on interpreting legal text and brainstorming how the provisions would be applicable to Singapore. The workshop featured speakers Liang Lei of Eco-Business, Pam Low of Tingkats SG and Stridy, and Robin Rheaume of Recyclopedia as they shared on the topics of both upstream and downstream waste. 

At this session, participating companies were briefed on the Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards, which recognize companies whose business operations or solutions have exemplified the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact, on environment, human rights, labour, and anti-corruption. The annual award spotlights companies that have taken decisive steps to advance the UN SDGs and aims to inspire more organizations to share the responsibility of achieving a more sustainable future. The award in the Sustainable Solutions category specifically recognizes businesses that outperform in products or services meeting the sustainability needs of other businesses, the environment and society.

Project Demo Day, organized by the NUS Social Impact Catalyst (NUSSIC), showcases the innovative solutions crafted by its passionate student-led teams, who were meticulously selected to address critical social and environmental challenges with entrepreneurship. The day served as a dynamic platform where these emerging innovators present their projects to a discerning audience of venture capitalists, industry partners, and potential collaborators, aiming to bridge the gap between visionary ideas and tangible impact.

With over $75,000 in grants and funding available from NUSSIC’s supporters and sponsors, the event not only celebrated the achievements of these changemakers but also provides them with crucial support to take their ventures to the next level. Beyond the pitches, Project Demo Day also fosters an environment of learning and collaboration through interactive workshops, networking sessions, and panel discussions with leaders in the field of social entrepreneurship.

The primary goal of Demo Day is to catalyze meaningful connections and secure essential funding, enabling these promising ventures to move beyond the conceptual stage. Through this gathering, NUSSIC aims to underscore the importance of student-driven innovation in driving forward global sustainability and social betterment initiatives.

This plenary session illuminated the strategies and methodologies driving the evolution towards a more sustainable and circular future. Attendees left equipped with a deeper understanding of how Life Cycle Assessment can be a catalyst for sustainable innovation within the framework of a circular economy. The event aimed to empower individuals, businesses and policymakers to contribute actively to a future where responsible consumption and production are not just goals, but integral components of a flourishing, ever-changing global ecosystem.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Forum for the Future, a leading international sustainability and systems change organisation, in partnership with agrifoodtech accelerator GROW, launched a thought leadership piece: “What role can financial actors play in embedding agroecological principles into the protein transition in Southeast Asia?” The event presented insights from the report and explored how financiers and investors can support a shift towards a protein system that aligns with principles of regeneration and equity.

SYCA’s new “What in the world is…” workshop series seeks to introduce young people to complex technical topics particularly around energy, markets, and finance. Hosted at the SSA, this first part was aimed towards allowing young people in Singapore to 1) Learn more about climate action at the UN level; 2) Ask questions and engage with environmental leaders in the 3P sectors; 3) Learn how they, as youth, can play a role in strengthening Singapore’s climate policies, both domestically and abroad. Organised in a human library format, the session spotlighted six speakers who all attended COP28: Melissa Low, Research Fellow at NUS’ Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions; Max Han, Founder of Youths United For Earth, Malaysia; MJ, Founder of  Just Keep Thinking and Singapore Youth Delegate; Chui Qing, Volunteer at LepakInSG and part of Singapore Climate Youth Delegate Programme (CYDP); Yi Ran, Sustainability Consultant, CYDP; and Naeem Nadzri, PhD student at NTU’s Nanyang Environmental and Water Research Institute, CYDP.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An, hosted Iskandar Investment Berhad’s Sustainability & ESG Department at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. She shared on the topic “From Vision to Impact: CDL’s Sustainability Journey”, delving into CDL’s sustainability history and ESG initiatives, and closed with a engaging Q&A.

The event, organised by BSI, was a half-day unveiling of the groundbreaking ISO 14068 standard, focusing on its significant impact on sustainability. It aimed to provide insights into achieving sustainable success and strategies for navigating the evolving sustainability landscape. The theme, “Unlocking Tomorrow,” underscored the examination of how AI and digital transformation are reshaping sustainability trends for a greener future. A dedicated session, “Decoding Carbon Tax,” unraveled its complexities and discuss business implications, and also introduced innovative carbon offset solutions contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future. The event promised a comprehensive exploration of sustainability, technology, and strategies for businesses.

The Zero Waste Bootcamp (ZWB) is an immersive 12-16 week programme where youth (aged 18-35 years old) team up, create and execute eco+social projects in the community. In the Final Review event of the 9th edition of the ZWB, youth teams shared their key achievements and takeaways from their 12-16 weeks journey working on their projects. Their presentations were assessed by a panel of judges, and awards were given to the best executed project.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Tomowork is a charity with a mission to foster an inclusive and innovative ecosystem that supports the differently-abled community in their journey towards social inclusion and gainful employment. As part of Tomowork’s week-long Talent Explorer Programme (TEP), CDL’s HR and Sustainability department hosted Tomowork’s tertiary students at the SSA to learn more about CDL and CDL’s sustainability strategy. This session featured a sharing by CDL’s HR department on CDL as a company, as well as presentations by senior managers of CDL’s Sustainability and Green Building, Decarbonisation, and Safety teams, Ms Rena Tan and Mr Victor Ng, who shared on their sustainability careers. This was followed by a tour of City Square Mall and its eco-features, and closed with a composting workshop by Soil Social.

This Plastics Recycling Association session explored the intricate facets of recyclability with respect to labels and ink, the different types of labels and inks, and how organisations have responded to brand owners’ requirements for recyclability with innovative developments in labelling and inking.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

To celebrate the festive season while recognising the abundance of waste generated during the holiday period, CDL’s Women4Green Network hosted “A Green Christmas” at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The session featured three exciting workshops with darifarida, a lifestyle brand that promotes eco-friendly apparel and accessories; Soil Social, a local composting startup that turns organic waste into compost; and Climate Fresk, a climate change-focussed workshop aimed at raising awareness on the climate emergency.

Under the “Incorporating ESG practices into Mongolia’s financial and business community” project by the Canadian Trade and Investment Facility for Development, implemented by Steward RedQueen, the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association visited the Singapore Sustainability Academy, where CDL CSO, Ms Esther An, shared on CDL’s sustainability journey.

Seastainable Founder Ms Sam Thian hosted a gathering of youth attending COP28 at the SSA on 20 November, which included NUS delegations and the Climate Youth Development Program delegates. Participants also had the chance to also ask questions to Ms Melissa Low, NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions Research Fellow, and Rueban Manokara, Assistant Director of International Policy, Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office.

Hosted at the SSA, NParks and NUS organised this marine conservation horizon scanning workshop to identify the top challenges and opportunities for marine conservation for the next 5-10 years. NParks and NUS invited government agencies, academics and nature community members to discuss and come to a consensus on what they think are the most pressing issues Singapore is facing in terms of marine conservation. The workshop consisted of small group discussions, a world-cafe style brainstorm session and a final group shareback.

EB Impact and SG Tech, with the support of Meta and Eco-Business, hosted a CSOxChange Breakfast Briefing the Singapore Sustainability Academy. This Breakfast Briefing sought to illuminate some of the challenges that have emerged due to the expanding role of the Chief Sustainability Officer. It also aimed to create an open environment of enquiry and knowledge-sharing amongst a diverse group of younger and more senior working professionals as they discussed how to pave the way for long-lasting transformative corporate sustainability strategies.

The session opened with an address by Ms Esther An, CDL CSO, and was followed by a panel discussion on topic “Ambition to Action: What is required for sustainably professionals to thrive in a net zero world” with Ms An and Ms Dawn Chia, Head of Communications (APAC & Japan), Autodesk, moderated by Ms Meryl Koh, Board Member, EB Impact. The Breakfast Briefing was graced by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore.

Using the MOE Workplan Seminar as a reference point, 85 educators from Catholic High School came together at the SSA to envision what the future of education looks like. Key areas of discussion included: 1) Exploring how they can optimally organise their resources (manpower, talents, built environments) to ensure inclusive and quality education for youths (SDG 4); 2) Rethinking their programmes to strengthen the inculcation of 21st century skills that prepares students for the future (including sustainable development, global citizenry, appreciation of cultural diversity, amongst others) (SDG 4); 3) Be inspired by CDL’s story of sustainable development through a sharing by Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Office (CDL) to anchor their school’s envisioning on insights provided on principles of sustainable growth.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Organised by the British High Commission, Enterprise Singapore, and Singapore AgriFood Innovation Lab and hosted at CDL’s SSA, this event brought UK and Singapore agrifood tech companies together to explore collaborations under the Innovate UK-Enterprise Singapore Collaborative R&D Grant Call on Net Zero and Sustainability. 

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to tackle their Scope 3 emissions, yet many are still struggling to create sufficient transparency. The Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), released the first set of technical specifications for the standardized exchange of carbon emissions data in June 2022. The specifications had, for the first time, allowed different emissions and accounting tech solutions to connect to and understand each other making it easier for businesses to access data.

Held at the SSA, this event brought together a community of leading carbon solutions providers from across Asia and the Pacific for an interactive sharing, dialogue, and networking session facilitated by WBCSD Director of Climate Transparency, Ms Anna Stanley-Radière. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An, gave the opening remarks.

This 3-day course, organised by the Singapore Green Building Council, helped organisations assess the environmental impact of their business activities, and gain the foundational skills needed to compute and prepare carbon emissions data for sustainability reporting, as well as the skills needed to produce a simplified assessment report to communicate a product’s carbon footprint.

CDL hosted the Nordic Innovation House at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, where CDL CSO Ms Esther An kicked off the session with a welcome, and was followed by CDL’s Head of Green Building & Technology Application Mr Allen Ang, who shared on the green building team’s portfolio towards decarbonisation and healthy buildings. CDL’s  Enterprise Innovation Committee representative also shared on its role and strategy within the organisation. This was followed by a Q&A session and pitching of companies for the larger CDL audience.

Held for MINDS MYG volunteers with leadership positions within the organisation, this session helped participants identify challenges faced while running their project activities. It was also an opportunity for volunteers to network and learn from each other. The training enabled MINDS MYG leaders to hone their skills in leading their projects and provide better services for their clients who are Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Held at the SSA, Biogirl MJ hosted an engaging presentation session about her Antarctic Climate Expedition that took place in January 2023. She shared her experiences and knowledge from the trip with various youths and families, highlighting the the wildlife and landscapes of the region, as well as the consequences of climate change in Antarctica. Through this event, she emphasised how interconnected the world is – whatever happens elsewhere will eventually happen here in Singapore. 

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. The course covers regulations and trends in decarbonisation and carbon pricing, measuring emissions using CERT, offsets and the voluntary carbon market, and more.

The Zero Waste Bootcamp (ZWB) is an immersive 12-16 week programme where youth (aged 18-35 years old) team up, create and execute eco+social projects in the community. In the kick-off event of the 9th edition of the ZWB, youth participants collaborated with other like-minded individuals and local organisations to brainstorm solutions for an environmental and social cause. Thereafter, the teams will create an actionable plan to roll out in the community for 12 weeks.

GGC INSIGHT brings together GGC Academy alumni and community to discuss and share insights in the fast-paced sustainability practice. Through this collaborative ecosystem, GGC hopes to support the sustainability community as they continue to learn, grow, and shape a sustainable future together. In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, sustainability reporting is no longer a mere option; it’s a mandate for organizations aiming to demonstrate leadership and credibility in the global market. This plenary session brought together thought leaders, industry experts, and stakeholders to explore the pivotal role of reporting excellence in shaping the future of sustainability. The session provided an overview of the evolving landscape of sustainability reporting and the pivotal role played by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in setting global standards.

CDL’s quarterly 5-Star Seminar opened with a Welcome Speech by Mr Lim Song King, Assistant Vice President, PD-Projects, CDL, and was followed by sharings from industry guest speakers: Ms Katez Zhou, WSH Inspector, Ministry of Manpower; Mr Henry Ho, Managing Director, IGnesis Consultants Pte Ltd; and Ms Braema Mathi, Independent Consultant. The session closed with the announcement of the Q3 2023 5-Star EHS Audit Results. 

Stridy advocates for cleaner environments through cleanups, workshops and talks. This session explored Singapore’s waste management from a hands-on litter picking activity around Farrer Park to a final sharing of how waste is managed from the moment it is thrown into the bin, to it landing in Pulau Semakau.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this refresher workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

Singapore Youth for Climate Action organised Singapore’s inaugural in-person Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) this year at the SSA. LCOYs are organised around the world each year under the umbrella of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The recommendations of youth participants at various LCOYs are put together at the UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY), which takes place immediately before COP, providing an avenue for the perspectives of youth to be reflected in the COP process.

While SYCA has organised an LCOY in Singapore before, LCOY 2023 will be Singapore’s first in-person LCOY, with the aim of equipping young people in Singapore with knowledge about international climate negotiations, and empowering youth to influence negotiations and policy. The conference encompasses three key themes of prominence in recent international climate negotiations; participants will be pushed to think creatively and critically about common topics of interest (e.g. carbon markets) as well as explore fresh ones, such as community-based adaptation.

GlobeScan’s Salon event marked the opening of GlobeScan’s Singapore office, and explored the progress made on the sustainability agenda and ongoing challenges, as well as what is required from companies, NGOs, and governments to continue to drive the change needed to create a sustainable and equitable world. GlobeScan CEO, Chris Coulter, opened the session with a presentation of GlobeScan’s latest global societal and stakeholder trends on the economic, environmental, and social agenda, including new public opinion research on the views of citizens in Singapore. This was followed by a panel discussion with Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited; Amita Chaudhury, Group Head of Sustainability, AIA; and Kirsten van Zandwijk, Sustainability & Partnerships Director, ASEAN and South Pacific, The Coca-Cola Company, moderated by Chris Coulter.

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which provides an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, this 2 day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

The Inter-University Environmental Coalition Bootcamp brought together 35 university student leaders of green groups to engage in capacity building, mind-mapping and resource sharing for environmental causes.

The programme included mapping exercises of Singapore’s youth environmental scene, a marketplace session and a design thinking workshop where green group leaders came to realise their places, potential collaborators and what the Inter-Uni Env Coalition could do as a collective. The Bootcamp was run by university students, for university students, all working together towards the common goal of environmental collective action in Singapore.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

The Hospitality Industry is shifting its focus towards the adoption of sustainable practices to promote responsible business and tourism. These practices encompass various initiatives such as reducing energy consumption, minimizing food loss and waste, as well as developing strategies to manage carbon emissions and engage in carbon offsetting. Hosted at the SSA, The British Standards Institution (BSI) organised “Accelerating the Adoption of Sustainability Practices for the Hospital Industry”, which comprised expert speakers from BSI, EHL Hospitality Business School, Climate Impact X, and Sodexo Singapore, who shared their perspectives on how the industry may effectively utilize existing standards and best practices to accelerate the adoption of sustainability initiatives.

The Asia Carbon Institute (ACI) held its Singapore launch at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. ACI is the first voluntary carbon credit standard of its kind – a non-profit organisation that provides certification and registration of carbon credits with a focus on technology-based and urban-related solutions. ACI was established to address the gaps in the Asia voluntary carbon market and to accelerate the development of more greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation projects across the region and beyond.

The launch event comprised an opening note from Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL; a welcome address by Mr John Lo, Founder, ACI; a keynote speech from Ms Tang Zhi, Senior Director, Ministry of Trade & Industry; and remarks from Jade Feinberg, Director, KPMG and Mr Daniel Oerling, Partner, BCG. The session also featured a panel discussion “Building Trust & Sustainability in Asia Carbon Market Ecosystem” moderated by Ms Grace Hui, Founder & CEO, Net Zero Asia and panellists Ms Sharon Yuen, Chief Commercial Officer, STACs; Mr David Horlock, CEO, CarbonCap; and Mr Rajesh Sundaresan, Co-Founder, Carbon Impact Capital.

As part of the launch, ACI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the British Standard Institution to jointly develop and pilot innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of verification processes related to carbon credits.

Jointly organised by GAC and GCNS, this session aimed to engage GAC’s value chain partners to form a joint coalition, the Green Ally Champions, to work together on their decarbonisation journey. 

Silver Ribbon (Singapore) mobilised 21 mental health agencies and 13 mental health advocates in Singapore to thank President Halimah for her kind support in mental health advocacy and promotion. The event opened with a welcome address by Ms Ellen Lee, JP, PBM, President of Silver Ribbon (Singapore), and was followed by appreciation speeches by community partners: Agency for Integrated Care Ltd, Care Corner Singapore Ltd, Club HEAL, Institute of Mental Health, Limitless, and Singapore Anglican Community Services. 

UN Global Compact Network Singapore’s Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which provides an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, the 2-day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

Organised by NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE),  “Journey Towards A Greener World” featured an opening address by Associate Professor Lau Siu Kit, Academic Director of the MSc (Environmental Management) Programme; a sharing by Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL on “The Vision of Singapore Sustainability Academy – Enhancing Sustainable Best Practices, Capacity Building and Community/Youth Development”; a fireside chat on the role of businesses to drive a sustainable future in the global race to zero between Ms Esther An and Ms Veronica Lai, Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer, Starhub; and a Q&A session.

A first ever in Singapore, the One Young World ASEAN Leadership Forum brought together youth changemakers from ASEAN at Singapore Sustainability Academy. This forum aimed to ignite inspiration amongst fellow youth as changemakers across the region shared their work in transforming their communities across the Climate, Education, and Mental Health space, and also connected people with like-minded individuals to spark conversations, connections and accelerate the impact needed in ASEAN. The first plenary centered around the topic of “Leadership in tackling our climate emergency”, the second spotlighted “What does quality education look like in ASEAN?” and third focused on “How can we make mental healthy a priority?”

The fourth edition of the My Tree House “We Love Our Planet” Contest concluded at the final judging session at CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy. Featuring a judging panel comprising Ms Heng Huey Bin, Principal Librarian, NLB; Ms Joanna Soh, Chief Operating Officer, Stewardship Asia Centre; Ms Kamini Ramachandran, Director, MoonShadow Stories & The Storytelling Centre Limited; Ms Rachel Kelly (virtual), Radio Host and Climate & Finance Journalist, SPH Radio; and Ms Esther An, CSO, CDL, the session spotlighted top contestants who sent in the most engaging and inspiring stories under the Family, Preschool, Lower Primary and Upper Primary Categories on the theme “Say No To Waste!”

With a looming shortage of natural resources, companies’ supply chains are being adversely affected by forests and biodiversity loss. CDL, in collaboration with CDP hosted “Beyond Climate and into Nature: Developing Strategies Towards Environmental Stewardship” at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, where CDP launched their Global Forest Report 2022. The event was graced by Dr. Thomas Maddox, Global Director, Forest and Land, CDP, who presented key findings from CDP’s Global Forest Report 2022, as well as discussed the interlinkages between climate change and biodiversity, and why it is critical to take action to halt nature loss and degradation to achieve a net-zero and nature-positive economy. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL with speakers Dr. Thomas Maddox; Kang Min Ngo, Associate Principal Biodiversity Consultant from EnviroSolutions & Consulting, and Board Member of Nature Society (Singapore); and Carolyn Lim, Senior Corporate Communication Manager from Musim Mas Group, from which companies gained insights on forests and biodiversity issues from both global and local perspectives, their impacts on businesses, and how companies can take action to contribute to a nature positive future for all.

Robeco is an international asset manager with experience in sustainable investing since 1995. In this session, they actively shared the knwoledge they have gained after diving deep to understand the workings of all aspects of their industry over the past three decades. In its ESG Training Workshop in Singapore, Robeco specialists gave an overview of sustainable investing and ESG integration. 

The 13th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award Final Judging session spotlighted 10 finalist teams from various universities, polytechnics and junior colleges/high schools that gave impressive presentations on their proposed sustainability strategy and initiatives on their respective case companies: dsm-ferminech, Quest Ventures, ANZ, TES-AMM, LGT Bank, Uniseal, The Global Citizens, DBS, Matex and KPMG.

The panel of judges comprised CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An; GCNS Knowledge and Strategic Initiatives Deputy Director, Ms Chitra Venkatesh; Singapore Exchange Regulation Listing Policy & Product Admission Head and Sustainable Development Office Head, Mr Michael Tang; National Youth Council Youth Corps Singapore Executive Director, Mr Kah Kuang Ong; Stewardship Asia Centre Research & Engagement Senior Vice President, Mr Sunil Puri; WTW Managing Director Mr Shai Ganu; and Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment Climate Mitigation Senior Deputy Director, Mr Yuan Sherng Tay.

The SDG Open Hack 2023 was held in partnership with United Nations for Training and Research (UNITAR), Open Geneva, University of Geneva, Singapore universities, City Developments Limited, FairPrice Group, MSCI Inc and Global Green Economic Foundation’s network partners. The Hack is an atypical hackathon that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship, cultivates leadership, creativity, mobility, international competence, and teamwork ability.  It encourages post-secondary and university students in Singapore to tackle societal and/or environmental challenges, by way of learning the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Field Experience Pte Ltd hosted this workshop to develop youth active citizenry in addressing social issues aligned with the UN SDGs. The leaders collaborate with their youth counterpart in partnership to address their chosen social issue which corresponds to solutions for one or more SDGs. The ultimate goals of the experience will be to ignite active citizenry in the team members such that each member will reflect and realise one’s ‘call’ to a social issue which one is concerned about, and make decisions to take personal steps towards being involved and engaged in doing something about it together with like-minded people.

This event brought together Fauna & Flora International marine staff from across Asia-Pacific to discuss learning and problem solve on challenges faced.

The Antarctic Climate Expedition (ACE) Private Preview event, organised by Ocean Geographic, shared the Antarctic Rhapsody, The Remains of the Antarctic and the outcome of ACE Expedition Reports with ACE Singapore and ACE International visitors before the ACE exhibition’s official opening at the “Melting Ice, Sinking Cities” climate action exhibition at the CDL Green Gallery.

Carbon Accounting & GHG Management – Key to a Low-Carbon Future is a professional certificate course about the global transition to a low-carbon energy system offered by UN Global Compact Network Singapore as one of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP) Decarbonisation Courses. It is intended to upskill company staff in carbon accounting and greenhouse gas (GHG) management – whether they are at a beginner level or are already fairly experienced in the subject.

The second part of this workshop provided an opportunity for students in Singapore to hear from some of Singapore’s MPs on how they incorporate sustainability and climate action into domestic and international policies, and learn about how youths can play a role in strengthening Singapore’s environmental policies and be the generation to support the nation’s transition towards net zero. The panellist discussion featured Members of the Singapore Parliament Louis Ng and Leon Perera, and former NMP Anthea Ong.

Jointly organised by Public Hygiene Council and the National Environment Agency, this closing event was graced by Guest-of-Honour Senior Minister of State Dr Amy Khor, and featured sharings by Youth Action Group and Young ChangeMakers. The Clean It Forward Conversation between the GOH and youth reps was moderated by Public Hygiene Council’s Youth Action Group Co-chair, which was followed by an open conversation with the participants of the session and an open mic call for participants in public cleanliness projects.

The event was one of a series of 3-hour pro-bono communications training session that Sandpiper Communications hosted for NGOs and not-for-profits across the region, including in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Beijing and Shanghai. Topics covered include: communications challenges faced by NGOs in APAC; building effective messaging and storytelling; understanding the audience; understanding the media landscape in Singapore; social media; measuring outcomes; and role playing as a team.

Previously, SYCA had run a 5-part workshop series covering different aspects of environmental legislation in Singapore. The second series of workshops aim to make local environmental policy more accessible for youths, and is open to anyone regardless of their level of experience in environment work. This session introduced participants to climate justice, Singapore policies, green groups hopes and wishes, and avenues for advocacy.

Global Green Connect hosted the Epson SEA FY2023 Sustainability Project Kick-Off Meeting at the SSA with their regional and country teams. The two-day session covered icebreakers, stakeholder activation, project impacts, materiality, and sustainability goals and actions.

In this session, A4S presented the following: why sustainability matters to finance and the role finance can play to drive action; key areas and steps that participants can take to support the strategies and plans to achieve net zero targets at their organizations; introduced the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD); gave an overview of the evolving reporting landscape; and identified key actions participants can undertake.

On World Ocean Day, CDL hosted “Antarctica Climate Expedition 2023: Reflections from the Tropics” at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, which spotlighted the once-in-a-lifetime expedition of ACE Singapore Ambassadors as they traversed across the Antarctic and learned about the impact of climate change on our ocean and polar regions.

Featuring nine diverse passionate citizens who spoke on their experiences of the educational voyage, the session also included a special sharing by Michael Aw, Founder of Ocean Geographic, as he shared on the past, present and future of Antarctica.

In this closed-door session, Mr. Komori provided a presentation on IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures). The event also provided an opportunity for guests to ask questions relative to the framework and give open feedback about their own experiences in an engaging discussion. The IFRS Foundation will publicise the ISSB S1 and S2 Standards at the end of June with an effective date of January 2024.

Hosted by the Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity (SYVB), this workshop aimed to provide a broad overview of developments throughout the history of Singapore, and offered a glimpse into the planning and decision-making processes that go into developing Singapore’s wild spaces. From Environmental Impact Assessments and the Mitigation Hierarchy, to novel concepts surrounding developments like Biodiversity Offsets and Credit Trading, SYVB raised awareness on development processes as a whole and gained insights from the participants’ discussions.

The UN Global Compact Singapore Foundations in Corporate Sustainability is an introductory course for working professionals, which will provide an overview of global and regional sustainability trends and an understanding of how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions. Spanning environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics. This 2.5-day course is part of the ESP Sustainability Course series designed to provide foundational knowledge, practical guidance, as well as tools and resources to help companies, especially SMEs, to jumpstart their sustainability journey.

Climate Impact X partnered with the UN Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) to share practical insights and strategies on how to measure, manage and compensate carbon emissions. Participants were able to understand the benefits of reducing emissions for business, learn the basics of carbon emissions accounting, measure carbon emissions with GCNS’ Carbon & Emissions Recording Tool (CERT), learn how to address residual emissions through responsible use of carbon credits, learn what carbon credits are, and how to source for credible carbon credits.

ACRES celebrated their birthday at the Singapore Sustainability Academy with the gathering of their donors and partners. The event featured welcome speeches by ACRES Co-CEOs who shared on their ongoing initiatives and their future plans, as well as games and a Q&A with the guests. It concluded with a vegan lunch and networking session.

The Zero Waste Bootcamp (ZWB) is an immersive 12-16 week programme where youth (aged 18-35 years old) team up, create and execute eco+social projects in the community. In the Final Review event of the 8th edition of the ZWB, youth teams shared their key achievements and takeaways from their 12-16 weeks journey working on their projects. Their presentations will be assessed by an esteemed panel of judges, and awards will be given to the best executed project.

With massive technological advancements in recent years, the applications of smart technology have expanded exponentially. Connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices are able to collect, aggregate and analyse the extensive data required to elevate building performance, helping building owners, operators and managers to keep a better handle on key environmental data such as such as carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity levels for user health & comfort and energy consumption for green outcomes. When deployed properly, smart technology can be a force-multiplier for green building projects. In this SGBC Seminar organised in collaboration with Education Partner UnaBiz, attendees learned how to augment sustainability performance with IoT, artificial intelligence and everything in between. In addition to learning about the smart technologies that can be applied to the built environment, they got to understand applications through three varied case studies by SGBC Members.

The Youth Expedition Project (YEPLTC) prepares the next generation of leaders to lead teams with an ethos of service-learning which puts humility into leadership. The objectives of YEP Leader training are to: 1. Equip leaders to design an international experience in order to instil confidence and resilience in their youth team members and learn to be able to work in teams effectively. 2. Develop caring youths who actively seek to improve the lives of others both at home and overseas through partnership and collaborative sustainable Service-Learning projects that would address one or more SDGs. 3. Prepare Asia-Ready youths who are socially and culturally aware and able to forge friendships in the ASEAN member states, China and India.

Hosted at the SSA, SYCA’s event on Ecocide in Singapore introduced the global movement on ecocide, and discussed whether it’s applicable to Singapore and the region. Featuring small-group discussions, participants learned more about  past environmental laws and what could ecocide law could achieve.

The 13th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award case company briefing welcomed 10 participating companies and winners from the 2021 competition. GCNS Executive Director Ms Esther Chang delivered her welcome address, sharing on the background of the competition and how companies can help to advance the SDG goals. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An then shared on the objective, history and vision of the competition, the impact created from the initiative, and how case companies can benefit from the collaboration. This was then followed by a sharing from a past winning student team from Dunman Highschool who provided tips to case companies on engaging with their student teams, and closed off with a Q&A and networking session.

In celebration of Earth Day, Seastainable Founder Ms Sam Thian and Sustainability Consultant and Communicator Ms Qiyun Woo (@theweirdandwild) organised an informal gathering of sustainability practitioners in Singapore at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The networking event provided a platform to connect those who wanted to learn more about the sustainability space and those who were already more established in their green journeys.

To win the race to zero, collaboration with youths is key. CDL was once again thrilled to host Switzerland’s University of St Gallen students at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. Featuring an insightful sharing by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An on the topic “Embracing Nature​ for a Sustainable and ​Resilient Future: A Case Study on CDL”, the session also included an engaging Q&A session that explored CDL, the sustainability arena in Singapore, and the gaps that needed to be addressed globally.

On 31 March, CDL hosted Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) inaugural SAIL Corporate Partners Roundtable on Sustainability which aims to bring together business and sustainability leaders to ideate on key sustainability issues facing the agri-food industry. The event highlight was an all-women panel moderated by NTU’s Professor Wai Fong Boh, comprising of sustainability experts and thought leaders including Ms Charlene Loo from BSI, Ms Irene Fischbach from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Ms Lucy Xia from OCBC Bank, and Ms Sabrina Parker from The Carbon Trust. It discussed topics ranging from decarbonisation and supply chain traceability to multi-stakeholder partnerships and sustainable finance.

CDL hosted the 88^th cycle CDL 5-Star Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) Seminar at the SSA. Ms Lee Mei Ling, CDL’s Head of Property Development Division, Ms Tay Seok Cheng, CDL’s Deputy Head of Property Development Division, and staff from CDL’s Projects department were present to interact with CDL’s main contractors, safety officers and project consultants. Various industry practitioners from PH Consulting Pte Ltd and Concord Associates Pte Ltd were invited to share on Design for Safety: Pre-Construction Planning Review for Demolition Works and Workplace Accident Prevention through adoption of WSH business metrics. The penultimate meeting concluded with the much-awaited results of the 1st Quarter 2023 performance of  projects under construction.

Designed especially for business owners, senior management and executives of SMEs and corporations in Singapore, this course is intended to help participants acquire a better understanding and appreciation of sustainability-related risks, impacts and the importance of integrating sustainability into the organisation. Upon the completion of the course, participants will be equipped with the knowledge to undertake the sustainability transformation of their organisations. The three-module course covers topics and issues such as global trends, physical and transitional risks, resource resilience, materiality assessment, understanding ESG factors, carbon emissions reduction, reporting and disclosures, amongst others.

The Rags to Riches t-shirt upcycling workshop featured two 45-minute sessions with participants who brought their old clothes to upcycle. The participants were also briefed on Secondsguru and its Zero Waste Bootcamp, and learned how to revamp their old t-shirts by making them into tote bags and used transfer paper to print graphics on them.

Hosted at the SSA, this training session worked to introduce intellectual disability (ID) to volunteers working with persons with intellectual disability (PWIDs). The session helped volunteers understand the definition of ID, challenges faced by PWIDs, their abilities, and strategies to interact with PWIDs. It also introduced some resources to support PWIDs and their families in Singapore.

As part of the Enterprise Sustainability Programme, this GCNS foundational course offers insights on global and regional sustainability trends, as well as practical guidance on how sustainability can be applied to improve business practices and enhance existing work functions.

In celebration of International Women’s Day in March, the Association of Women in Construction (Singapore) (AWiCS) hosted “Building Towards a Sustainable Future”, in partnership with CDL’s SSA. The event spotlighted speakers Ms Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, who spoke on the topic of “Building Resilience and Sustained Growth through Sustainability Integration”; Ms Sarah Hiong, Senior Assistant Director, Pub Singapore National Water Agency, who spoke on “Singapore’s Sustainable Approach to Coastal Protection”; Mr Oliver Tian, Honorary Advisor Member, Asia Pacific Assistive Robotics Association, who spoke on “Considerations of Adopting AI: From the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities”; and Mr Daryl Chew, Innovation and Sustainability Lead, Soilbuild Construction Group, who spoke on “Sustainable Construction and Manufacturing Technology”. This was followed by a insightful panel discussion moderated by Ms Estella Kueh Sing Ming, Senior Director (Development Services Group), Urban Redevelopment Authority.

LepakInSG organised a fireside chat on plastic waste in Singapore which explored waste management policies, education and outreach efforts, and community initiatives to tackle the issue. The session featured speakers: Robin Rheaume, the founder of Recyclopedia.sg and lead administrator for the Journey to Zero Waste Life Singapore Facebook Group; Tan Huileng, the Executive Director of Zero Waste SG; and Ho Xiang Tian, the co-founder of LepakInSG. LepakInSG organised “Waste Workshops” in 2019 to explore systemic issues leading to excessive waste generation, and was also involved in co-creating the Zero Waste Masterplan consultation in 2019. In 2020, Xiang Tian was a resource person for the Citizen’s Workgroup on Reducing Excessive Consumption of Disposables.

The 13th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award competition briefing returned for an in-person session this year and welcomed over 100 students from various universities, polytechnics, and junior colleges from Singapore. The session featured Mr Wong Zhi Yuan, Senior Assistant Director (Energy and Climate Policy) at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, who shared on Singapore’s commitment to climate change and sustainable development; Ms Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, who shared on CDL’s business case; the 2022 Champion team who shared tips and tricks on scoring well; and Ms Esther Chang, GCNS Executive Director, who shared more information on the competition.

CDL celebrated International Women’s Day 2023 with a lively panel session featuring five women leaders at the helm of leading trade organisations in the Singapore built industry. Moderated by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An, the panel comprised distinguished speakers Ms Joy Gai, Asia Pacific Programme Head, World Green Building Council; Ms Sigrid Zialcita, CEO, APREA; Ms Yvonne Soh, Executive Director, Singapore Green Building Council; Ms Michelle Wong, Executive Director, ULI Singapore and Ms Louise Chua, Executive Director, The Singapore Contractors Association Ltd. They shared their personal and professional experiences in a relatively male-dominated sector. Hosted as part of CDL’s Women4Green Series, the event titled “Celebrating Women Champions in the Sustainable Built Environment” was a full-house event, bringing together many female and male practitioners in the industry to work together to #embraceequity, the theme of IWD2023.   

Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity, in partnership with AECOM and Camphora, hosted an internal team training focused on biodiversity offsets and accounting frameworks, and their place in Singapore.

This inaugural 8-day training programme by the Sustainability Connect, a joint initiative by the Singapore Sustainability Academy and the Global Green Connect Academy, will focus on sustainable best practices and skillsets development in the real estate industry. The curriculum is curated in consultation with sustainability and real estate expert panel under the Sustainability Connect. Jointly conducted by NTU faculty members, professional trainers and industry experts, the course aims to provide practical sustainability training and development for professionals to future-proof businesses in the real estate and related industry for long-term success.

This was the first in-person event that MSCI hosted in Singapore featuring their annual flagship research paper – 2023 ESG & Climate Trends to Watch. The roundtable luncheon gathered the top industry and sustainability practitioners to discuss the key ESG & climate trends that matter to APAC. MSCI’s in-house team shared insights on the key and emerging ESG & climate trends that are set to influence APAC markets in 2023 and beyond, followed by an interactive roundtable discussion and feedback session on these key themes among the delegates. They delved into three key topics – the energy crisis, climate risks and natural capital – to see how APAC companies, industries and investors are responding to these ESG risks, or possibly finding opportunities.

Designed especially for business owners, senior management and executives of SMEs and corporations in Singapore, this course is intended to help participants acquire a better understanding and appreciation of sustainability-related risks, impacts and the importance of integrating sustainability into the organisation. Upon the completion of the course, participants will be equipped with the knowledge to undertake the sustainability transformation of their organisations. The three-module course covers topics and issues such as global trends, physical and transitional risks, resource resilience, materiality assessment, understanding ESG factors, carbon emissions reduction, reporting and disclosures, amongst others.

AVPN conducted a Platform Retreat session to develop a working strategy for the year ahead. The session featured ice breakers, a sharing on pipeline development and opportunities and various discussions.

Part of the LowCarbonSG programme that enables companies to track and manage their emissions, the workshop covered topics such as the basics of carbon accounting, the benefits of reducing one’s emissions, and how to reduce one’s carbon footprint. The session also featured guest speakers: ACT Commodities who shared about the role of high-quality renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon credits in reducing emissions; and Containers Printers, who shared about their company’s inspiring journey in adopting renewable energy and energy-saving initiatives, as well as the benefits these have brought.

Hosted in partnership with MSE and CDL, this dialogue featured four panellists – environmental and climate activist, Mr Shawn Ang; Director, Industry (Climate Change and Sustainability) and Director, Strategy and Planning, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ms Tang Zhi Hui; CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An; and Assistant Director, Global Partnerships, National Climate Change Secretariat and Lead Negotiator for Article 6 at the UNFCCC, Mr Rueban Manokara. The session explored  how local and international climate policy is designed, and the role of corporates and civil society in shaping these polices.

Featuring sharings by Victoria Burrows, Director, Advancing Net Zero at World Green Building Council; Joy Gai, Asia Pacific Programmes Head, World Green Building Council; Dedy Mahardika, SBT Engagement Manager of Southeast Asia and Oceania, CDP; and John Leung, Director of Southeast Asia and Oceania, CDP, “Embracing SBTi to Advance Net Zero Built Environment” explored how businesses can take action by setting Science-based reduction targets and adopting green building technology and solutions to decarbonise the built environment.

The Zero Waste Bootcamp (ZWB) is an immersive 12-16 week programme where youth (aged 18-35 years old) team up, create and execute eco+social projects in the community. In the kick-off event of the 8th edition of the ZWB, youth participants collaborate with other like-minded individuals and local organisations to brainstorm solutions for an environmental and social cause. Thereafter, the teams will create an actionable plan to roll out in the community for 12 weeks.

The World Economic Forum New Champions Singapore Local Chapter aims to create an ecosystem of like-minded partners and evolve a community of practice among companies designing, implementing, and advocating sustainable growth strategies; embed a culture of ‘Tech for Good’ in new business models, striving to balance profit objectives with social impact; leverage on collective intelligence together as a community to effect a great impact. The session featured a welcome, a presentation by SRAC’s Secretariat, and a discussion where attendees could solicit their views.

Hosted at the Singapore Sustainability Academy,  “Hear Inspirational Experiences of Young Eco-Champions’ Visit to Jane Goodall Institute Tanzania” kicked off the year with an engaging sharing session from CDL E-Generation winners who led us through their travels in JGI Tanzania, and their remarkable interactions with Dr Jane Goodall herself.

This was followed by a conversation with JGI Singapore President, Andie Ang, and CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An. They shared their insightful thoughts on their inspirations, biodiversity conservation, and 3P partnerships.

Singapore Youth for Climate Action (SYCA)’s ‘Keeping Up with Climate Policy’ fourth policy workshop titled “Are biodiversity and climate targets always aligned” aims to explore the following questions: Are biodiversity and climate targets always aligned? In cases where they do not, what principles should guide us to come to a compromise? What are some issues and pitfalls common to both climate and biodiversity policies? For example, what are the limits of quantification and monetary valuation methods to understanding climate and biodiversity?

SYCA also engaged another local youth group, Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity (SYVB) to co-organise this workshop. Through sharings / discussions, they hope to spark new conversations about the challenges inherent to climate and biodiversity policies.

The GCNS Youth Sustainability Programme is a youth initiative which equips students with valuable career skills through GCNS’ foundation course, along with potential 12-week-internship placements at companies with sustainability initiatives.

The Biodiversity x Sustainability Day Camp was organised by Biogirl MJ, Co-founder of Just Keep Thinking, Singapore’s leading social media channels that focuses on science and nature. There were five Day Camps organised for followers of Just Keep Thinking, kids ages 6 to 12, who explored 3 different adventures in a day: Garden, Mangrove and Marine. This camp aims to pique their interests in our environment by exploring nature outdoors and spotting for wildlife, going through a series of fun games and challenges, and ending off with a hands-on clay art craft segment. Through this camp, they also appreciated nature by understanding where our food comes from (garden adventure), the importance of mangroves in our ecosystem (mangrove adventure), and the threats our oceans are facing (marine adventure). These key learning points will allow them to see the significance of nature, how closely tied it is to our everyday lives, and hence, nurture the love to protect it and become stewards for the environment.

Hosted at the SSA, Singapore Youth for Climate Action’s (SYCA) ‘Keeping Up with Climate Policy’ third policy workshop series aimed to bring together local youths to understand Singapore’s climate policy better, and advocate for policy change. In August, SYCA  kicked off their first one by exploring how local climate policy has evolved over the decades. In October, they looked at the faces speaking up for climate in Parliament.  This December saw their third workshop in the five-part series!

In this third workshop, titled Climate Activism in Singapore, they looked at the local climate activism scene in Singapore: what are the various types of activism over the years? What has been ‘successful’ or ‘effective’? Which type is most resonant with people?

SMU IndustryCONNECT hosted their alumni event at the SSA, spotlighting the topic “Food Sustainability” and focusing on the opportunities and challenges in food security in Singapore, and how food brands can mitigate supply chain risks such as depleting natural resources, unpredictable geopolitical and disease outbreak disasters. SMU Office of Alumni Relations Director, Dr Bervyn Lee, opened the session and was followed by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An’s welcome speech. The panel discussion featured SMU alumni Chua Boon Keat, Head of Channels of Fairprice Group; John Cheng, Founder of Innovate 360; and Jack Moy, CEO of Sustenir.

Soristic launched their Charity Guidepoint as well as their 2022 Singapore’s Biggest Philanthropic Organisations Report, which looks at grantmakers beyond those that explicitly state that they are foundations. The session comprised a fireside chat with Ms Carrie Tan, spotlighting the challenges faced by charities in building financial sustainability and growing internal capability; as well as a panel discussion on the topic “Data and Capacity Building in the Social Sector” with Mr Willi Cheng, Chairman of Catholic Foundation; Ms Carrie Tan, Charity Founder; Mr Martin Tan, CEO of The Majority Trust; moderated by Dr June Lee, author of Exploring Family Philanthropy in Singapore.

Held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, CDL’s Youth4Climate Global Conversations #8: Greening our Planet with Barney Swan spotlighted Barney Swan, the first person to walk the South Pole powered solely by renewable energy.

Barney shared on his incredible environmental journey as well as his remarkable project ClimateForce, in which he aims to reduce 360 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2025. This was followed by a conversation with Stephanie Dickson, Founder of Green Is The New Black, where they discussed Barney’s inspirations, his thoughts on what businesses and individuals should do in the battle against climate change, and his wishes for the future. A short but robust Q&A followed where participants asked questions on fundraising and eco wisdoms from indigenous groups.

The 2022 edition of the CDL E-Generation Challenge judging session took place at CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy. Featuring a judging panel comprising Dr Karenne Tun, Director of the Coastal and Marine Environment Branch at the National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board; Ang Qing Sheng, Lecturer & Filmmaker, LASALLE College of the Arts and CDL E-Generation 2019 Winner; Michael AW, Director at Ocean Geographic Society (virtual); Christina Lee, Founder & CEO, Global Green Economic Forum; and Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL, the session spotlighted top eight finalists from the competition.

In October 2019, CDL launched the “Saving Glaciers Alliance” to highlight the importance of conserving the world’s polar regions and glaciers. This initiative is an extension of CDL’s advocacy of sustainability, in support of global goals such as Sustainable Development Goal 13, which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Hosted at the Singapore Sustainability Academy last evening, the “Saving Glaciers Alliance Reconnect Panel” featured Mr Swan, pioneering explorer of the polar regions, the first person in history to walk to both the north and south poles, and the Founder of 2041, as well as Melissa Low, Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, Qing Sheng Ang, Lecturer and Filmmaker at LASALLE College of the Arts and winner of CDL E-Generation Challenge 2019, and Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer.

Sustainability Connect, a partnership between the Singapore Sustainability Academy (curated by City Developments Limited (CDL)) and Global Green Connect (GGC) Academy, and Sustainable Finance Research Hub (SFRH), today announced the launch of a new partnership to bring the Certified ESG Analyst® (CESGA) exam to Singapore.

Hosted at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, “Mobilising Capital to Accelerate ESG” focused on how sustainable finance can generate meaningful returns and how we can enhance alignment between expectations of investors and investees to take things to the next level, beyond investing in companies with ESG practices. The engaging panel comprised Dr Alexander Bassen, Professor of Capital Markets and Management, University of Hamburg; Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL; Ms Sammie Ho Dumas, MSc, CESGA® Director, Social Impact & Sustainability, Williams-Sonoma; Mr Edward Tay, Chief Executive Officer, Sistema Asia Capital; Ms Dawn Foo, Executive Director, Regional Head of Wholesale Asia ex-Japan, Robeco; and was moderated by Ms Christina Lee Founder & CEO, Global Green Connect.

Hosted at the CDL Singapore Sustainability Academy and organised by Enterprise Singapore, this session spotlighted CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An as she shared on “Enhancing a Resilient Economy, Winning the Global Race to Zero”. Her presentation focused on net zero, circularity, CDL’s Sustainability Connect, and global trends on ESG and building sustainability culture through initiatives and staff engagement, the event was well-received with over 60 attendees.

Hosted at the SSA, ‘Keeping Up with Climate Policy’ is a workshop series that aims to bring together local youths to understand Singapore’s climate policy better! It also aims to empower youths to speak up for the environmental issues they are passionate about. In this workshop, Singapore Youth for Climate Action examined Singapore’s historical climate policy trajectory and discover key turning points and defining moments. They also collectively brainstormed specific areas where they could further advance their climate policies.

The third edition of the My Tree House “We Love Our Planet” Contest concluded at the final judging session at CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy. Featuring a judging panel comprising Ms Fa’izah Binte Ahmad, NLB; Dr Audrey Chia, NUS Business School; Ms Kamini Ramachandran (virtual), MoonShadow Stories & The Storytelling Centre Limited; Ms Rachel Kelly, SPH Radio; and Ms Esther An, CDL, the session spotlighted top contestants who sent in the most engaging and inspiring stories under the Family, Preschool, Lower Primary and Upper Primary Categories.

The 12th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award Final Judging session spotlighted 10 finalist teams from various universities, polytechnics and junior colleges/high schools that gave impressive presentations on their proposed sustainability strategy and initiatives on their respective case companies: SGX, Danfoss, Olam Group, Vena Energy, CGS-CIMB, Giken Mobility, GUAVA Amenities, FoodXervices, ST Engineering, and Maxeon Solar Technologies.

The panel of judges comprised CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An, GCNS Executive Director Ms Esther Chang, Stewardship Asia Centre CEO Mr Rajeev Peshawaria, Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment Environmental Policy Director Mr Wang Weixiang, Willis Towers Watson Managing Director Mr Shai Ganu and Millennium Hotels and Resorts Global Operations Principal Consultant Mr Ian Wilson.

An inspiring diplomat, dedicated changemaker and dear friend to many, Ambassador Margriet Vonno will truly be missed in Singapore. To bid farewell to an admirable role model, CDL hosted an intimate conversation and reception at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. Ambassador Vonno shared on her journey and her plans for the future, and we all let her know that this is not a goodbye, it is simply a “see you later”!

CDL’s SSA hosted the first in-person CDL 5-Star EHS Seminar, since the onset of COVID-19. Mr Chia Ngiang Hong, CDL’s Group General Manager and senior management from CDL’s Projects and Property Development were present to interface with our main contractors, site supervisors and project consultants. Various industry experts shared latest trends and best practices to strengthen CDL’s robust EHS management and performance, especially in regards to workplace health and safety. The penultimate meeting concluded with the much-awaited results of the quarterly performance of each project under construction site.

Accomodate launched Singapore Untamed, a biodiversity-centric board game that aims to make learning about Singapore’s fauna diversity accessible and fun. Players were also exposed to ecological concepts that have been carefully weaved into the game mechanics. Accommodate invited Dr Zeehan Jaafar, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science as their special guest for this event.

Hosted at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, “Growing Edible Greens: Everywhere, for Everyone” focused on food, a timely subject as Singapore tries to meet its ’30 by 30′ goal of producing 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030.

Kicking off with a keynote speech from Mr Bjorn Low, Executive Director & Co-founder of Edible Garden City, the session also featured an engaging panel discussion with passionate eco-practitioners and citizen farmers who shared on their innovative journeys and experiences, as well as their views and wishes on food security in Singapore.

Hosted at the SSA, “Sustainable Fashion 2.0: The Great Reveal” featured a lively panel discussion with eco-champions, and also revealed the results from the survey “Inside Our Wardrobe”, launched by The Fashion Pulpit last November. The study hopes to examine how we can be better wearers of our clothes to support global goals such as SDG 12 on responsible consumption and disposal.

To view the report, access this link here.

Secondsguru’s 7th edition of their Zero Waste Bootcamp was launched at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. A 12-16 week programme where youth (aged 18-35 years old) team up, create and execute sustainability projects, the ZWB not only encourages environmental stewardship, but also fosters the development of creative solutions to environmental and social problems we face in Singapore today. Moreover, the ZWB equips youth with skills and knowledge to craft meaningful projects with sustainable impacts, giving them the opportunity to gain mentorship in their engagement with Secondguru’s founders as well as partner not-for-profit organisations.

The GCNS Sustainability Internship Programme is a youth initiative by the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) which equips students with valuable career skills and sustainability knowledge through a foundation course and potential 12-week-internship placements at companies to drive sustainability initiatives. The two-day workshop was held on 2 and 9 April 2022 and was attended by 40 passionate youths.

The 12th CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award case company briefing welcomed 10 participating companies and winners from the 2021 competition. GCNS Executive Director Ms Esther Chang delivered her welcome address, sharing on the background of the competition and how companies can help to advance the SDG goals. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An then shared on the objective and vision of the competition, the impact created from the initiative, and how case companies can benefit from the collaboration. This was then followed by a sharing from past winning student teams who provided tips to case companies on engaging with their student teams, and closed off with a Q&A and networking session.

The 2.5-day training programme organised by the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) was attended by over 30 business representatives across different sectors, covering the fundamentals of sustainability reporting and best practices. The interactive training course walked the attendees through practical approaches, with breakout group sessions where participants conducted a materiality assessment, identified and applied stakeholder needs, and assessed which international sustainability standard to use amidst the complexities in regulatory requirements and diversity across markets.

CDL partnered with The Young SEAkers to host 19 students at South Beach, City Square Mall and the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The youth, hailing from various polytechnics and areas of studies (including business, design and engineering), were brought around the developments to learn about their key green features. The tours concluded with a sharing by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, who shared on the company’s ESG journey as a business case for sustainability integration.

CDP celebrated its annual awards launch and the opening of its Singapore office at CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy. Guest-of-Honour Minister of State for Trade & Industry Ms Low Yen Ling delivered opening remarks on the country’s net-zero plans and presented this year’s CDP awards for climate change strategy and water security to CDL. The awards presentation was followed by a panel discussion on how companies in the region are preparing for the net-zero transition, featuring Monetary Authority of Singapore Chief Sustainability Officer Dr Darian McBain; GIC Private Limited Managing Director and Director, Enterprise Strategy Mr Shang Thong Chie; Eastspring Investments Head of Sustainability Mr Stuart Wilson; DBS Chief Sustainability Officer Mr Helge Muenkel, and was moderated by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An. The event closed off with a keynote speech by Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson, world-renown human-powered explorer.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (Singapore) held an engagement session with their clients and clients’ parents, together with the support of student volunteers from the National University of Singapore. Their clients enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of games, including slime making, with the student volunteers while their parents were engaged in crafts in the adjacent classroom. 

CDL’s SSA hosted the Public Hygiene Council (PHC)’s R.I.S.E. champions network, a coalition of organisations that are committed to drive the Keep Singapore Clean Movement. CDL’s Executive Vice President and Head of Green Building & Technology Application, Mr Allen Ang, who is also a member of the PHC, opened the meeting with an introduction to SSA and its innovative green features. Members of the R.I.S.E. champions network subsequently presented updates on upcoming events and community outreach initiatives, such as Keep Clean, Singapore! 2022.   

We celebrated International Women’s Day 2022 at the Singapore Sustainability Academy with a dynamic fireside chat featuring Ms Herry Cho, Managing Director, Head of Sustainability and Sustainable Finance at SGX. Moderated by CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An, the discussion deep dived into key topics on gender equality and sustainability, where Ms Cho shared her journey in sustainable finance and advice on how to #BreaktheBias.

Watch the recording here.

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2022, this leadership panel session brings together prominent female leaders in the Asia Pacific, who shared their perspectives on how they have carved their paths to success. Featuring prominent female leaders in the Asia Pacific such as CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An; Citco Fund Services Head of Asia Pacific, Managing Director Ms Donna Hutchings; and virtual speakers China Overseas Commercial Properties CO., Ltd. Deputy Manager Ms Angel Tang; PwC Tax Japan Tax Partner Ms Akemi Kito; and Sustainability Institutional Investor Ms Anita Marangoly George, the session unpacks what it means to break the bias and barriers along their journey to leadership.

Survive the Collapse centred around an Amazing Race-inspired scavenger hunt, in a world where climate change has drastically impacted life on Earth, with significant temperature rises, droughts and swindling resources. Organised by social club Frolic, participants travelled across Singapore in teams of four to compete in various games with an immersive theatre experience, interacting with actors and using an app to collect points. The Singapore Sustainability Academy was a partner for this event, proving a venue for one of the location points.

The game was held in line with prevailing safe distancing measures, and teams did not meet with other teams during the event.

We launched the “Keep Calm and Love our Planet” video at our hybrid “Youth4Climate Global Conversations with Young Champions #5: Turning Anxiety into Action” event. This special video features the voices of young leaders from all over the world at COP26 sharing their worries and wishes for a more sustainable future.

The event also featured a special speech from British High Commissioner to Singapore Her Excellency Kara Owen and Member of Parliament Mr Louis Ng. Attendees also tuned in to an exciting panel discussion with the National Youth Council CEO Mr David Chua and young climate champions, two of whom joined virtually.

Attended by 50 in-person guests and over 50 virtual attendees, the event was held in line with prevailing safe distancing measures. It is part of our “Keep Calm and Love Our Planet” campaign at COP26 launched in Glasgow last November, in partnership with Singapore Youth for Climate Action to turn eco-anxiety into a force for positive change.

Watch the recording here.

In partnership with Global Green Connect’s Academy, CDL’s Singapore Sustainability Academy launched Sustainability Connect, a platform offering sustainability practitioners practical knowledge to share best practices, transform and future-proof businesses for long-term success.

The hybrid launch event included a dynamic plenary session hosted by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An and GGC Founder and CEO Ms Christina Lee. It featured the following speakers: UOB Chief Sustainability Officer Mr Eric Lim, AIA Group Head of Sustainability Ms Amita Chaudhury and PALO IT Managing Director Mr Vincent Desclaux. Willis Towers Watson Managing Director, Global Leader – Executive Compensation Mr Shai Ganu, joined via Zoom from Amsterdam.

Attended by 50 in-person guests and close to 200 virtual attendees, the event was held in line with prevailing safe distancing measures.

Watch the recording here.

ULI Singapore held its second Sustainability Product Council Meeting at the SSA. Ms Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer and Co-Chair of the council shared on the topic: Joining the Race to Zero: Reflections on COP26. Mr Chris Caroll, Arup Director, spoke on the topic: Net Zero Buildings – Where Do We Stand? Mr Billy Grayson, ULI Executive Director for the Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance and Ms Marta Schantz, SVP of the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance closed off the meeting with a pre-recorded message on the topic: ULI Greenprint Building the Momentum for Net Zero Carbon Operations Goal.

CDL launched “Sustainable Fashion 2.0: Greening Our Wardrobe” in partnership with social enterprise The Fashion Pulpit, as part of our Women4Green Impact Series and outreach initiatives on responsible consumption and disposal. Attended by 50 in-person guests, the hybrid event featured a dynamic fireside chat, a chic upcycled fashion show, and sharings from UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand ambassadors on green consumerism in their own countries. As part of the event, CDL also launched a public survey inviting participants to explore their own consumption habits, titled “Inside Our Wardrobe: An Experiential Wardrobe Exercise”. Note: The event held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy adhered to prevailing COVID-19 Safe Management Measures. 

Watch the recording here. 

Hosted by Ryan Lim, Principal Consultant of QED Consulting, the latest topic of Business Innovation featured six distinguished speakers who were part of the 6th QED Changemaker Series panel. In each episode, our guests share their experiences, expertise and insights on how innovation can prepare businesses to be future-resilient. Those featured on this podcast were: Mr Patrick Tay, Assistant Secretary General of NTUC & Member of Parliament for Pioneer SMC; Mr Jan-Paul Jeffrey, Head of Marketing, Southeast Asia, Spotify; Dr Jaclyn Lee, Chief Human Resources Officer, Singapore University of Technology and Design; Mr Howie Lau, Assistant Chief Executive for Media & Innovation, Infocomm Media Development Authority; Ms Jessica Cheam, Managing Director of Eco-Business and Mr Ted Tan, Deputy Chief Officer, Enterprise Singapore

Listen to the recording here.

In celebration of Children’s Day, CDL partnered with Tembusu CSR on a fun-filled storytelling and activities session. Led by Tembusu CSR’s educators, this virtual event featured a scavenger hunt, a song, a Kahoot! game, and an original story called “The Adventures of Spikey the Hedgehog: A Plastic Disaster”. Through this interactive session, over 200 children and their families met Spikey and learned how to reduce plastic waste in their everyday lives.

Watch the recording here. 

The Conscious Festival is a festive event by lifestyle media and events platform Green Is The New Black, focusing on sustainable living, transport, energy, and more. In 2021, The Conscious Festival became a hybrid three-day event, held physically in Paris, Singapore and London, as well as virtually for the rest of the world.

CDL was a venue partner for its Singapore pop-up, hosting the event at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An also spoke at one of the festival’s talks, themed “Sustainability through the female lens”. Moderated by Head of Content for TZ APAC Ms Marissa Trew, Ms An spoke alongside President of United Women Singapore Ms Georgette Tan on gender diversity and women’s empowerment.

In the third part of The Future of Sustainability Reporting series, three prominent ESG investing experts shared their insights and advice about the rising expectations of investors and what they wish to see in a corporate sustainability report. Our expert panel comprised Mr Shinbo Won (Director, Investment Stewardship, BlackRock), Ms Chitra Hepburn (Head of APAC ESG Client Coverage, MSCI), and Mr James Robertson (Head of Asia (ex-China & Japan), Principles for Responsible Investment), with the discussion being moderated by Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL. The webinar saw about 350 attendees from 24 countries.

Watch the recording here. 

In the second part of The Future of Sustainability Reporting series, the webinar focussed on challenges and opportunities for SME reporters. Featuring Prof Lawrence Loh, Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore; Jessica Cheam, SID ESG Committee member, Founder and Managing Director, Eco-Business; Cindy Lim, Deputy Director (Circular Economy & Sustainability), Enterprise Singapore; Dr Allinnettes Adigue, Head, Global Reporting Initiative ASEAN Hub; and moderated by Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL, the expert panel shared tips for SMEs looking to kickstart their sustainability reporting journey or take it to the next level.

Watch the recording here

ULI Singapore held its first Sustainability Product Council Meeting at the SSA. Three key topics were discussed: ULI Greenprint—Reducing Carbon, Building Value; Smart City Supply Chain, and Sustainability-Linked Bond. The council which comprises 13 members from CDL, Surbana Jurong, Allianz Real Estate, Arcadis, Arup, Benoy, Brookfield, CMIA Capital Partners, CMS Holborn Asia, Colliers, Frasers Property, PGIM Real Estate and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, heard from Dr Robert Yap, Executive Chairman of YCH Group, and Andy Atkin, Group CFO of Surbana Jurong Group.

The Future of Sustainability Reporting is the first of a webinar series, which covers key topics and global trends on ESG disclosure. This session featured expert panellists Jon Williams, TCFD Board’s expert member and Partner, Sustainability and Climate Change, PwC London; Pratima Divgi, Regional Director, CDP Hong Kong; Abigail Ng, SID ESG Committee Member and Executive Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore; and Rajesh Chhabara, Managing Director, CSRWorks International. Moderated by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An, this webinar was attended by some 400 attendees from 25 countries, including China, US, Denmark and Nigeria.

Watch the recording here

In celebration of World Environment Day on 5 June 2021, CDL’s Virtual SSA and National Library Board (NLB) presented Storytelling @ My Tree House with NLB librarian, Shimah Azli, who has almost 10 years of storytelling experience. At this virtual eco storytelling workshop, attendees learned the benefits of storytelling and got tips on being an engaging storyteller. Winners from My Tree House’s Eco Storytelling Contest 2020 also shared on their experiences with last year’s competition.

Watch the recording here

We celebrated Earth Day 2021 with the first session of The Art and Science of Circularity Series, featuring Tom Peacock-Nazil, Founder of Seven Clean Seas; J.J. Chuan, Founder of Rehyphen; and Raye Padit, Founder of The Fashion Pulpit. The three local eco innovators discussed their exciting journeys in advocating for upcycling and combating ocean pollution.

Watch the recording here

CDL’s VSSA and Women4Green Network celebrated International Women’s Day and its theme #ChooseToChallenge with our first hybrid event since the start of COVID-19. The panel featured Patricia Torres, Global Head of Sustainable Finance Solutions, Bloomberg; Trina Liang, Managing Director, Templebridge Investments; Past-President, Singapore Committee for UN Women; Chitra Hepburn, Head of APAC ESG Client Coverage, MSCI; Wong Su Yen, Global Board Director; Professional Speaker; Chairperson, Singapore Institute of Directors; Founder & CEO, Bronze Phoenix Pte Ltd. and moderator Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL. Titled Women Champions in Sustainability, this session explored the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and the journeys of three C-suite women as they #ChooseToChallenge norms and barriers in building a greener future for all.

Watch the recording here

We kickstarted the year with our fourth Youth4Climate Global Conversations with Young Champions session, spotlighting eco champions from Hong Kong, one of the first Asian countries to make a bold pledge towards net zero. Featuring Natalie Chung, Co-Founder and Director at V’air Hong Kong, Member at Council for Sustainable Development and 2020 Eco-Business Youth A-List; Brian Pak, Business Catalyst at New World Development Company Limited; Hermia Chan, Business Outreach manager at V’air Hong Kong and Tan Ting Ng, Co-Founder at Heartsrings, this virtual event touched on their journeys driving sustainable consumption, eco-tourism and more.

Watch the recording here

Our third Youth4Climate Global Conversations with Young Champions session featured a SEA-focussed panel, comprising Paola Cortese, Country Manager of Plastic Bank and Founder of Cortese Design Studio (Indonesia), Warung Rooftop Indonesia and Zero Waste Life HK (Indonesia); Maggie Lee, Program Manager of Southeast Asia Plastic & Marine Management at UN Environment Programme (Thailand); Rahmat HM, Branch Manager of Dompet Dhuafa Philanthropy and Founder of The Floating School (Indonesia); and Emily Oi, Policy Studies Senior Analyst at Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (Malaysia). Partcipants learned about the panellists’ ground-up initiatives in their respective parts of the world and their inspiring journeys on sustainable consumption and waste reduction.

Watch the recording here

CDL kicked off our Trailblazers in Digital Media series with news veteran Jessica Cheam, Founder and Managing Director of Eco-Business, Asia Pacific’s leading media organisation on sustainable development. Moderated by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An at the Singapore Sustainabilility Academy, the robust discussion included Jessica’s journey into uncharted waters when she first started Eco-Business and emerging victorious with an award-winning, environmental-focussed digital publication with more than 1.5 million unique viewers and almost 3 million page views per year. The session also covered Jessica’s thoughts on the growth of corporate sustainability, the obstacles she faced and overcame, and her plans for the future in the new normal.

Watch the recording here

In celebration of Business Women’s Day on 22 September and as part of Women4Green, CDL hosted “Sense & Sensibility: Smart & Sustainable Cities”, a virtual webinar that focussed on the importance of women in business and society, especially when bringing  alternative perspectives to key urban issues. This session featured women champions Lauren Sorkin, Executive Director of Global Resilient Cities Network; Armelle Le Bihan, Founder & CEO of Green Building, Consulting and Engineering; Emily Tan, General Manager of Shell City Solutions; Kris Villanueva-Libunao, Executive Director and Chief Sustainability Officer of SmartCT; Victoria Kate Burrows, Director of Advancing Net Zero World Green Building Council; and Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL. The webinar covered their passion, insights and aspirations for building a more sustainable world with their skill set, intuition and sensitivity.

Watch the recording here

In commemoration of this year’s International Primate Day, CDL partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute of Singapore (JGIS) to present the 11^th Primate Lecture. This lecture featured Dr Rebeca Atencia, Executive Director of Jane Goodall Institute Congo, who shared her work at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre in the Republic of the Congo, where rescued (and often injured) chimps from the illegal bushmeat and wildlife pet trade are cared for and evaluated for eventual release back into natural and protected habitats. One of the examples shared was Wounda, a famous Tchimpounga resident (pictured above hugging Dr Jane Goodall), who was nursed back to health by Dr Atencia and her team.

As interest in urban gardening and food composting has increased over the past few months due to restrictions posed by the pandemic, CDL organised Gardening at Home with Founder of Weird & Wonderful Edibles, Joanna Chuah and media personality, Charlotte Mei. Participants were able to learn tips and tricks on composting, seed selection, germination, soil and fertilizers, and even how to build their own garden.

Watch the recording here

In an exclusive virtual tour of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Singapore) (ACRES), Ms Anbarasi Boopal, Deputy CEO of ACRES, provided participants a close up of how rescued animals are cared for at ACRES’s facility, including a tour of areas usually closed off to the public. Animals that were featured in the tour include the giant tortoise, black-naped oriole, scops owl, junglefowl, common palm civet and green iguana.

With support from CDL, Accommodate’s Citizen Reporter Programme introduces contemporary urban issues to students and helps them develop critical thinking and writing skills that studies these issues and produce engaging narratives. This year, participants of the programme shared their motivation for choosing their topic of interest ranging from racial discrimination, single motherhood to redevelopment of neighbourhood infrastructure, and deep dived into their research and call-to-action plans.

The 10^th Jane Goodall Institute of Singapore (JGIS) Primate Lecture was in celebration of #Gombe60 – the 60^th anniversary of the day Dr. Jane Goodall first arrived in what is now Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, to begin her ground-breaking study of wild chimpanzees. Dr. Anthony Collins, Director of Baboon Research, Gombe Stream Research Centre (GSRC), shared the brief history of GSRC; how Roots & Shoots and the TACARE Project came into being; the time he spent working alongside the legendary Dr.  Jane Goodall; and all about the baboons at Gombe Stream. Dr. Collins joined Dr. Jane Goodall’s study of olive baboons at Gombe from 1972 to 1975. After a brief absence, he returned to Gombe in 1987 to begin his long-term baboon study, which is still ongoing today.

In its second instalment of the “Youth4Climate Global Conversations with Young Champions” series, CDL invited Filipina Save Philippine Seas Co-Founder and Chief Mermaid Anna Oposa, Indonesian ANERDstore Co-Founder Hannah Angsana, Singaporean Our Singapore Reefs Co-Founder Sam Shu Qin, Singaporean Seastainable Co-Founder Samantha Thian, and American sustainability professional, podcaster and educator Shana Rose. Hosted by local youth environmentalist Cheryl Lee, the all-female panel shared their inspiring journeys on promoting sustainable consumption and waste reduction in their communities. This international webinar also covered the eco heroines’ expertise and experiences in plastic, food, and fashion waste.

Watch the recording here

CDL organised “Youth4Climate Global Conversations with Young Champions #1”, featuring Nigerian youth leader Chiagozie Udeh, Swiss environmentalist Marie-Claire Graf, Singaporean green fighter Ho Xiang Tian, and American eco champion Sarah Greenberg. Hosted by local youth environmentalist Cheryl Lee, this international webinar session was attended by a global audience from over 25 countries. The session also covered the aspirations and experiences of these young champions as they fight for more robust climate action in their respective parts of the world.

Watch the recording here

CDL hosted “The Science of Well-being: Mindfulness and Positive Psychology”, a virtual workshop that focussed on personal health. Organised in collaboration with ActiveSG, the session was hosted by SportSG certified health and wellness coach, Mark Allison, and Deputy Director, DYCEO Office, Ung Bee Koon. It covered tips on practising mindfulness and simple mobility movements to help participants feel their best both physically and mentally – especially useful for people working long hours in a single fixed position.

Watch the recording here

CDL partnered with social enterprise Secondsguru to organise “Sustainable Habits –  Old and New – For Keeps”, a virtual workshop covering six sustainable lifestyle practices that would be useful in the wake of the pandemic. Hosted by Secondsguru founders Anuja Aggarwal and Lara Rath, the session explored the social and environmental implications of COVID-19 and covered a variety of sustainable habits that anyone can adopt in the new normal, such as supporting local produce and minimising waste.

Watch the recording here

In celebration of World Environment Day, CDL organised “Is Ugly Food Really Ugly?” a virtual workshop on food waste in Singapore together with not-for-profit organisation Zero Waste SG and food supplies redistributor Treedots. Hosted by Executive Director of Zero Waste SG Pek Hai Lin and Business Development Representative from TreeDots Pamela Low, the session explored the idea of “ugly” foods, food rejection, and food waste. It concluded with an interactive game of “2 Truths 1 Lie” and an engaging Q&A session, during which the two speakers discussed sustainable consumption and moving towards a circular economy in Singapore.

Watch the recording here

CDL invited The Fashion Pulpit and Connected Threads founder Raye Padit for a virtual workshop titled “Keep Mending and Sew On”. In this interactive session, participants were taught how to transform old clothes into three functional everyday products – bags, rags, and pillow stuffing. The aim of the workshop was to keep pre-loved clothes away from the landfills for as long as possible, with participants upcycling their old clothes alongside Raye in a live sewing demonstration as he shared his experiences in sustainable fashion.

Watch the recording here

On International Day for Biological Diversity 2020, CDL and CNA Edible Wild host, culinary anthropologist and founder of Brunch Bandits Nithiya Laila hosted “Circular Food Economies at Home”, a workshop focussing on biodiversity, eating local and eating well. Participants learned how to make Nasi Ulam onigiri in a live and interactive cooking demonstration, during which Nithiya also shared her expertise on foraging, native herbs and vegetables, and sustainable consumption in Singapore.

Watch the recording here

In collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), CDL conducted “Storytime @ My Tree House”. Attended by over 300 people, the virtual workshop covered tips on becoming a better storyteller. Hosted by Lim Sieu Pin, one of NLB’s most experienced librarians and outstanding storytellers, the interactive session included a live storytelling demonstration and an engaging Q&A session. Sieu Pin also shared tips with the audience on how to score well for My Tree House’s Eco Storytelling Contest, an environment-themed storytelling contest for children aged 3 to 12 that was also jointly organised with NLB.

Watch the recording here

In partnership with lifestyle media and events platform Green Is The New Black (GITNB), CDL organised “Sustainability Bingo!”, a virtual workshop that taught participants #LittleGreenSteps they could take to reduce their carbon footprint through a fun and interactive game. Hosted by GITNB founder and two-time TEDx speaker Stephanie Dickson, the session also covered the sustainability landscape in Singapore and focussed on everyday actions participants could take to become more environmentally conscious.

Watch the recording here

Description
Secondsguru, a social enterprise dedicated to promote eco-awareness, conducted its fourth and final instalment of its one-day zero waste bootcamp for youths. Participants worked in groups of four to five to create action plans to guide their communities to embrace zero waste lifestyles in 2019 and 2020. In this final instalment, the teams presented their execution strategy, successes, challenges and learnings in rolling out their action plans.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Co-founders of Secondsguru Anuja Aggarwal and Lara Rath, and Founder of Seastainable Samantha Thian
Award Sponsors: LUSH Cosmetics, The Fashion Pulpit, Bollywood Veggies
Grant sponsor: Seastainable

Socials/Links
Secondsguru Facebook post

Description
CDL hosted a group of Nanyang Business School students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), who were enrolled in a module on green marketing. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer shared CDL’s sustainability initiatives and how they are incorporated into CDL’s business strategy and product offerings.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Nanyang Business School, NTU

Description
Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is a project initiated by Tire Industry Program, under the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 2018. GPSNR members had a roundtable discussion to finalise policies on sustainable natural rubber sourcing.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
WBCSD, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Rainforest Alliance, Cooper Tire, Sumitomo Rubber Industry, Southland Global Rubber

Description
The 2020 Young SDG Leaders Award (YSDGLA) competition held a full-house briefing to some 200 youths who were keen to advance the business case for SDGs and circular economy. Held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, the briefing provided a background of the case competition as well as a sharing session by last year’s YSDGLA winning team Tree-Huggers from the Singapore Management University.

Initiated by CDL in partnership with GCNS, this annual business case competition launched in 2011 seeks to empower and groom youths into future sustainability champions. The Award is open to students and youths from 17 to 35 years old who are equipped with the skills and know-how to integrate SDGs into business strategy and operations. Formerly known as CDL-GCNS Young CSR Leaders Award, it was rebranded in 2018 to CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award in support of the SDGs.

Socials/Links
CDL Sustainaiblity Facebook post
CDL Sustainability Instagram post
https://youngsdgleaders.com/

Description
The Singapore Wildcat Action Group (SWAG) organised an informative session about the CAT Walk Plus programme, a low-impact guided hike through an area of Malaysia to assist in tiger monitoring efforts.

Founded in 2019, SWAG is a conservation group whose mission is to raise awareness of wildcats of the world. SWAG’s mission is to build grassroot support for wildcat conservation and to realise its goal of raising funds to protect the world’s remaining 200 Malayan tigers living in the wild.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Singapore Wildcat Action Group (SWAG), Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT).

Socials/Links
Singapore Wildcat Action Group Facebook

Description
The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) held a closed-door technical workgroup meeting to discuss technical and communications aspects of ISO/TC 207/SC 3 standards for environmental labeling.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
International Standards Organisation (ISO), SGBC

Description
Organised by marine conservation group Marine Stewards that was founded in 2019, “Fishing for the Future 2020” was the first community engagement for sustainable sports fishing in support of SDG 14 (Life Under Water). Over a hundred people attended the inaugural event, engaging in various marine conservation and sustainable fishing topics including:

Marine conservation

1. Marine Stewards Singapore sustainable fishing guidelines
2. Best practices for catch and release, fishing etiquette
3. Endangered marine animals in Singapore, including horseshoe crabs and otters
4. Importance of reefs and mangrove systems

Sustainable fishing

• Captain’s offshore tips
• Fish specific techniques

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Marine Stewards Singapore, Better Trails, Shimano Fishing Tackles – South East Asia, PapyPress, TESA, Lure Haven Singapore and Light Salt Game

Socials/Links
For more event photos, please see Marine Stewards Facebook post

Description
The Royal Danish Embassy in Singapore, together with UNLEASH and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organised a half-day session on the urgency for the world to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The session covered, amongst others, the importance of strengthening the means of implementation and revitalising global partnerships as an accelerator of business solutions and youth innovations for sustainable development.

UNLEASH is a global innovation lab that brings together people from all over the world to transform 1,000 personal insights into hundreds of ideas, and build lasting global networks around the Sustainable Development Goals. UNLEASH is a non-profit started in 2017. Since 2017, UNLEASH has been held in Denmark, Singapore and China.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Embassy of Denmark, UNLEASH, UNDP

Description
Food waste is a complex conundrum in land-scare Singapore that has no natural resources and limited landfield. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), 763,100 tonnes of food waste was generated in 2018, equivalent to the weight of 54,000 double-decker buses. This has increased by about 30 percent over the last decade. Yet, Singapore imports 90% of its food, which amounts to about 2 million tonnes.

To kick start the new year, CDL organised a timely discussion on food waste minimisation, in line with Singapore’s Year Towards Zero Waste in 2019 and ahead of the launch of “2020: Singapore Food Story” in February 2020. Moderated by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms Esther An, the forum attracted over 80 participants, featuring expert speakers from across the public, private and people sectors:

• Mr Ron Wong, Deputy Director, Waste and Resource Management Department, NEA
• Mr Nicholas Ng, Co-Founder, The Food Bank Singapore
• Ms Chitra Venkatesh, Head of Education and Network leader, WWF-Singapore
• Mr Tan Szue Hann, former Managing Director, MINIWIZ
• Mr Tyler Jong, Co-Founder, TreeDots
• Mr Max Yeo, Sales Manager, Zero Waste Solution

In the candid and robust discussions, there was general consensus that the government had been stepping up on efforts to address food waste in Singapore. While more could still be done by the government, other players such as businesses and the people could do their part to further reduce food waste. This should include down stream disposal (e.g. food waste redistribution, recycling, and composting) as well as upstream activities such as reducing over-purchase of food, and accepting “ugly” fruits and vegetables that are still edible.

Socials/Links
CDL Sustainability Facebook post
CDL Sustainability Instagram post

Description
The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber is a project initiated by Tire Industry Program, under World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2018. A round table discussion was conducted for members to finalise sustainable natural rubber sourcing policies.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Sumitomo, Cooper Tires, WWF, Rainforest Alliance, Southland Global

Description
CDL hosted officers from Malaysia’s Ministry of Works and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) at the Singapore Sustainability Academy on 13 Jan 2020.

During the session, CDL was pleased to share our climate action and sustainability initiatives, green building innovation, our climate and carbon management policy and 3P engagement efforts. The Malaysian delegation was led by CIDB General Manager Mr Ramuseren Muthu, other visting members were from CIDB and Eco-Ideal Consulting Sdn Bhd, a consultancy firm engaged by CIDB. The delegation’s visit to Singapore was to gain better insights on Singapore’s government strategies in encouraging green constructions, formulating and implementing the related regulations, and how developers have answered the call for a more sustainable built environment.

Description
The Youth Action Challenge seeks to engage youths with a dream to make a difference to the lives of Singaporeans, by giving youths an opportunity to pitch their ideas to relevant government or industry agencies. Organised by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the National Youth Council, the Youth Action Challenge features three tracks – Environment, Social, and Economy.

On 5 and 26 October 2019, more than 70 youths had attended the Youth Action Challenge (environment track) “context setting” and “ideation” sessions, both of which were held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The two workshops cumulated to the finale session of the Youth Action Challenge (environment track) – “prototyping session” – on 11 Jan 2020 at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The teams pitched ideas of their vision of Singapore in 2025 to a panel of made up of influencers, leaders and entrepreneurs, championing sustainability-related intiaitives such as single-use plastics, food waste, enhancing awareness and education on climate change, and improving domestic policies to encourage greener and more sustainable habits.

The 12 best teams will be selected as finalists to attend the Youth Action Challenge Summit in April 2020, where they will pitch their ideas to 4G leaders, industry experts and key youth leaders to receive up to $50,000 each in grants to put their ideas into action. The other teams will receive grants of up to $5,000 each for their projects.

The Youth Action Challenge is part of the SG Action Plan. The SG Youth Action Plan have since seen the involvement of thousands of young people in over 10 workshops and engagements.

Organisers, including partners and sponsors
Solaris Strategies Singapore Pte Ltd (executing for Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth)

High-level guests
Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Ministry of Communications and Information
Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of the Enviornment and Water Resources, Ministry of Health

Socials/Links
The Straits Times article
MCCY Website
CDL Sustainability Facebook post

CDL hosted POSCO, a prominent global steel-making company from South Korea, at the SSA. The POSCO delegation comprised top executives with expertise in Business Management, Business Strategy Planning, Human Resources, and Governance. The delegation was keen to exchange views with CDL on integrating sustainability strategies into businesses.

Nature Society Singapore (NSS) earlier launched a new publication titled “The Green Rail Corridor: A Biological and Ecological Overview”, and organised a briefing, in relation to its book, for its volunteers at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. At the briefing, the authors of “The Green Rail Corridor: A Biological and Ecological Overview” presented an overview of the book, as well as provided the latest developments of their work. Prof Shawn Lum, President of Nature Society, concluded the event with some closing remarks followed by a volunteer appreciation lunch.

Forum for the Future organised a workshop on system change, which was attended by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) staff. The workshop aimed to introduce the concept of systems change and the tools used in systems change interventions so that change could be effected at and through the right actors in a system. Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit.

The Zero Waste Bootcamp targets 18 to 30 years old youths in Singapore. It is an education program created by Secondsguru to share zero waste lifestyle strategies with the youth, and is aligned with Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR)’s Year Towards Zero Waste Goals for 2019. During the session, participants worked in groups in a collaborative workshop to develop actionable plans to tackle the waste problem in Singapore. Over the next few months, teams would be presenting their ideas in an Ecothon, with facilitators guiding them. This plan would be rolled out in the community over two months and the groups would meet again to present their community efforts.

Stewardship Asia Centre launched its “Stewardship Commons 2019 Insights Report”, which distils insights shared at discussions held earlier in the year to complement the conversation on how companies could act on their obligation to steward our global commons. Dr Fraser Thompson, Director of AlphaBeta, kicked off the session with an insights presentation of the report. Dr Thompson also moderated a panel discussion on science-based targets in Singapore, featuring panellists including Sunny Verghese, Co-Founder and Group CEO, Olam International; Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL; Chia Boon Chong, Director of Group Sustainability, Singtel; and Lise Pretorius, Vice President, Asia Sustainable Finance, WWF Singapore. The event wrapped up with a speech by Mr Ong Boon Hwee, CEO, Stewardship Asia.

Stewardship Commons is a platform that brings together a network of responsible and committed organisations for interaction and consultation towards developing best practices and standards, and to catalyse change in identified areas related to stewardship of the environment.

To celebrate a “zero-waste santa” theme for Women4Green Network Impact Series #7, CDL brought in deTERRA Essential Oils and Rehyphen to lead workshops on DIY-ing unique essential oils creams and weaving discarded cassette tapes into a work of Christmas art. All the participants had a good time unwinding at the workshops, and took home, as a souvenir, either customised essential oils creams or a weaved casette tape artwork to celebrate Christmas.

Women4Green Network Impact Series is usually organised quarterly to bring together women executives who are interested to adopt chamption sustainable lifestyle and practices at work, at home, and at play.

(Photo credit: Secondsguru)

Secondsguru organised its third run of its Zerowaste Bootcamp. This time, the event featured 11 youths who made their pitch on their respective zero waste community projects. Some notable pitchings included: Team Oath’s findings of their concerted effort to spread awarenss about the carbon footprint of the fashion industry; Team Supreme Guilt’s – or as they called themselves, the “ewastewarriors” – successful e-waste collection and education drive at Yale-NUS campus; and Team BlueSky’s awareness campaign on single-use plastics and the need for circularity. After a round of judging, Team Oath won the pitch and received some grant from the Seastainable Co. fund to continue their outreach campaign on reducing fashion waste.

A youth delegation comprising Singaporeans and Malaysians under the ambit of the INSPIRIT-Perdana Young Leaders Programme visited the Singapore Sustainability Academy as part of its bilateral exchange programme. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An was invited to speak on the challenges of achieving the triple bottom-line, the role of young people in developing a sustainable future, and sustainable development efforts of businesses across the region.

The INSPIRIT-Perdana Young Leaders Programme is co-organised by the National Youth Council (NYC) and the Perdana Fellows Alumni Association (PFAA) to support the development of influential young adult leaders from the NYC’s INSPIRIT Community of Young Leaders and PFAA, the latter being supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Malaysia.

Organised by UK Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and supported by the British High Commission in Singapore, the “Shaping Sustainable Behaviours in Singapore: A Behavioural Insights Workshop” was a full house event with representatives from private corporations, civil service, NGOs, and academic institutions. BIT Senior Advisor Alexander Clark presented on leveraging behavourial science to help people make sustainable choices, with BIT Head of Energy & Sustainability Toby Park participating remotely and providing input to Alexander’s presentation. The event was followed by small group discussions facilitated by BIT, delving into key sustainability issues across three themes – energy, waste, and wildlife – to address specific areas where behavioural insights could help encourage behaviour change.

The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) held a private discussion for its members and staff to exchange views and best practices that could contribute to AVPN’s Climate Action Platform.

Inspired by the movie “The True Cost” that exposed the underbelly of the fashion industry, Sindy Ong founded The Clothes Library for people to refresh their wardrobe without needing to purchase new items. At the event held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, Sindy shared on how the public could be more involved in such fashion swapping initiatives. Curated pieces of wearable women fashion were also brought to the event to attract the participants to swap with an oath (a pledge) rather than with clothes or money.

The Norwegian Business Association of Singapore (NBAS) organised a lunch seminar titled “Creating a more sustainable future through corporate responsibility initiatives”, which focussed on corporate responsibility and sustainability. The seminar also featured best practice examples from DNB, Norway’s largest financial group. The event covered issues including how large corporate organisations can integrate ethical, environmental and social aspects into business operations. Øistein Akselberg, Senior Sustainability Manager for DNB’s Corporate Banking and Omar Sekkat, Senior Vice President for Oil & Gas and Corporate Responsibility Ambassador for Asia-Pacific from DNB shared an outline of their upcoming plans, the opportunities and challenges they had faced, and their experiences in achieving corporate responsibility and sustainability experiences within their global organisation.

Zero Waste SG held its first fundraising event to an enthused crowd at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The programme included an opening remarks by Zero Waste SG Manager Pek Hailin who shared the NGO’s milestones and plans for 2020, three rounds of trivia, and an auction bidding to raise funds for Zero Waste SG. Proceed from the event would help Zero Waste SG to continue its efforts in raising awareness of effective waste minimisation in Singapore.

Zero Waste SG is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation dedicated to help Singapore eliminate the concept of waste, and accelerate the shift towards zero waste and the circular economy.

The Central Clean & Green Singapore Carnival 2019, organised by NEA and the Central Singapore Community Development Council, was held at City Square Mall and the Singapore Sustainability Academy from 16 to 17 November 2019. The event featured the launch of “Eco-Works @ Central Singapore” by GOH Professor Yaacob Ibrahim, Mayor Denise Phua, CEO of NEA Tan Meng Dui and Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL Esther An. During the carnival, visitors participated in the first series of workshops under “Eco-Works @ Central Singapore”, which included activities on aerobic composting and games involving how to separate recyclables from rubbish. “Eco-Works @ Central Singapore” would be a year-long initiative as a platform that could provide opportunities for people to connect and exchange ideas in the Central Singapore community, to incorporate eco-friendly practices in everyday life.

The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) organised a course on the environmental impact of building products and the skills needed to produce a simplified assessment report to communicate a product’s carbon footprints. The SGBC is a local non-profit organisation that aims to achieve a world-class and sustainable built-environment in Singapore through concerted private-public sector partnership. Its key role is to advocate green building design, practices and technologies and drive environmental sustainability in the building and construction industry.

The Conference Board (TCB), a global non-profit business membership and research think-tank founded in 1916, held a full-day event “The Employee Engagement & Experience Council Asia Meeting” for its members at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. TCB members had a useful exchange on employee engagement in the private sector, effective methods of engaging staff, and maximising corporate initiatives. The agenda also included a sharing of TCB’s latest research titled “DNA of Engagement”. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An was invited to share on CDL’s sustainability investments and initiatives that saw positive feedback in its employee engagement survey.

Natural Capital Singapore organised a discussion for the local recreational fishing community as part of its ongoing research to assess the current status and health of Singapore’s major ecosystems and quantify their economic and societal value. At the discussion, these passionate anglers picked up tips on how they could contribute and participate in the research via citizen science initiatives. The research undertaken by Natural Capital Singapore comprises an interdisciplinary team from Singapore ETH Centre, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, NParks, and ETH Zurich.

Representatives from the businesses, government, research and civil society sectors exchanged ideas at the Roundtable on Environment and Inclusion held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The discussion covered insights, tools, experience and needs to co-develop innovative solutions that addressed environmental sustainability, while integrating social inclusion and rights-based approaches. The discussion also served as input for a plenary section at the Responsible Business Forum on Sustainable Development themed “Circularity 2030”.

The Roundtable on the Environment and Social Inclusion platform was co-founded by Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Initiatives. Stockholm Environment Institute is an international non-profit research and policy organisation that tackles environment and development challenges.

As a lead up to the Responsible Business Forum with the theme “Circularity2030”, Global Initiatives and SecondMuse held the workshop “Transitioning your sector to a circular economy” at the SSA. This by-invitation-only workshop gave organisations, including CDL, the opportunity to contribute their vision and ambitions for turning industries circular by 2030. Stakeholders from across five sectors – food & agriculture, FMCG, buildings and infrastructure, technology and communication, and energy – participated in the discussions.

Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability (NELIS), a non-profit network of young leaders working on solutions for sustainability from around the globe, organised its Special Leadership Day event at the Singapore Sustainable Academy. The full day event, which was part of the three-day long Next leaders’ Asia Summit 2019, saw over 30 young professionals from various sectors and disciplines engaging in insightful discussions on the latest sustainability trends, the skills needed to lead groundbreaking sustainability projects and research, as well as collaborations that they could explore and resources required to drive change.

Global Initiatives, a firm that advances partnership solutions to global sustainability challenges, and SecondMuse, which engages in open innovation to create social impact, jointly organised the “Big Think” workshop, The event attracted industry experts to discuss data and plastic waste management. SecondMuse also introduced their new project “The Plastics Data Challenge”, a global innovation challenge that aims to develop solutions and tap on the nexus of data and plastic waste management as part of a larger mission to reduce ocean plastic pollution. The insights gathered from this workshop would help inform the design of the plastics challenge and explore collaborative cross-sector partnerships within the community.

The Rockefeller Foundation and Global Resilient Cities Network (previously known as 100 Resilient Cities) organised a dialogue on fighting climate and change and building climate resilience, which event was well attended by a group of partners. Elizabeth Yee, Managing Director for Climate and Resilience Operations at The Rockefeller Foundation, shared about the new initiatives by Rockefeller Foundation; while Lauren Sorkin, Acting Executive Director, Resilient Cities Network, shared about the new direction of the Global Resilient Cities Network as well as highlights of the Urban Resilience Forum. Selected partners also made short presentations on current initiatives and potential areas of collaboration with Global Resilient Cities Network. Overall, it was an insightful discussion about the gaps and opportunities in Asia Pacific, specifically in areas such as climate change adaptation, infrastructure needs, financing gap, and social cohesion.

CDL launched the “Saving Glaciers Alliance” to raise awareness of the importance of conserving the world’s polar region and glaciers. The launch featured Sir Robert Swan, the first man to walk unaided to both the North and South poles, who shared his experiences travelling to the poles and his views on climate change. The event was over-subscribed. In attendance were also high-level representatives, such as ambassadors of Sweden, Finland, EU and Norway, and diplomats from the British High Commission and the Danish Embassy.

Robert shared about his experiences trekking to the North and South poles. Besides being a captivating story, Robert’s lecture was also a wake-up call about rapid environmental destruction caused by climate change. CDL E-Generation winners 2017 Jessica Cheam, founder and managing director of Eco-Business, and singer-songwriter Inch Chua, and Stephanie Dickson founder of Green is the New Black, joined Sir Robert Swan in a panel discussion, moderated by Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL. These eco-advocates had a candid and lively discussion about the reasons and inspiration that powered them to champion their cause.

The event concluded with Sherman Kwek, Group CEO of CDL, presenting the “Saving Glaciers Alliance” flag to Robert, which would be planted at Robert’s end-of-the-year expedition to the South Pole.

With the return of transboundary haze after a three-year break, Nor Lastrina Hamid, Co-Founder of Singapore Youth for Climate Action organised and facilitated a timely discussion on haze with Benjamin Tay, Executive Director of PM Haze (People’s Movement to Stop Haze) and Asyraf Mustaffa, from Majulah Community. Benjamin and Asyraf shared about their visits to Riau, as well as their personal accounts in battling peatland fires with local firefighters in a smouldering environment. The discussion also shed light on how local communities in Indonesia were managing the fires, and how Singaporeans could help support efforts to combat haze such as supporting peatland restoration programme and buying products made from sustainably sourced palm oil.

Over 100 youths participated in an independently organised workshop by Yale-NUS student, Tammy Gan and co-founder of Lepak in SG, Ho Xiang Tian. The workshop sought and compiled ideas and suggestions from youths, to contribute to the nation-wide public consultation on developing a long-term low emissions strategy led by the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS).

The Singapore Youth CBD2020 (Convention of Biological Diversity 2020) Consultation, SYCC, aims to empower Singapore youths to have a voice in the decision-making process for biodiversity locally and globally. Some 50 youths its consultation to discuss various ways to align the interests of various environmental groups in Singapore, so as to encourage collaboration and set a direction towards the 2050 vision of ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’. As part of the discussion outcomes, SYCC will draft the Singapore Youth Position for Biodiversity, which will be submitted to the Global Youth Biodiversity Network in preparation for the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference.

Cicada Tree Eco-Place, a local-based NGO that promotes nature, culture, and eco-living through environmental education, organised a press conference at SSA to launch both its biodiversity conservation campaign titled “A Final Call to Protect our Last Wilderness” and online biodiversity list titled to raise awareness about Singapore’s flora and fauna. Over 30 press members and friends of Cicada Tree Eco-Place were in attendance.

(Photo credits: Straits Times)

The North West CDC unveiled its Sustainability 2018 Report during its Partners’ Appreciation Lunch at SSA. The report highlighted the North West District’s achievements in sustainable development, which was made possible by the longstanding commitment and support from 13,000 volunteers, 264 corporate and community partners in the financial year of 2018. The guest of honour was Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance, Adviser to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC Grassroots organisations. Other esteemed guests included Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of North West District; Mr Desmond Tan, Chief Executive Director of People’s Association; and Mr Chia Ngiang Hong, Group General Manager of CDL. About 150 people attended, including grassroots educators and North West’s green partners.

The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) welcomed 20 participants to a workshop on “Assessing the Carbon Footprint of Building Products Course”. The participants learnt about the environmental impact of building products and acquired skills to produce a simplified assessment report to communicate a product’s carbon footprint.

SGBC is a non-proft that drives concerted private-public sector partnership to achieve a world-class and sustainable built-environment in Singapore. Its key role is to advocate green building design, practices and technologies and drive environmental sustainability in the building and construction industry.

Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) held an internal training and strategy workshop for its staff at SSA. The team reflected on their 2019 activities and planned their work strategy for 2020.

GCNS is the national lead agency that promotes corporate sustainability and provides an ecosystem for companies to align strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and take actions to achieve the SDGs.

Secondguru, a local-based social enterprise that focuses on creating environmental awareness, has organised several successful runs of its Zero Waste Bootcamp series. One of its project groups, Team Oath, took a step further and organised a public screening of “The True Cost”, a documentary about the clothing industry, as part of their public outreach plan. “The True Cost” reveals the the pollutive effects of the fashion industry, which is the second most polluting industry globally. Over 30 people attended the filming of this groundbreaking documentary.

It is never too young to learn about the SDGs. A group of Primary 4 and Primary 5 students had fun taking part in the first public SDG 2030 Games, organised by education firm iGNICA. The SDG 2030 Games is a card-based game that simulates taking the “real world” into the year 2030. Designed in Japan in 2016, this experience has become a powerful and impactful social phenomenon in Japan, earning extensive media coverage and reaching over 50,000 participants over the last two years.

As a lead up to the C40 Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, the Royal Danish Embassy, together with C40 Cities and CDL, held a discussion titled “How do Cities Tackle Climate Change”. The C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change.

The event covered two key topics:

• Creating holistic policy frameworks: How can cities and governments strengthen collaboration with its citizens and industry players?
• Practical solutions towards greener, more climate resilient cities: How do cities practically curb the climate changes?

The session featured keynote adddresses by H.E. Dorte Bech Vizard, Ambassador of Denmark to Singapore, and Mr Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director of Centre for Liveable Cities, as well as a presentation by Ms Milag San Jose-Ballesteros, Regional Director for East, Southeast Asia and Oceania at C40. Other presenters include Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL, Mr Carsten Møberg Larsen, ‘Clean Air Ambassador’ from the Danish Ministry of Environment, and Mr Leonard Ng, Country Market Director of Ramboll SEA & China.

The event was well received with close to 70 professionals from the private and public sectors in attendance. The audience actively engaged the speakers and had an interesting discussion on how future cities could be better designed to address new climate challenges, as well as ways that Singapore and Copenhagen could collaborate to inspire more industry players to step up on climate action.

The Secondsguru Zero Waste Bootcamp is an education program created by Secondsguru to share zero waste lifestyle strategies with the youth and is aligned with MEWR’s Year Towards Zero Waste Goals for 2019. Designed for 18-30 years old youths in Singapore, it is supported by NEA, LUSH Singapore, Seastainable, Fashion Pulpit, Bollywood Adventures and Rytle. This session marks the third run for 2019 and it was attended by 27 attendees. To walk the talk, it was a zero waste event. There were no disposables used, participants enjoyed a plant-based meal, leftovers were packed and all the paper used was recycled. One of the teams has went out to do a community outreach, addressing the environmental and human impacts of the fashion industry.

Into its 73^rd cycle, the CDL 5-Star Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) seminar provided a valuable platform to promote the importance of EHS among CDL’s building industry partners including architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and contractors. Speakers from Woh Hup and Your Safety Partner Pte Ltd were invited to share with close to 60 participants on effective environment control practices for mosquito breeding and the new elements of ISO 45001: Occupational health and safety.

Results of the CDL 5-Star EHS Audit Assessment for ongoing projects in the second quarter of 2019 were also announced during the seminar to recognise exemplary EHS performance displayed by the builders.

Marine Stewards Singapore held the August edition of its community engagement meeting at the SSA. Ms Sue Ye, Founder of Marine Stewards Singapore, together with academics from National University of Singapore, James Cook University Singapore and Republic Polytechnic, discussed the draft of their sustainable fishing recommendations and guidelines. The topic of netting in the update to the Wild Animals and Birds Act (WABA) was also discussed.

In all, the session saw close to 40 attendees representing 13 partners and businesses in the fishing community, including the Singapore Sports Angling Federation, Broadwalk Anglers, Singapore Fishing Charter.

A public dialogue was organised by the Wild Animals Legislation Review Committee and members of the public were invited to learn about the recommendations to the amendment of the Wild Animals and Birds Act (WABA), and to share any final feedback on the recommendations. Attended by about 70 people, the dialogue session was led by Louis Ng, a Member of Parliament and co-founder of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES).

Close to 100 youths attended the panel discussion about the climate crisis and the youth climate activist scene in Singapore, organised by 21-year-old Tammy Gan, an environmental activist studying Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College. She is also the Community Lead with Green Is The New Black and the founder of Conscious Living Co.

The discussion was followed by a community hangout and ideation session where participants mingled and brainstormed possible productive ways forward to tackle climate anxiety, lack of climate action in and around the region and understanding individual responsibility when it comes to climate change. The line up of panelists included:

• Aidan Mock, one of the co-founders of Fossil Free Yale-NUS, the divestment movement on campus, and continues to campaign for NUS to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.
• Nathalia Murillo, the Community Engagement Lead at Our Seas, Our Legacy and a second-year undergraduate at Yale-NUS College.
• Ho Xiang Tian, the Co-founder of Lepak In SG, an informal environmental group, whch maintains an online environmental calendar of activities in Singapore.
• Natrisha Kaur, a 17-year-old vegan activist studying Arts Business Management in Ngee Ann Poly. She volunteers with Animal Allies and is a member of the truly students group as well (IG: @aas.trulystudents). They organise bi-monthly cleanups, potlucks and other activities to engage the youth and raise awareness about animal rights, fast fashion and climate change.
• Rachel Tan who believes in conscious sustainable consumerism and she advocates for people to do the same. On her platform (@nocarrierpls) she speaks about issues such as the plastic problem, the journey towards a plant-based diet, and about sustainable fashion.
• Kate Yeo, the founder of BYO Bottle Singapore, a campaign-cum-social enterprise aiming to reduce the usage of single-use disposables.

This workshop, conducted by Lee Zhong Han who travelled to the Yale Center in Beijing, China to learn about systems thinking, effective philanthropy and sustainable food systems, equips learners with a basic understanding of the systems thinking to gain clarity when working in complex systems. About 35 participants, mostly youths who were currently doing or will be involved in projects that aim to improve social or environmental outcomes, participated in the workshop.

Organised by UglyFood and Spoonful, the workshop taught participants the art of making simple fruit enzyme drinks using produce that was reaching past its shelf life. Made of fruit, not only are the drinks beneficial for health, it also effectively increases the shelf life of fresh produce, therefore reducing food waste. The participants also got to interact and work with the Kawasaki Coffee Robot, which was brought in specially for the workshop.

A group of 60 passionate environmentalists came together to listen to activist, Erliani Abdul Rahman, recount how she prepared for a last-degree trip to the North Pole in April 2019 to raise awareness for child sexual abuse survivors but ended up learning about the climate crisis instead. Due to global warming, no full-length expeditions have succeeded in the past six years mainly because the ice has been melting, making it impossible to cross wide open leads which have developed. Erliani shared her frustrations which morphed into a passion to save the planet from the devastating impacts of climate change.

CDL E-Generation Challenge 2019 Winner, Woon Xin Hui also shared her experience visiting the Arctic Circle with famed explorers Robert and Barney Swan over two weeks in June 2019. She painted an equally bleak picture of the impacts of climate change on the habitats of arctic animals. The evening continued with the participants expressing their thoughts and aspirations for moving the climate revolution forward in Singapore. It was a lively evening with exciting discourse between the speakers and the participants.

If you would like to participate, check out Green Drinks Singapore’s website for details on upcoming sessions.

Close to 100 people attended a sharing session organised by Uthai Forest, a non-profit project that aims to reforest 23 hectares of land in Thailand. The session included three other founders of nature and community-based initiatives in Singapore – Mr Tang Hung Bun, Natural Farmer and Permaculturist, Cuifen Pui, Founding Member, Foodscape Collective and Syazwan Majid, Founder, Wan’s Ubin Journal.

Toh Huiran from Uthai Forest started off the session by sharing how you can take action, be it for the planet, or for your own well-being. She highlighted the exciting aspects of the Uthai Forest Project and how everyone can play a part. The other three speakers spoke on their respective initiatives. Mr Tang Hung Bun shared on the feasibility of permaculture in Singapore. Cuifen Pui shared on the good work that Foodscape Collective is embarking on towards a fair and inclusive circular food system through community-building, education, well-being and research. Syazwan Majid elaborated on the WUJ Kampong Clean Up, his monthly volunteer-driven kampung clean up project as well as his other community outreach projects. It was a spirited sharing session focused on growing communities to heal the planet and our fractured societies.

Click on the links above if you are interested to be part of their programmes.

20 board members and volunteers heading committees from Jane Goodall Institute of Singapore (JGIS) attended a full day strategy workshop and training session to plan a 5-year strategy for JGIS. The General Manager of JGIS also facilitated the training on marketing, networking and fundraising for the attendees.

The Behaviour Change Hackathon is a six-series workshop targeted at youths aged between 15 to 35 years, by WISE – WASH in Southeast Asia. It promotes effective behavioural change solutions to meet Singapore’s social and environmental needs. Participants undergo training on basic behavioural change theories and tools. They are concurrently grouped in teams of five to design a behavioural change solution to an existing problem, in partnership with a non-profit organisation or social enterprise. This session was the 4^th session and 30 participants learned basic methods to collect and analyse data, enabling them to interview and conduct surveys about their target behaviour.

The hackathon is funded by National Youth Council, Central CDC Singapore. Supporting partners include ACRES, Bold at Work, Erth & Co, HOME, Green Nudge and Halo Health Asia and the SSA.

The Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) is a global partnership of conservation organisations and scientific research groups working together to expand global mangrove forest coverage. It is led by The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Wetlands International.

Attended by more than 30 people, this event brought together numerous mangrove scientists in Singapore, ahead of the global Mangroves, Macrobenthos, and Management conference in July 2019. GMA presented its existing projects and ideas for other conservationists and scientists to engage with each other in a collaborative way.

Back for the second year, Northland Secondary School held their student learning activity, “Goose Chase”, at CDL’s City Square Mall. 180 students learnt about green buildings through an experiential activity to observe, understand and record eco-smart designs that conserved energy and water in City Square Mall and SSA. In two batches at the SSA, the students learnt about global and local sustainability trends and CDL’s green building technologies, with the aim of implementing new green ideas in their school.

This closed-door workshop was organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Mangrove Specialist Group and Zoological Society of London, ahead of the Mangroves, Macrobenthos, and Management conference. About 35 members of the IUCN Mangrove Specialist Group gathered to discuss the progress made on mangrove conservation, red listing and membership with the Global Mangrove Alliance.

The World Health Organization ranks air pollution as the top threat to human health with over 90% of the world’s population living in extremely polluted conditions. Recent research suggests that air pollution affects “every organ in our body” and, contrary to what many believe, it is a problem that can be tackled.

Mann + Hummel (Singapore), GIGA (Shanghai) and Green Initiatives organised a screening of “Under the Dome”, a film by reporter Chai Jing, that investigates the sources and impacts of China’s deadly smog. The film also explored how other cities like London and Los Angeles reduce air pollution through a combination of technology and law enforcement. Following the screening, the audience of 60 engaged in a discussion and networking session.

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a leading US-based think tank that advocates a low-carbon future and aims to tackle climate change with global market-based solutions. It is founded by Dr Amory Lovins, who was named by Time magazine as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009. CDL was honoured to host the RMI entourage at the zero-energy SSA and shared about CDL’s green building technologies and low carbon strategy. The lively exchange of thoughts enabled CDL to learn about the global best practices shared by RMI and CDL’s alignment to some of them.

40 first-year Ngee Ann Polytechnic students and their teachers from the Diploma in Environmental & Water Technology faculty visited the SSA to learn about the green building movement in Singapore and CDL’s contribution to that, as well as green building technologies. The presentation by CDL CSO Esther An was followed by a tour of South Beach, a Green Mark Platinum building and Singapore’s largest mixed-use development using sustainable design.

The Behaviour Change Hackathon is a six-series workshop targeted at youths aged between 15 to 35 years. It promotes effective behavioural change solutions to meet Singapore’s social and environmental needs. Participants undergo training on basic behavioural change theories and tools. They are concurrently grouped in teams of five to design a behavioural change solution to an existing problem, in partnership with a non-profit organisation or social enterprise. Close to 40 participants attended this first session.

The programme is supported by the National Youth Council and project partners include Animal Concerns Research & Education Society, Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics and Green Nudge.

ENGIE Factory, in collaboration with tech media platform e27, held a public event to catalyse discussions on sustainable living as urban residents. With cities contributing to 70% of global emissions and 65% of global energy demand, FASTRACK explored technology’s role in driving building, mobility and food systems towards zero-carbon cities. SSA, being a zero-energy academy, was an apt venue for the event.

Speakers from Big Idea Ventures, CDL, CRF, GrabWheels, Electrify, IDinvest, Life3 Biotech and SustainableSG were invited to share on topics such as:

• Energy Renovation
• Making Buildings Smart and Eco-Responsible
• Green Mobility for All
• Accessible and Sustainable Transportation
• Feeding the Future
• Sustainable Food Systems for Urban Residents
• The Transition Towards a Modern, Zero-Emissions Society

About 160 attendees were treated to freshly made vegan burgers by Impossible Foods, electric car and scooter rides, and an earth-friendly bazaar of sustainable lifestyle goods. The event also showcased building, mobility, food and waste start-ups.

Bit by Bit is a group that aims to make a difference regarding single-use plastics in Singapore, by creating an active and gracious community that naturally cares for the environment and promotes zero waste living. A family-friendly workshop was held at the SSA where 22 participants enjoyed a screening of the documentary “A Blue Planet”. An upcycling workshop also saw partipants creatively turn their old T-shirts into a reusable bag using only scissors.

Family businesses face an inherent challenge: the need to balance family—their succession and the needs of the next generation—with business. Stewardship is a critical factor that would enable them to emerge over time as engaged, forward-looking and adaptable enterprises. This would also allow them to build a strong foundation for long-term wealth creation that would not compromise the demands of the present, while safeguarding the interests of the community and future generations.

Co-organised by Stewardship Asia Centre, Family Business Australia and Business Families Institute, the masterclass was attended by over 20 business leaders who helm family businesses. A discussion was led by Mr Ong Boon Hwee, CEO of Stewardship Asia Centre, who introduced the elements and core concepts that form the basis of stewardship and the applications of the “Stewardship Principles for Family Businesses”. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An also shared with the visitors the CDL’s business case of integrating sustainability into every aspect of the organisation and its operations.

This zero-waste bootcamp, attended by over 25 youths passionate about environmental change in their communities, was the second session in Secondsguru’s four-part educational programme.

During the session, the youths collaborated in groups to create an actionable plan that would help tackle Singapore’s mammoth waste problem. They presented their ideas in an Ecothon, guided by facilitators. Their plans will be rolled out in their communities over two months, after which they will reconvene to present the achievements, learning points and challenges from their community efforts.

60 nature lovers attended the second Wildcat Lecture organised by the Singapore Wildcat Action Group, where the spotlight was on the Asiatic Lion. Guest speaker Dr Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientist who has dedicated his last 30 years to studying the wildlife of India, especially the Asiatic lions of the Gir forests. During the talk, he traced the conservation history of the lions, assessed their current status, and shared his views on what conservation actions are needed.

The well-being of residents is a critical consideration for sustainable cities. Besides access to education, health and public transportation, a sustainable city requires efficient waste management services, good air quality and other modern living necessities. As cities grow, the challenges of managing the environment grow exponentially. IoTSG invited two speakers—Saloni Goel, Environment & Sustainability Change Maker and Milind Ghorpade, CEO, Mobiquest—to share with the audience of 45 guests their expert insights on addressing environmental challenges. Founded in Singapore, IoTSG is the biggest IoT and advanced technologies-focused special interest group in Southeast Asia.

“Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopards of China” was the inaugural lecture that launched the Wildcat Lecture Series by the Singapore Wildcat Action Group. It aims to raise awareness in Singapore of the world’s myriad wildcat species through educational and informative presentations given by experts.

The snow leopard is listed as “vulnerable” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, which means it is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. According to the Snow Leopard Trust, climate change threatens two-thirds of the snow leopard’s habitat, which includes China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and Mongolia.

Centre for a Responsible Future (CRF) and Conjunct Consulting held a 1.5-day strategy workshop for 15 staff and executive board members from CRF and Conjunct Consulting. The intensive brainstorming session allowed CRF to review the foundational work done in the past, the value proposition of its current programmes and services, and co-create its organisational structure for the future.

Secondsguru, a social enterprise that advocates sustainable living, launched its first zero-waste bootcamp on 2 March 2019 as part of a series to guide youths and their communities towards a zero-waste lifestyle. This is in support of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources’ Year Towards Zero Waste for 2019.

In that inaugural bootcamp, 15 youths learnt how to embark on their personal zero-waste lifestyle and crafted zero-waste plans for their communities. After rolling out their zero-waste community action plans for two months, these green ambassadors returned to present their community rollout efforts, highlighting the challenges, successes and learnings they encountered. The winning team, Food Fighters SG, was then awarded a grant of $500 and a hamper of experiential goodies.

Fishing is a popular recreational hobby in Singapore and passionate anglers recognise that conserving Singapore’s fish populations will help ensure the long-term sustainability of their pastime.

40 individuals and industry partners gathered to discuss the sustainable use of local marine resources and explore responsible recreational fishing methods such as minimum sizes, bag limits and catch-and-release. Organised by Marine Stewards (Singapore), the discussion was led by Dr Zeehan Jaafar, a lecturer at the NUS Department of Biological Sciences and lead editor of the Singapore Blue Plan 2018.

Into its second year, the Cities of Love Awards was launched to celebrate individuals and businesses who demonstrate how we can live sustainably by acting with love toward our cities. From small homegrown projects to large-scale corporate and academic schemes, it is dedicated to share these inspiring stories. Amongst the many impressive submissions, a project from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), SUTD‐MIT International Design Centre (IDC) and UglyFood led by SUTD students clinched the distinguished and Top Prize award for the corporate / environmental category. The awards ceremony was graced by Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of the North West Community Development Council.

Modern medicine has been with us for roughly one hundred years, but evolution has been at work since life began 3.5 billion years ago. Every time we lose a species, we lose something that may affect humanity.

Nature Society (Singapore) held a talk to share the importance of conservation and invited Peter Allison, a renowned writer and safari guide to share how you can be a conservationist and have fun at the same time. And why conservation matters even if you are not interested in animals, with a focus around discoveries that are still being made about animals that can have medical or material benefits for us. Examples include the incredible work being done on how elephants avoid cancer, a recent discovery based on dragonfly wings that could create natural anti-bacterial wipes and also how butterflies may hold the clue to invisibility.

Sustainability has become a mainstream business agenda. The global challenges such as poverty, climate change, biodiversity loss and gender inequality, can be tackled through greater action by businesses, accelerating the progress to a more sustainable world where no one is left behind. Formerly known as Young CSR Leaders Award launched in 2011, it has been renamed CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award since 2018. The annual case competition aims to raise awareness of the UN SDG and groom youths to champion sustainable development.

In a briefing session held to prepare the participants for phase 1 of the competition focusing on assessing CDL’s business case, CDL’s CSO Esther An articulated the company’s ESG integration journey over the last 2 decades. Jae Lee, a youth champion from last year’s Award winning team shared his experience on how to prepare for the competition and his tips to score well.

This year, more than 65 student teams are aspiring to be our next Young SDG champions. 10 finalist teams will get an exclusive opportunity to intern at organisations to help them improve their sustainability strategy. The final judging will take place in August 2019.

Fair Biz, a UNDP programme, held its first Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) Meeting at the SSA to promote a fair business environment in ASEAN. This by-invitation meeting was attended by 20 PSAG members, who were specially selected from the ASEAN members. Besides CDL CSO Esther An, the distinguished participants include David Smith, Head of Corporate Governance, Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd (Singapore); Arin Jira, Chair, ASEAN Business Advisory Council (Thailand) and Y.W. Junardy, President, UN Global Compact (Indonesia). To kick-start the meeting, Mr Bradley Busetto, Interim Director, UNDP Global Center for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development and H.E. Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner, Singapore provided their opening remarks and set the stage for the lively discussions that ensued.

20 students from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland visited the SSA as part of their course syllabus to understand CDL’s business case of sustainability integration. They were keen to understand the vision and mission of the Academy as well as the design and technology that have achieved net zero for the building. CDL CSO Esther An gave a presentation and addressed the students’ questions on the role developers play in accelerating the green building movement and climate action in Singapore, a cause CDL has been championing for over two decades now.

After a short discussion, the students proceeded to visit CDL’s South Beach development to learn more about CDL’s implementation of green features in our developments.

Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore Youth Group (MINDS MYG) is a volunteer wing of MINDS and is fully run by volunteers belonging to a total of 11 projects located island-wide. This sharing session was held to take stock of its achievements, the challenges faced in each project and its year plan for FY2019/2020. This platform provided an opportunity for the volunteers to also build connections and learn from each other.

The Designing for Behaviour Change Workshop is an introductory workshop that equips learners with a basic understanding of the essential skills and knowledge to design interventions that promote positive changes in people’s behaviour.

32 youths and changemakers who are passionate about making positives changes on the societal, community and individual level, attended this eight-hour workshop. The session covered engaging lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities to explore factors that influence behaviour, methods to identify barriers and motivators of behaviour change, techniques to change behaviour, and how to craft effective behaviour change messages.

By the end of this workshop, participants gained a better understanding of how to design projects that would achieve positive changes in behaviour more effectively. The Designing for Behaviour Change Workshop is part of WASH in Southeast Asia (WISE)’s training and mentoring program to build the capacity of organisations and individuals to create social impact in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). WISE WASH is a youth-led NGO that is active in Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Plastic litter has become a mammoth challenge today, threatening the world’s marine life, marine ecosystems and ultimately human health.

An international group of over 50 attendees came to SSA on 21 March 2019 for a panel dicussion organised by the Norwegian Embassy in Singapore, to hear industry experts share the best practices from their organisations and their views on the new way forward in dealing with the plastic economy. The event speakers included Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL, Mr Morten Høglund, Norway’s Ambassador to ASEAN, Mr Kim Stengert, Chief Strategic Communication and External Relations of WWF Singapore and was moderated by Ms Kakuko Nagatani- Yoshida from the UN Environment.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Women in Energy Asia (WIEA) organised a panel discussion on the topic, “Energy In The Sustainable Age – How Women Lead The Change”.

The panel of speakers who spoke to the audience of over 80 business professsionals included: Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited; Ms Yeo Lian Sim, Special Adviser Diversity of Singapore Exchange; Ms Isabel Chatterton, Manager of Asia Pacific Private Public Partnership, International Finance Corporation and Dr Lerwen Liu, Managing Director of NanoGlobe Pte Ltd.

20 participants gathered at the SSA to take part in the first public SDG 2030 Games organised by iGNICA in Singapore. It is a card-based game that simulates taking the “real world” into the year 2030. Designed in Japan in 2016, this experience has become a powerful and impactful social phenomenon in Japan, earning extensive media coverage and reaching over 50,000 participants over the last two years.

Participants found the SDG Games session a novel and fun way of making them realise and ponder how the SDGs relate to their lives at a personal and social level.

In this training facilitated by Ms Ria Tan, founder of Wildsingapore.com, 30 participants from the environmental community learnt the tips and tricks of being a good nature guide. Their classroom learning at SSA was followed by an outdoor field session the next day, to apply what they learnt into practice. The group joined volunteers from the Naked Hermit Crabs on a tour of the Berlayar Creek mangrove boardwalk, where experienced guides from the green community demonstrated the “how-to” for nature guiding.

International Women’s Day on 8 March is a globally recognised day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women from all generations.

In line with the 2019 campaign theme #BalanceforBetter, Cushman & Wakefield’s Women in Networking (WIN) Committee held a panel discussion at the SSA, featuring speakers from CDL, Tembusu Partners, WORD Agency and Cushman & Wakefield who discussed the topic of gender balance in the corporate world. More than 80 industry professionals attended the event.

Secondsguru, a social enterprise dedicated to promote eco-awareness, conducted its one-day Zero Waste Bootcamp at the SSA. This workshop was their first in a series of four sessions this year, to train youths aged 18 to 30. Participants worked in groups of four to create action plans for guiding their target audience in the community to embrace sustainability.

This inaugural bootcamp series was launched in support of Singapore’s Year Towards Zero Waste and as a fringe event in conjunction with Ecobank 2019. Dr Amy Khor, Guest-of-Honour for EcoBank’s opening and Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, interacted with the workshop participants while she was at City Square Mall, joined by CDL’s senior management,Group CEO Mr Sherman Kwek, Group GM Mr Chia Ngiang Hong and Chief Sustainability Officer Ms Esther An.

Over 60 nature lovers attended a talk organised by Nature Society featuring author, ornithologist and conservationist, Mr Robert Ridgely, as the special speaker. Robert is a leading expert on the birds of South and Central America and a proponent of private reserve systems as a conservation strategy for endangered species.

Attendees were enthralled by Ridgely’s discovery of a new species of antpitta (subsequently named as Jocotoco Antpitta) during his trek through the Andes in Southern Ecuador with a fellow birder. The bird is peculiar because of its unique call: it hoots, and it barks.

Ridgely also shared stories of how he and his colleagues founded the Jocotoco Foundation, to protect the species from imminent extinction. The Jocotoco Foundation now protects a total of nearly 60,000 acres at 14 reserves, the most recent being Isla San Cristobal in the Galápagos.

Climate Conversations, a volunteer-run organisation, conducted a two-day workshop at the SSA to train their new volunteer facilitators on how to conduct small-group, in-depth discussions about the seriousness of climate change and motivate people to take action for a sustainable future.

By growing awareness and public support for climate solutions, Climate Conversations empowers people to take meaningful steps towards integrating sustainability into their daily lives.

Plastic is one of the biggest environmental issues in the world and demands urgent action from all sectors. Under the voluntary business-led Plastic ACTion (PACT) initiative by WWF in Singapore, WWF convened a corporate roundtable with around 30 corporate players from the real estate and service platform industries to discuss about concrete actions to reduce plastics usage within their operations. In the roundtable, attendees discussed the impact of corporate contributions and shared on their commitment to reduce plastic usage. CDL CSO, Esther An, was a participant at the roundtable and shared about CDL’s best practices and initiatives in engaging tenants and home owners to be more environmentally-conscious.

24 Bachelor of Architecture students and 5 faculty members from BMS College of Architecture, Bengaluru, India visited Singapore as part of their curriculum that examines sustainability in urban scale projects.

The students heard from CDL CSO, Esther An, on CDL’s success story of creating future value and building partnership through sustainability. Following that, CDL Senior Manager, Projects, Alfred Ng, shared about the construction process of the SSA and the sustainable materials that went into its construction. The students and faculty members displayed enthusiasm during the Q&A, and a fruitful discussion about functionality versus sustainability ensued.

A total of 141 Environmental Education Advisors (EEAs) from 111 pre-schools attended the Pre-School EEA Networking Session organised by the National Environment Agency (NEA) at the SSA. The networking session is a platform for EEAs to network, share best practices on environment education and learn more about NEA’s initiatives that could incorporate values-based environmental education into their centre’s programmes.

Following the presentations by NEA and its partners, a dialogue session, EEA Ask!, was held to uncover synergies between the pre-schools and NEA. The teachers also had the opportunity to speak to Plastic-Lite Sg, Preschool Market, Public Hygiene Council, Restroom Association Singapore, Tetra Pak, The Food Bank Singapore and World Wide Fund for Nature to learn about the environmental activities available for pre-schools.

The WWF Halt Technical Meeting was a private meeting between the world’s largest palm oil traders and WWF, regarding a palm oil traceability project. The 25 participants concluded the meeting with a renewed confidence that work will continue to be collaborative between private industries and WWF.

CDL’s 14^th EHS 5 Star Awards recognised the outstanding builders and suppliers who have been instrumental in enhancing and maintaining high workplace health, safety and well-being standards.

Pioneered by CDL in 2001, the 5-Star assessment system is an independent audit tool to assess, measure and improve builders’ EHS management and performance. CDL was the first private-sector developer to proactively structure a comprehensive, audited and appraised approach towards EHS involving all its builders.

The CDL EHS Excellence Awards were presented to contractors who attained the top tier for their EHS scores, while three workers from Kajima, Woh Hup and Ssangyong won the CDL Workers’ Welfare Award, which honours builders who have devoted excellent effort to ensure workers’ welfare, including caring for their health, safety, living conditions and well-being.

The awards was attended by over 50 guests representing CDL’s builders, architects and other consultants.

The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber was established to lead improvements in the socio-economic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain towards a fair, equitable and environmentally sound natural rubber value chain. The multi-stakeholder workshop organised by the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Singapore aimed at bringing the platform’s 56 founding members and interested stakeholders together to agree on a governance model and action plan for the platform.

NUS and NEA co-organised the Youth Networking Session which was attended by 35 youths from various tertiary institutions from NUS, NTU, and SUTD. Participants played games to experience the complexities of environmental management decisions, and explored the consequences arising from their decisions. The workshop also aimed to equip participants with tools that can be used to communicate environmental messages in a more engaging manner. Dr Pablo Suarez, Artist-in-Residence at Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, facilitated this interactive workshop.

Every action begins with a thought. To drive behaviour change, WISE – WASH held an introductory workshop for members of the public interested in making positives changes in society. This full-day workshop consisted of engaging lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities. Participants explored factors that influence behaviour, methods to identify barriers to and motivators of behaviour change, techniques to change behaviour and craft effective behaviour change messages.

Shared by one of the participants, “It was truly enjoyable learning about behaviour change from the fun and knowledgeable instructors at WISE. They managed to share a lot, and deliver effectively, in the time we spent.”

By the end of this workshop, participants are better equipped with skills to design projects that would achieve positive changes in behaviour more effectively.

The Designing for Behaviour Change Workshop is part of WISE – WASH’s training and mentoring program to build the capacity of organisations and individuals to create social impact.

Approximately 50 participants from Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) MYG, a volunteer wing of MINDS, attended the MYG Learning Day on 12 Jan 2019. The session aimed to connect clients and caregivers to resources that they can tap on, as a reflection of their effort in cross-sector collaboration. Through the facilitation by experienced trainers, the caregivers had heightened awareness of available resources, identification of red flags pertaining to clients’ needs, and learnt how to provide care without diminishing their clients’ autonomy.

In support of Singapore’s declaration of 2019 as the Year Towards Zero Waste, CDL and Eco-Business jointly held a panel discussion that attracted an audience from the 3P sectors. Approximately 120 people listened to industry experts from Eco-Business, Greenpac Singapore, Fuji Xerox Singapore, Unilever Singapore and Food Bank Singapore on how they integrate sound environmental practices into everyday operations and transform waste streams into value for businesses, the community and the planet. Eco-Business also shared a sneak preview of its upcoming special feature on Southeast Asia’s love-hate relationship with e-waste.

Related Links

• About Singapore Sustainability Academy
• Happenings at SSA

Supported by CDL, Project Eco-Office is a programme by Singapore Enviroment Council (SEC) since 2002 that aims to encourage office workers to adopt low-carbon practices – the ‘heartware’ that complements the ‘hardware’ of green infrastructure and office buildings. This Eco-Office Share & Learn Session held at SSA brought together 30 participants from the people, private and public sectors. Besides having an enriching talk by SEC, participants had the opportunity to exchange success stories, thoughts and ideas on overcoming challenges faced when greening their workplaces.

WISE is an organisation that enables communities in Indonesia, Cambodia and Singapore to improve their water, sanitation and hygiene practices through community development, capacity building and behaviour change. Their December workshop, supported by National Youth Council, received active participation from attendees in the private and non-profit sector. The full-day course equipped these 30 attendees with the skills and knowledge for designing interventions and promoting positive behavioural changes in people.

Young Sustainable Impact SEA is a youth-led community in Southeast Asia that aims to nurture youths into social innovators, and helps them to form regional alliances and solutions aligned to the SDGs. A sharing session was held by the YSI SEA about  their Singapore Innovation Programme (SIP) at our SSA. The audience were also treated to a screening of the documentary named “A SEA of Change”, directed and filmed by Ong Kah Jing. Ong Kah Jing is a recipient of the 2017 National Youth Film Awards and was nominated as the ASEAN Filmmaker of the Year at the 10^th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival. The session wrapped up with an update and call for applications for SIP 2019 by YSI SEA’s co-founder, Irsyad Ramthan.

Photo Credits: BCA

Over 90 young leaders of the built industry attended the BCA Built Environment Young Leaders Retreat on 6 Dec 2018. The event was graced by Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State of Ministry of National Development and Mr Hugh Lim, CEO of Building & Construction Authority. They shared their knowledge and insights of the future of the built environment over an engaging dialogue session. The young leaders also shared their views on ways that innovation can be supported and how data can be harnessed in the built environment, over a table discussion.

The Singapore Blue Plan was drawn up in October 2018 to preserve Singapore’s marine habitat. It was an extensive effort by more than 100 contributors, including biologists, environmental lawyers and NGOs. About a month after its launch, over 50 people gathered on a Sunday afternoon in this workshop at SSA to examine ways to act on the Blue Plan’s recommendations.

Dr Zeehan Jaafar, Lead Editor of Singapore Blue Plan 2018, led the discussion in groups. Together, they bounced off ideas on how to bridge the gaps in science communication at schools and how to generate more interest among youths about marine life in Singapore.

Over 70 professionals participated in an interactive session aimed at bringing together forestry stakeholders, leading technology providers, innovators and sustainability experts to exchange views on what is needed, what is working and where are the opportunities for scaling up innovative applications of technology for forest management.

The sessions engaged participants in the ideation for a collaborative approach to address real situations in Myanmar and Laos pertaining to Sustainable Forest Management. The solutions from the ideation process is expected to be shaped into a partnership project to be implemented in the respective regions. Subject matter experts who presented include Trimble Forestry and Double Helix Tracking Technologies, which certified the wood used in the construction of the SSA.

On 29 November, AVPN organised a year-end gathering for its members at the SSA to recap the association’s engagements in 2018 to catalyse social investments in Asia and chart out their next steps ahead. Attendees were representatives of funders and resource providers who are committed to sustainable investing and maximising impact in the Asian region.

After a welcome speech by Ms Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of AVPN, CSO Esther An joined her in a fireside chat to share insights on sustainable investing to the audience of 60 participants. Said Ms Naina about the event: “We are proud to be partnering CDL to host our delegates at the exemplary Singapore Sustainability Academy (SSA). The SSA reflects our core efforts to support our members with effective social investments, and I look forward to collaborating further with the SSA to drive a movement towards greater awareness of the sustainability issues surrounding Singapore, Asia, and across the world.”

CDL’s staff volunteering group, City Sunshine Club (CSC), held a character building outing for 20 children from the Limbang community at the SSA. This initiative which started in 2017 strives to educate primary school children aged 7 to 12 on understanding, appreciating and applying ethical values through fun and interactive ways. Some of the core values taught to the children through games included truthfullness, responsibility and orderliness. Overall, the children had a fun day, bringing smiles to the CSC volunteers as well.

This talk organised by the Nature Society attracted a strong turnout of 100 attendees. The event highlight was the presentation by Dr Jim Frazier, rated by the BBC as one of the world’s top wildlife cinematographers. He has won over 40 national and international awards for his work including an Academy award and an Emmy Award. Dr Frazier is well known for his nature documentaries with Sir David Attenborough, setting the standard for wildlife television with award-winning series like “Life on Earth” and “The Living Planet”.

At the talk, Dr Frazier shared about his film project titled, “Symphony of the Earth”, a wildlife feature film aimed at making a statement about the condition of our planet and its inhabitants. Dr Frazier also imparted his global perspective of the impact that humans have inflicted on Planet Earth, such as the extinction of some animal species. He also covered issues such as climate change, deforestation, ocean pollution and their devastating effects on birds and other animal populations worldwide.

At this half-day sharing event organised by ASEAN CSR Network (ACN), a group of 20 participants from Thailand’s business sector had the opportunity to learn about Singapore’s sustainability practices. The speakers were Ms Sarah Kerrigan, Manager (Sustainability Services) of Deloitte Singapore and Mr Chia Boon Chong, Director (Group Sustainability) of Singtel.

As a regional organisation, ACN provides a platform for networking and cooperation at the ASEAN level, supports capacity-building and training activities, helps to rally collective action on key issues, and provides a link with regional and international bodies interested in supporting the advancement of CSR in the region.

Organised by the Swedish Embassy of Singapore, over 80 attendees came to hear from His Excellency Mr Bjorn Lyrvall, Swedish Ambassador for Arctic Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs Sweden on his experience as a diplomat and participatant in the Arctic Council, which is made up of eight member countries, namely: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

As an expert in the Polar region, Ms Katarina Gardfelt, Director General (Swedish Polar Research Secretariat) shared her knowledge about the changes of climate change in the Arctic region as well as several scientific expeditions that the research centre is embarking on.

CDL and its partner, the Global Green Economic Forum (GGEF), also announced the launch of CDL E-Generation Challenge 2019 that same evening. The two winners of the 2019 Challenge will embark on a trip to the Arctic, together with Sir Robert Swan’s expedition in June 2019. The competition will open in January 2019.

Our Singapore Reefs organised its first marine chit-chat session to provide a platform for like-minded Singaporeans to exchange ideas and encourage marine stewardship among youths in Singapore.

The talk led jointly by Mr Nathaniel Soon, founder of documentary collective “Our Seas, Our Legacy” and local marine researchers, Ms Joy Sim and Ms Sam Shu Qin attracted 105 attendees, with a number of them from the diving community. The event ended with a Q&A session and networking which promoted collaboration for the conservation of Singapore’s marine environment and biodiversity.

Over 30 overseas delegates including ambassadors from the region, guests from United Nations Local Networks, and business leaders from around the region came together at the SSA to discuss the latest in sustainability trends across Asia and Oceania and gain insights into what sustainability initiatives are implemented in different countries.

Ms Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) also graced the event to meet the delegates and tour the SSA. About 30 participants of UNGC’s Learning Journey Tour also joined the lunch networking session. All attendees were given a short presentation on the SSA by CSO Esther An.

Skillseed Singapore facilitated 22 students from Dalton Academy in Beijing for an experiential learning journey in Singapore about urban sustainability. City Square Mall, Singapore’s first eco-mall and the SSA, as a zero-energy structure, became natural choices for the learning programme. The students tried their hands on making eco-bricks, which are building blocks made from plastic bottles filled with compacted clean, dry and used plastic waste. Following that, they explored the surrounding areas of City Square Mall to appreciate the native flora and gained an understanding of the waste management process in the facility.

In his feedback about the SSA, Mr Melvin Yeo from Skillseed said: “Great venue where the attention to detail shines through. A cleaning lady (who works at City Square Mall) shared with us her experience about how forward-looking this mall’s sustainable practices are, compared to other malls in Singapore.”

The ASEAN+Social Good Forum is an event organised by Impact Hub KL at the SSA to inspire conversations and showcase innovations that promote achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Four top teams from the 2018 ASEAN Impact Challenge pitched their ventures to the audience comprising of over 50 investors and members of the public, as well as the panel of judges consisting of Mr Chris Yeo, Regional Head of Grab Ventures, Ms Leza Parker, CEO of SC Beauty Network and Mr Eugene Ho, Head of Corporate Affairs of SAP.

In addition, the judges and Dr Shariha, co-founder and board member of Impact Hub KL, shared their knoweldge and experiences over two panel discussions on how to build businesses aligned with the UN SDG goals and create an impact for social good.

The issue of plastic bag usage has been gaining attention in the media. One of the more notable call-for-action was the motion to impose a charge for plastic carriers by Member of Parliament, Mr Louis Ng in October 2018. Mr Louis Ng is also the co-founder of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES). To gather more feedback and encourage dialogue about the over-consumption of plastic bags in Singapore, ACRES held a public forum at the SSA. Issues that were discussed during the session included various environmental concerns in Singapore as well as policies that could be improved to protect the environment. About 30 members of the public attended the event, contributing to the lively discussion that evening.

As part of the Singapore Eco Film Festival programme, about 20 audience heard from Raye Padit, founder of the Fashion Pulpit, regarding the journey of discarded clothing and the detrimental environmental impact caused by unethical businesses in the fashion industry. Participants also had the chance to create an art installation by weaving T-shirt yarns together, taught by Ms Agy, a textile artist. The art piece was crafted in the style of Peranakan tiles, and depicted the flora of Singapore. The mission behind this handmade artwork was to break the Singapore Book of Records for Singapore’s Largest Knotted Artwork made of upcycled T-shirts. Overall, the event organised by Colours of Singapore was a fun and educational way to deepen one’s awareness of sustainable fashion.

Tingkat Heroes is a local NGO focusing on zero waste, founded by a passional youth, Pamela Low. Its first sustainability camp for youths, was held at the SSA on 13 October 2018. Attended by 47 participants, the workshop dived into a variety of topics including fashion, diet, plastics and e-waste. There was also an interactive dialogue between the youths and CSO Esther An. Esther shared about CDL’s sustainable practices, SSA’s role as a collaborative space to advance the sustainability agenda and how youths can become active contributors to the green cause.

In line with the event theme, the campers enjoyed a wholesome vegan lunch made from “ugly vegetables” collected by SG Food Rescue. To sum up their learning, the participants gathered around in World Café style to share their reflections and urged one another to press on even after this event, in their pursuit for sustainability.

The Social Sector Milestone Programme is a 12-day programme by the Civil Service College, for officers holding middle management positions under the Public Service Leadership Programme (PSLP) Sectoral Phase, PSLP (Education Service), and equal calibre officers from social sector agencies. SSA hosted about 20 participants in this programme on 8 October 2018.

The participants explored how citizens can create value beyond being mere consumers of goods and services. They identified ways to engage citizens in the design and delivery of government programmes and policies, and deepened their understanding on how the government can provide stronger support towards ground-up initiatives.

CSO Esther An, was invited to share about the creation of the SSA, a zero-energy sustainability academy that exemplifies successful 3P partnership. Since its opening in June 2017, the SSA has hosted a myriad of sustainability-themed events from zero waste, marine conservation, climate action workshops and thought leadership events. Esther also shared about CDL’s 3P partnership initiatives like #BeatPlasticPollution campaign, EcoBank and Feeding the 5000.

Scientists predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. Up to 30% of plastic released into oceans each year could be microplastics, entering into the human food chain through seafood consumption.The potential detrimental effects of microplastic pollution require urgent action.

At the talk held on 27 September 2018 titled “The Big Problem of Microplastics”, giant clam researcher, Dr Neo Mei Lin and Singapore’s leading coral reef expert, Professor Chou Loke Ming shared interesting findings about the impact of microplastics on the ocean and marine life to over 100 conservation enthusiasts.

With the increasing number of environmental sustainability initiatives facing everyone these days, how do people even begin to respond to buzzwords like ‘sustainability’ and ‘liveability’? How do we start thinking about new possibilities?

To address these questions, Temasek Foundation Ecosperity organised the ‘Envisioning a Liveable Singapore’ workshop for students from the NUS. The focus group discussion was facilitated by Young Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia (YSI SEA) and saw the NUS students brainstorming vision statements and new ideas for sustainability in both visual and textual forms. The event provided an avenue for the 30 participants to forge collaborations for sustainability leadership within their volunteer communities. Participants also had the opportunity to hear more about the work of Temasek Foundation Ecosperity and YSI SEA in the sustainability innovation sector, and how they catalysed the development of innovative and transformational solutions. To walk the talk on sustainability, the students even brought along their own reusuable cutlery and containers for the event’s lunch reception.

The Asian Finance Practice community gathered in Singapore at the SSA in mid-September 2018 for its regional meeting. Hosted by WWF Singapore, the meeting was attended by over 50 participants from 11 countries to discuss and share information on implementation of the Finance Practice Strategy and the Areas of Collective Action and Innovation (ACAIs).

The meeting also benefited from the active participation of regional experts from UNEP FI, ABN AMRO Bank, Ernst & Young, Moody’s and the Stock Exchange of Singapore on its first two days, as well as other speakers who touched on Climate and Energy, Forests, Food, Governance and Wildlife Practice, Public Sector Partnerships and Communications.

The meeting was an excellent opportunity to share the work being done on sustainable finance around the region and to share information with regional focal points on latest happenings in the Finance Practice within ACAI communities. The SSA subsequently hosted another 20 people to delve into WWF’s Sustainable Finance in ASEAN. A workshop was held to discuss upcoming projects for the next three years and the discussions involved strategic planning, deliverables and execution of activities for the different offices under WWF.

As an island-country, Singapore is blessed with seagrass lagoons, coral reefs, rocky shores and mudflats which are home to a multitude of marine species. To enhance the public’s knowledge of these marine species, LepakInSG held a workshop at the SSA for 42 participants. Nature enthusiast Ms Ria Tan from WildSingapore also shared expert tips on how to identify tricky-to-spot marine species. Through the event, these members of the public learnt how to identify marine creatures seen on Singapore’s shores and got acquainted with reliable online marine-identification databases.

The NTU Asian Business Case Competition (ABCC) is an annual case challenge centred on business and sustainability, organised by the Nanyang Business School. As part of the competition, some 70 international university students visited the SSA for its green building features. They learnt first-hand from CSO about CDL’s sustainability strategy and green building innovation. The knowledge acquired from the visit helped to spark ideation among the participants in developing their case submission for the competition.

The large community of birders in Singapore showed the strength of their numbers during their talk on 6 September 2018 at the SSA. Organised by the Nature Society (Singapore), the 150-strong audience were entralled by the talk led by Dr Yeo Seng Beng, a veteran in birding. He shared about the popularity of birding in Singapore and pointed out how bird sounds and calls are an integral part of the birding experience. The audience were taught how to identify bird species based on their calls. In addition, they learnt about the mechanics (equipment used and basic analysis) of bird sound recording and its use in bird conservation. At the end of the talk, the audience left with a deeper appreciation of avian biodiversity and the role they can play in the conservation of bird life.

The BCA-CDL Green Sparks Competition is a nation-wide biennial green building competition and a public-private initiative by the BCA and CDL. Into its fourth edition, the competition received over 30 entries this year. The tertiary students conceptualised innovative green solutions to make Bukit View Secondary School positive energy or zero energy. The finals for the competition was held at the SSA, where each team showcased their proposals to the judges. The winning entries of the BCA-CDL Green Sparks Competition 2017/2018 were recognised and subsequently exhibited later in the same month at the BCA Pavilion during BEX Asia 2018.

To most people in Singapore, the Arctic is perceived as an inhospitable, far-flung location with sweeping tundra, glaciers and ice caps. As for the 100 attendees who were at the seminar on “What A Changing Arctic Means For Singapore”, they became aware why Singapore should be more concerned about the effects of climate changes in this region more than 7,000 km away from our country.

As the Arctic region opens up and integrates deeper with the global economy, its impact on Singapore will come in many ways. This seminar for youths was organised by Energy Studies Institute, GCNS and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The Guest-of-Honour was Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of Social and Family Development Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong, who shared about his experiences at the Arctic in his closing remarks.  

Many people are concerned about climate change but do not feel that they know enough to act. To bridge this gap, Climate Conversations, a non-profit volunteer organisation, held a workshop under its facilitator training series at the SSA, to equip participants with the skills to become change agents for climate change. One of the trainers at Climate Conversations who conducted the facilitator workshop is Ms Kei Franklin. Ms Franklin is an outreach manager and course architect at Skillseed, where she crafts and curates socially-impactful experiential learning journeys for youths. She is also an editor and writer for Brack magazine, a platform for socially engaged artists in Southeast Asia. Ms Franklin shared that facilitation is a powerful way to contribute to social change. Creating space for conversation can be a powerful first step that contributes to the climate movement.

As part of CDL’s commitment to youth development and pioneering sustainable urban solutions, CDL hosted participants of the Sustainable Enterprise Challenge (SEC) 2018 at the SSA. SEC is a local case challenge which aimed to seek solutions and recommendations from the Nanyang Technology University (NTU) student community to enhance the sustainability of the NTU campus. Attended by close to 25 students from diverse faculties, the visit and a sharing by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Esther An enabled students to gain a deeper understanding about CDL’s efforts towards sustainable development in an urban landscape. This played an integral role in sparking ideation in the SEC participants to find sustainable solutions for green campuses and eco-buildings.

Jointly organised by CDL and Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS), the CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award is an annual case competition that offers youths a platform to champion sustainable development and SDG integration into business for positive change. This year, aligning with the global goals for sustainable development, the Award seeks to educate and empower young leaders with SDG knowledge and skills, while inspiring companies in Singapore to take action on the SDGs.

A total of 83 teams from universities, polytechnics, junior colleges and high schools submitted their entries. After an intense round of evaluation, 10 finalist teams were chosen. The final assignment involved analysing their case companies’ sustainability strategy and assessing how they can better align their sustainability strategy with SDGs, which included coming up with innovative and sustainable products or services. At the final judging, the panel of judges were impressed with their professionalism and innovative ideas, reflecting their sound understanding of the SDGs and case companies’ sustainability strategies.

Results of the winners will be announced in November 2018.

As a means of understanding climate change’s impact on Singapore’s urban planning and redevelopment, 48 participants played a land-use simulation game that was designed to focus on climate change. Participants stepped into the shoes of policy-makers and built a Singapore that they envisioned, while considering the land constraints and priorities of the country. Through the process, participants explored the relationship between economic and population growth, climate change and urbanisation.

With deeper understanding of climate change’s impact to Singapore and the desire to fight climate change, the participants collectively took the Climate Action Pledge by Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and commited to be more climate-friendly in their daily lives. Later in the session, 4 speakers from the People, Private, Public sector spoke about actions that could be done to combat climate change.

Chua Ying Xuan and Sammie Ng, co-founders of Accommodate, said about the SSA, “The thoughtful layout of the SSA makes a particularly brilliant location for public engagement events like Accommodate. The space itself being sustainable in terms of its building material and carbon neutrality is also extremely inspiring and heartwarming to us organisers and participants who are passionate about sustainability, making it a perfect place for fulfilling SDG 17, which is Partnership for the Goals.”

Engagement with stakeholders is critical in understanding the issues that an organisation’s stakeholders care about. Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Singapore conducted a workshop, which saw its key stakeholders come together to review and discuss some of the foundational elements of the Sustainable Natural Rubber Platform (SNRP) with regards to its ambitions, organisation, principles and progress towards an official launch in the coming months.

The event started with the Young Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia (YSI SEA) Sustainability Conference, which brought together 55 investors and guests, representing 24 different organisations. During the product pitching session, 6 impact start-ups (formed from 24 regional finalists) with innovative sustainability solutions made their pitch for product uptake and funding to the floor of investors, consisting of venture capitalists, impact investors and other investors. It was truly a moment of euphoria as all 6 teams successfully secured funding or development support from the investors.

The event progressed to the Singapore Sustainability Showcase, which was held as a grand culmination of the 14-week Innovation Programme. The opening was graced by Minister Desmond Lee, Minister of Family and Social Development, Second Minister for National Development. The theme “Rethinking Innovation” aimed to shift the limelight from solutions to the real problems that motivate sustainability players. YSI SEA’s presentation prompted the audience to rethink about sustainable innovation and getting to the heart of problems. The audience were also inspired by the presentations by the booth partners, where they shared about how social-sustainable enterprises function and the passion that drives them. SSA was honoured to have hosted the 500 like-minded individuals investors and guests, who were passionate about driving sustainability solutions to the market.

The National Youth Council (NYC)’s Youth Conversations is a platform for youths to voice their opinions, connect with their peers from all walks of life, and come up with ideas for change on a range of environmental and social topics of interest to Singapore. It also gives them the opportunity to propose innovative ideas and experiment with solutions with support from the NYC.

This event focusing on Zero Waste aimed to engage youths to discuss and share perspectives on the topic of waste generation and reduction across a range of topics like sustainable fashion, food waste, e-waste and others. They aimed to spur youths to greater individual and collaborative actions, hopefully leading up to more systemic change. Exploring the questions of ‘Where are we?’ ‘Where do we want to go?’ and ‘How can we lead us there?’ around Singapore’s waste issues, some 60 youth participants were able to surface their concerns on various waste-related topics and discuss their ideas for action to realise their zero-waste goals. They also heard from civil society initiatives like Straw-Free Singapore and corporates like CDL about their respective efforts to reduce waste and increase recycling.

The Youth Conversation ended with a call for action, where several participants were inspired to share their own plans and ideas to work towards zero waste.

30 students and 3 professors from the Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, India visited the Singapore Sustainability Academy during a study trip to Singapore. Hailing from the private college’s School of Architecture, the 4^th year students were studying architectural designs for urban spaces. They were keen to learn about how the Academy, as a sustainability space in an urban setting, was transformed from a bare skypark into a green building through the use of innovative and sustainable building materials. They also visited the Academy to learn about how the space has been used to promote and advance environmental and social initiatives.

During the visit, CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An gave an overview of the SSA’s programmes and core focus of promoting sustainable development through providing a free space for the community to use. Senior Project Manager Alfred Ng, who led the development and construction of the SSA, then spoke to the students about the architectural design and building process, from the sourcing of the SSA’s sustainable timber as verified to the Nature’s Barcode system, to its creatively designed roof that keeps out the heat while allowing rainwater to be funneled off for collection. The students were inspired by the SSA’s holistic dedication to sustainability.

Into its 69^th cycle, the CDL 5-Star Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) seminar provided a valuable platform to promote the importance of EHS among CDL’s building industry partners including architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and contractors. Speakers from the Workplace Safety and Health Council and Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (E&C) were invited to share on topics such as mosquito breeding and work safety at height, to close to 100 participants. Results of the CDL 5-Star EHS Audit Assessment for ongoing projects in the second quarter of 2018 were also announced during the seminar to recognise exemplary EHS performance displayed by the builders.

Small nudges make a difference! For LepakInSG’s ‘7^th Sea Our Shores’ Blue Nudge Workshop, they brought together a small group of 15 marine activists and community players to discuss the mounting marine trash problem in Singapore. The workshop aimed to raise awareness about current efforts taken by the government and civil society groups. The attendees were also informed about how they can stay involved and provide their feedback to the various groups involved.

10 environmental community group representatives were invited for a focus group discussion on the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint (SSB), a roadmap for Singapore’s national sustainability plan published by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) in 2015. The discussion aimed to collate opinions and feedback from the ground about the plans laid out in the SSB, to be sent to the relevant government agencies for the next review of the SSB.

The UN Environment (UNE) Southeast Asian Youth Environmental Network (SEAYEN) Regional Meeting is a gathering of selected youth representatives from 10 ASEAN member nations. It is held every two years to gather prominent youth environmentalists from ASEAN to report on their countries’ environmental status and the activities done by young people in their home countries. As the ASEAN Chair for 2018, Singapore was privileged to host this year’s Regional Meeting at the aptly-chosen venue, the Singapore Sustainability Academy (SSA). This is also complementary with 2018 set as Singapore’s Year of Climate Action. The event was organised by the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) of Singapore in collaboration with UN Environment.

At the Forum held in the SSA over two days, talks from sustainability experts from Singapore and capacity-building sessions were held to equip 30 youth leaders with knowledge and skills to enhance environmental actions back home. They were encouraged to ‘work local, think global’ in order to brainstorm for solutions and new ideas with their peers and glean best practices from other countries.

Over 180 youths from the Asia Pacific region visited City Square Mall and SSA as part of the Global Youth Summit (GYS)’s Green Dot Learning Journey. The GYS is organised by Hemisphere Foundation, a local non-profit social enterprise, and it provides a youth-led global platform for youths to connect, discuss and initiate innovation for sustainable solutions to protect children, fresh water and the natural environment from further destruction. Through this visit, they learnt about CDL’s extensive sustainability efforts and the eco-features of City Square Mall, Singapore’s first eco-mall that is also owned and managed by CDL.

As part of Northland Secondary School’s eco-education programme, several passionate teachers organised a learning journey for 120 students to the SSA and City Square Mall to learn about existing efforts to conserve energy, water and resources. The students took away much knowledge about conservation efforts done on a personal, national and international level, and the students and teachers alike were inspired by the SSA’s embodiment of sustainable materials and mission.

Sea Our Shores’ is a yearlong series of workshops held by local environmental interest group LepakinSG, where selected speakers, activists, conservationists and individuals active in the marine conservation arena are invited to conduct talks and hands-on sessions for the public to learn more about Singapore’s shores and reefs. The events support International Year of the Reef 2018.

In June, about 20 participants comprising of families with children attended a Sea Our Shores – “Fun with Marine Life!” workshop just for kids. They learnt about the fascinating creatures that we can find on our Singapore Shores and even got to examine some specimens up close. Then, they tried their hands at some clay modelling to make their favourite marine animals.

Some 32 pre-school teachers attended two fun-packed sessions of “Learn, innovate, play”, a workshop organised by NEA and Environiche LLP. Teachers were taught on the fundamentals in environmental education, which included topics such as anti-littering, 3Rs, dengue prevention, environmental hygiene and energy efficiency. They also conducted a discussion on how to integrate environmental education into the pre-school curriculum.

One of the workshop highlights was the plastic flower making workshop as part of CDL and GI’s #BeatPlasticPollution campaign. Amazed by the sheer number of plastic bottles collected during the short time, many participants made a commitment to reduce their disposables usage in future.

Career opportunities in sustainability are growing, amid a mounting push for sustainable business practices locally and globally. The Sustainability Professionals Programme (SPP) piloted by the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) aimed to equip executives with the skills to take advantage of career opportunities in the green sector. The 10-day programme held over five months gave 30 participants a deeper understanding of key corporate sustainability concepts and frameworks, while exposing them to prominent individuals in the Singapore corporate sustainability scene.

Singapore generated more than 800 million kg of plastic waste in 2017, and only six percent of consumer plastic waste was recycled. Most plastics produced are single-use plastics and as consumers, we urgently need to rethink the way we make, use and reuse plastics.

To educate the public and promote innovative methods of reducing plastic waste, Sustainable Living Lab organized a Community Lab event and sharing session to get people to rethink how individuals can close the loop on plastic recycling. Other than a talk about the fundamentals of the circular economy and how consumers can lead low-carbon and zero-waste lifestyles, the event also gave participants a chance to make their own reusable plastics! Using a machine built by SL2 group PlastiCity, participants who brought along their own HDPE and PP plastics (e.g. bottle caps, detergent, shampoo and milk bottles) were able to repurpose their plastic waste into new items during the hands-on session.

On 5 June 2017, the Singapore Sustainability Academy opened its doors for the first time. Within just a year, it has hosted over 110 events and training programmes, 4,500 visitors, and established partnerships with 140 like-minded organizations from Singapore and beyond to advance sustainability and climate action.

On 8 June 2018, the SSA celebrated its 1-year anniversary with a group of 40 friends and associates, in conjunction with Gone Adventurin’ at a reception that touched on the pressing problem of food waste. CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An gave an overview of the SSA’s milestones over the past year, as well as upcoming programmes and youth engagement activities such as the recently-launched CDL E-Generation Challenge 2018. Shifting the spotlight to food waste, Gone Adventurin’ then shared their experiences in hosting Asia’s first Feeding the 5000 event at City Square Mall in March. Food waste practitioners and experts, including Daniel Tay from SG Food Rescue, Ng Jia Quan from Insectta Farm, and Jeremy Lee and Clewyn Puah from startup UglyGood, spoke about their own solutions to the food waste problem at different stages of the value chain.

UNLEASH is an annual global innovation lab that brings together 1,000 talents from all over the world to generate ideas and solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals. Held for the first time in Singapore, talents from over 100 countries gathered over six days to ideate and form networks to advance sustainable development.

CDL was requested to host a visit for 80 talents from the Climate Action track at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, in order to showcase our sustainability integration and climate action efforts through green buildings, green financing and innovative 3P partnerships, such as the establishment of the SSA. Focusing on the topic “Creating a Sustainable Business and Community”, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An gave an overview of how CDL has integrated sustainability into our business for over 2 decades, and how we continue to create value from sustainability through our developments and pioneering green bond efforts in Singapore. CDL also invited two relevant social enterprises, UglyGood and GUSH!, to present their novel products that address climate challenges. UglyGood produces closed-loop cleaning solutions from food waste, while GUSH! invented a sustainably-produced interior paint that purifies air for improved mental health and cost savings.  The sharing was dynamic with many questions and propositions from overseas talents to adapt the Singapore green building approach in their countries.

The Adventurous Fellowship, a flagship programme for youths by local social enterprises Skillseed and Geylang Adventures, is a series of three residential camps that aim to explore Singapore’s prevailing social and environmental needs framed under the tri-sector model. The Fellowship aims to provide Fellows with a deeper understanding of the Theory of Change and how it can be used as a tool to guide long-term social change.

Over three weekends in May and June, a group of 32 Fellows from The Adventurous Fellowship attended equipping and sharing sessions at SSA. The Fellows consisted tertiary students in environmental studies and social work, fresh graduates, and working professionals from the government and social sector and educators. During these sessions, representatives from the people, public and private sectors shared their perspectives on three main issues, namely the Environment, Inequality and Integration, which were further explored during the camps. Coming from a wide variety of organizations like Zero Waste SG, the National Environment Agency, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and Nanyang Technological University, they gave the Fellows diverse perspectives on the complex environmental and social problems faced in Singapore, and possible interventions and solutions.

The SSA was found to be a very appropriate venue for The Adventurous Fellowship as the ethos and values of the Academy and fellowship were very much aligned, as both are cross-sector partnerships striving to address Sustainability.

Phua Huijia, Director, Skillseed, said about the SSA: “We were thankful to have been able to host our Adventurous Fellowship at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. Our Fellows appreciated the sustainability initiatives of CDL and it helped to raise further awareness about how private sector companies can partner the civic sector to further mutual sustainability goals. Thank you SSA for this wonderful opportunity!”

A group of some 40 students in the China Europe International Business School’s Executive MBA Programme visited the SSA as part of a learning journey to Singapore, where they also visited other government and private-sector initiatives which have been transforming Singapore into a leading smart and sustainable city. The students consisted high-level professionals from senior management and boards of directors, hailing from a variety of industries in China, including real estate, finance, manufacturing, and a range of others. Through the visit and a sharing by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer Esther, the delegation gained a deeper understanding about CDL’s sustainability efforts towards a greener environment and across different geographical regions including China. Afterwards, they visited South Beach to experience CDL’s sustainable design and technologies for themselves, and were highly interested in engaged in asking questions about how to bring the South Beach innovations back home to China with them.

The May edition of the yearlong series of ‘Sea Our Shores’ workshops featured a sharing by International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) volunteer, Ms Joleen Chan. She gave her firsthand experience and thoughts about the plastic use and pollution situation in Singapore, and her experience volunteering at coastal clean-up sessions.

The talk was followed by a film screening of “Albatross”, directed by Chris Jordan. The movie studies the newly emerging but major issue of ocean plastic pollution through the environmental tragedy taking place on a tiny atoll in the center of the North Pacific Ocean, where many seabirds have died from ingesting plastics. The movie and talks showed attendees how widespread the problem of plastics is, and helped them to gain insights on the local situation. It further aimed to inspire them to action by reducing their own plastics usage, and joining local cleanup efforts.

The NEA Corporate Environmental Champions Programme aims to equip representatives of corporate and non-government organisations with skills and knowledge to implement environmental initiatives within and beyond their organisations. The workshop, attended by 36 people, aimed to impart useful project management skills to help participants drive environmental initiatives back in their own workplaces. Experienced NEA environmental partners also shared their own insights and experiences, and participants were brought on an educational site visit to Siloso Beach Resort.

This is the second time the workshop has been held in the Singapore Sustainability Academy. The NEA is one of the Academy’s founding government agencies and a frequent partner in events to spread environmental awareness and increase outreach among the people, private and public sectors.

25 pre-school teachers attended two fun-packed sessions of “Learn, innovate, play”, a workshop organized by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Environiche LLP. The teachers were taught on the fundamentals in environmental education, which included topics such as anti-littering, 3Rs, dengue prevention, environmental hygiene and energy efficiency.

One of the highlights of the workshop was an experiential learning journey collecting recyclables from City Square Mall to create a “games of yesteryears” bazaar! Pre-school teachers had to be resourceful to “shop” for recyclables by requesting them from the mall’s tenants. They crafted these recyclables into games, an exercise that brought out their creative sides and prompted a discussion about how to integrate environmental education into the pre-school curriculum in a fun and educational way. Improving the quality and accessibility of pre-school education was highlighted in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day rally speech in 2017 as a key strategy to foster social mobility and sustain a fair and just society. A main tenet of this will also be instilling a strong environmental consciousness in Singapore’s youths.

Sea Our Shores, a yearlong series of workshops held by local environmental interest group LepakinSG, invited speakers from diverse backgrounds to reveal the ‘treasures of our shores’ to a 50-strong crowd at their April event. The speakers included Azri Alwi, an artist that helps uncover the intrinsic value of our shores; Ms Liow Shen Yan, a member of the Marine Stewardship Council; Dr Serena Teo, a member of the World Harbors Project team and Mr N. Sivasothi, senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Biological Sciences, nicknamed ‘Otterman’ for his extensive studies of Singapore’s otters.

They shared about the role that Singapore’s shores play on the international stage. With a crowd largely made of youths and marine enthusiasts, it was hoped that the panel discussion would bring new insights and perspectives on the benefits of our shores and the value they create for Singapore and its people. The series of LepakinSG events has also served to bring passionate youths together to do their part in protecting Singapore’s shores.

In view of the urgent need for effective communications about the problem and solutions for Climate Change, the NEA organized a training session for youths on may create strategies to address this broad and complex topic for their own communities. The 15 youths were part of the planning team for the upcoming ASEAN Plus Three Youth Environment Forum (AYEF).

The training, conducted by Assistant Professor Sonny Rosenthal from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, covered topics such as communication strategies for sustainable behavior, mobilizing the masses, community events and national messaging. It also gave participants a chance to create and refine their own strategies, and showcased examples of successful climate change campaigns such as the recently concluded Feeding the 5000 event by Gone Adventurin’, held at City Square Mall with CDL’s support.

The Economist Corporate Network gathered 40 senior business leaders from a range of industries from finance, to retail, to real estate, for a panel discussion and networking session about sustainable business and investing. The panel comprised four experts in sustainable financing and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) best practices, including Eya Sicat, Marketing Director for Human Nutrition and Health, Asia Pacific, DSM; Marion O’Donnell, Associate Director, ESG, Fidelity International; Jeanne Stampe, Head Asia Sustainable Finance, Global Finance Practice Leadership Team, WWF Singapore; and Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL. The panel was chaired and moderated by Andrew Staples, Global Editorial Director of The Economist Corporate Network.

About the venue, Pamela, Qiu, Associate Director South-east Asia of the Economist Corporate Network, said: “We were delighted to hold our Economist Corporate Network event on sustainable business and investment at the SSA in April 2018. The venue at SSA fitted perfectly the theme of our event on sustainable business, and we appreciate the opportunity and support from SSA to host our guests at their unique space.”

The Jane Goodall Institute of Singapore (JGIS) said a big ‘thank you!’ to their volunteers through a Volunteer Appreciation Event held at the SSA, which gathered 15 from their network who have been contributing regularly to the Institute’s activities and events. The gathering further served to educate members of the damaging effects of plastic use, and showcase those who have been actively cutting plastic use out of their daily lives. This came in the form of a short talk and game facilitated by local NGO Plastic-Lite Singapore, and sharing session by JGIS members who have attempted a one week “No Plastics Challenge”. Their individual learnings and reflections inspired the other members to greater awareness and action during this short yet impactful session.

As Andie Ang, President of JGIS commented about the SSA: “As Singapore becomes a biophilic city in a garden, we should place more importance in sustainability and wildlife-friendly buildings, and SSA can be a leader in this field.”

In a bid to present to cub scouts the extent of the plastic pollution problem globally and in Singapore’s waters, the Colugo Scouts in partnership with NParks organized a screening of ‘A Plastic Ocean’ at the SSA for 41 scouts and their parents. The younger generation will be most affected by plastic waste and pollution in the coming years and it is crucial to educate them of the mantra ‘If you can’t reuse it, refuse it!’.

In the week leading up to the event, scouts were also challenged to complete ‘plastics homework’ by tracking their plastic usage and reflecting on it, which culminated in this meaningful movie screening to remind them of the impact their actions have on the environment. The event further complements the SSA’s recent role as a platform for marine conservationists and enthusiasts to gather and inspire each other about the importance of curbing plastic use for our oceans, as with the recent conclusion of the event commemorating the International Year of the Reef on 5 April 2018.

In conjunction with the Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) 2018 and the International Year of the Reef 2018, Ocean Geographic founder and publisher, Michael Aw, gathered key ocean conservationists for an exclusive event at the Singapore Sustainability Academy to increase awareness and share a call for action around marine conservation. The event saw an attendance of over 60, including Her Excellency, Margriet Vonno, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Chairman of the Shell Companies in Singapore Ms Goh Swee Chen, CDL Group CEO Mr Sherman Kwek, and director of documentary ‘A Plastic Ocean’ Mr Craig Leeson.

Acclaimed songstress and ocean conservation spokesperson Ms Kristin Hoffmann performed “Song for the Ocean”, backed by a youth choir group put together by CDL. The performance was recorded as part of a music video that will be released internationally to raise awareness to conserve and protect the ocean. Dr Sylvia Earle, acclaimed deep-sea diver, oceanographer, explorer and scientist also recorded a video specially for the event to call for more action for the ocean, which was screened during the event.

With Director Craig Leeson in attendance, a 20-minute version of award-winning documentary “A Plastic Ocean” was screened. The groundbreaking documentary was filmed in 20 locations across the world over four years, and explores the fragile state of our oceans while uncovering alarming truths about plastic pollution and devising working solutions that can be put into immediate effect. Inspired by the clip, CDL will also be hosting a screening of the full movie for its staff and subsidiaries as part of an Earth Day staff engagement event.

Finally, the audience also had the privilege to view Michael Aw’s short film called “Facing Grace” starring Hong Kong actress Hidy Yu, which showed artfully how sharks and humans can live harmoniously together.

The audience then had a lively and engaging sharing session with the panelists, which includes Michael Aw, Kristin Hofmann, Craig Leeson, and Hidy Yu, the lead actress in “Facing Grace”.

CDL Group CEO Sherman Kwek closed the evening by pledging his support and commitment to save the oceans, reiterating the importance of environmental conservation for all.

CDL hosted a CDP Workshop at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, conducted by Dr Tony Rooke, CDP’s Director of Technical Reporting on 22 March 2018. CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) is a not-for-profit charity organisation that runs the global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states and regions to disclose their environmental data. The workshop was attended by over 60 potential first-time and experienced corporate disclosers such as Singtel, Fuji Xerox, Sembcorp, UOB, and other companies.

Participants were briefed on the changes in the upcoming carbon, water and forestry disclosures, including alignment with the Recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures. CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An also gave a short presentation on CDL’s CDP reporting journey. CDL was the first Singaporean company to disclose its carbon emissions with CDP, and attained the Leadership level rating of A- in 2017.

Local non-governmental organization (NGO) Zero Waste Singapore gathered some 20 volunteers to engage and involve them in the NGO’s focus areas and activities in 2018. These include public talks about the Bring Your Own (BYO) campaign, recycling, and food waste, as well as social media outreach and engagement. Plastic and food waste have been major concerns for Singapore over recent years, with the government and civil society ramping up efforts to advocate use of non-disposables and methods to prevent food waste through public education and partnerships.

Newly appointed Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Professor Indy Burke visited the SSA as part of a learning trip to Singapore, hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Law school. Taking a particular interest in CDL’s efforts at greening the built environment, she was given a tour of the SSA to learn about its green features and community outreach efforts.

Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of CDL, gave an overview of CDL’s green building expertise and the SSA, and Kavita Gandhi, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) spoke about SEAS’ work in training energy managers and increasing sustainable energy uptake in the region. The visit was also accompanied by technical experts from CDL and Schneider Electric, who supplemented their professional knowledge on the SSA’s sustainable construction materials, design and real-time energy tracking feature.

CDL and the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) co-hosted a visit for Mr John Paul Phelan, Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform of The Republic of Ireland (third from left) and His Excellency Mr Geoffrey Keating, Irish Ambassador to Singapore (fourth from left) at the zero-energy Academy.

CDL’s Group General Manager Mr Chia Ngiang Hong and Chief Sustainability Officer Esther An, shared CDL’s journey as Singapore’s green building pioneer, while SGBC representatives spoke to the distinguished visitors about green building industry best practices. The Minister complimented Singapore’s urban planning and CDL’s unwavering commitment to sustainability, and has committed to taking away some practices to advance Ireland’s green building efforts.

Singapore Youth for Climate Action (SYCA) hosted a Climate Community meetup to discuss the actions that the ASEAN Community can take collectively to meet the region’s energy and climate change challenges. Attracting almost 30 participants from civil society, schools, corporates and the non-profit sector, the group held a sharing about SYCA’s upcoming plans and projects for the year, and broke out into smaller groups to discuss the topics for the day.

As a non-profit space dedicated to sustainability, the SSA is pleased to support youth groups in advancing their cause and providing a platform for them to part a part in the sustainability movement in Singapore and beyond.

On 8^th March, the International Women’s Day, CDL Diversity and Inclusion Task Force organised an inaugural employee engagement event to promote gender diversity and women empowerment at its workplace. It brought together some 80 employees from CDL and its subsidiaries, and the SSA provided a comfortable environment for them to meet, mingle and learn from each other, away from the office.

The session was opened by Group General Manager and long-time mentor to many in CDL, Mr Chia Ngiang Hong. He acknowledged CDL’s strong female workforce for their contributions and encouraged the company to keep making efforts in diversity and inclusion. Through a cosy fireside chat with seven of the company’s long-serving women leaders, who have been with the company between one to three decades, employees then picked up useful advice on how to excel professionally while maintaining work-life balance.  The Task Force also seeks to promote a supportive workplace ecosystem for working women and inspires young employees through female role models.

As part of CDL’s annual zero-waste campaign EcoBank and launch of responsible fashion initiative Fashion 3R, organizing partner Connected Threads Asia coordinated with upcycling artist and environmentalist Agatha Lee to conduct an upcycling workshop on 4 March, ‘Craft it for the Cats!’ at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. Close to 30 participants learned how to transform an old T-shirt into a necklace, and half of the proceeds were donated to local volunteer-run cat sanctuary, The Cat Museum.

The workshop showed that climate action and opting for sustainable fashion and accessorizing can be fun and accessible, and people can switch up their style while remaining sustainable.

As part of CDL’s national zero-waste campaign EcoBank 2018 and its launch of responsible fashion initiative Fashion 3R, CDL hosted a Swap Party by Swapaholic for the first time at the Singapore Sustainability Academy. Fashion 3R is a collaboration between CDL, Connected Threads Asia, Raffles Design Institute, and Eco-Business that aims to promote responsible purchasing and disposal practices among consumers and the public.

Organised by local responsible-fashion NGO Swapaholic, monthly swap parties aim to promote ‘Swapping as the new Shopping’, providing conscious consumers a stylish retail-type platform to swap great-condition pre-loved clothes instead of buying new ones and contributing to landfill. The SSA was transformed into a retail ‘gallery’, providing a space both inside and at the sky park outside for attendees to swap in a sustainable space. The swap party attended by over 160 and graced by Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor, and CDL Group CEO Sherman Kwek, was a fun-filled time of clothes-swapping and camaraderie for all. Over 1,700 pieces of clothing were collected and found new owners during the swap, effectively saving it from contributing to added carbon emissions. It is a great example of taking action for the climate in a fun and accessible way, part of the SSA’s mission to galvanize collaborations and increase engagement over sustainability across all sectors and industries.

Professor Daniel C. Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Visiting Professor at Yale-NUS College, brought a class of 15 Yale-NUS students to visit the Singapore Sustainability Academy and South Beach as a showcase of green-building industry best practices. Teaching a class about ‘Climate Change and the Future of Energy, the visit to the SSA demonstrated to the students how corporates can contribute to climate action and the SDGs through leveraging their own expertise and core business strategy. Professor Esty’s 2006 book on how smart companies use environmental strategies to innovate, ‘Green to Hold’, has long served as an inspiration and source of useful pointers for CDL’s sustainability strategy to ‘Conserve as we Construct’.

The 2^nd to 4^th year students from the Environmental Studies, Urban Studies and Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) majors were remained curious and interested throughout asking many questions about CDL’s history and continuous efforts in pushing sustainability in its business practices and community investment efforts.

At this landmark meeting organized by the WWF and Southeast Asian Alliance for Sustainable Palm Oil (SASPO), graced by Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), the SASPO’s member companies were lauded for their latest commitments to introducing sustainable palm oil to their supply chains. Minister Masagos also announced 10 new companies joining SASPO, namely Bee Cheng Hiang, F&N, Commonwealth Capital, Compass Group, Paradise Group, Tong Seng Produce, Tung Lok, Super, Delfi and Crystal Jade. SASPO, which champions the use of sustainable palm oil in Southeast Asia, now has 15 member companies.

Together, these companies account for over 200 food and beverage outlets in Singapore, including PastaMania and The Soup Spoon. This is a milestone for the industry-led alliance, and sends a clear signal that businesses in Singapore have taken the lead to transition towards using 100% sustainable palm oil. Some 70 industry leaders and alliance representatives attended the event, providing their support towards SASPO.

After the announcement, a panel comprising of Hervé Simon, group marketing director of Denis Asia Pacific, Mike Barclay, chief executive of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Andrew Tjioe, chief executive of Tung Lok group and Andrew Kwan, group managing director of Commonwealth Capital, shared why and how their organisations shifted to using sustainable palm oil at SASPO’s press event. Despite the challenges, these industry leaders regard the membership with SASPO as a privilege to help raise awareness among consumers the importance of using sustainable palm oil.

The Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) held its Business Future series on “Sustainability for Directors” at the Singapore Sustainability Academy on 21 February 2018. Attended by over 20 company directors, speakers from Ernst & Young (EY) and CDL gave attendees an overview of the ecosystem of sustainability and why it makes a compelling business case.

Mr. K. Sadashiv, Managing Director (ASEAN) of EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Service, gave an engaging presentation on key sustainability milestones and touched on trending sustainability topics such as green bond financing, the role of the board in ensuring sustainability and global and societal expectations of companies in delivering sustainability. Using industry case studies, he explained how sustainability reporting, which is now required of SGX-listed companies, can be done.

Esther An, CDL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, effectively highlighted the many opportunities that adoption of sustainable practices can bring, drawing on examples from CDL’s sustainability journey over the past two decades. Attendees also saw first-hand how the SSA is an example of a company creating value through stakeholder engagement and outreach, effectively expanding the community of like-minded sustainability professionals in Singapore.

2018 has been declared the 3^rd International Year of the Reef (IYOR) by the International Coral Reef Initiative. To commemorate this, LepakinSG has planned a series of activities and events throughout the year, ‘Sea Our Shores’, to educate and engage the public about Singapore’s seas and reefs.

About 40 first timers, together with experienced guides were gathered to participate in the third installment of Sea Our Shores: A Guide To Guiding! Participants shared and discuss what makes a good nature guide (it’s not the knowledge!) as Ms Ria Tan of www.wildsingapore.com shares tips on guiding effectively and how to connect with the participants. Facilitated by experienced guides from various green groups in Singapore, participants were guided through hands-on activities to brainstorm solutions to their deepest nature guiding worries. Participants were also prepped to guide a walk held the next day to let them showcase their newfound skills.

In partnership with the Lien Centre for Social Innovation in SMU, CDL hosted a delegation of six 3^rd and 4^th-year students and two faculty members from Keio University’s Keidai Faculty of Business and Commerce. This is part of their Global Passport Programme, a selective honors program offered in English to upperclassmen from all Keio faculties. The focus of their visit to the Academy was to learn about sustainability and business, a topic that has been a hallmark of CDL’s strategy and core business over the past two decades and remains a cornerstone of its success in breaching new heights. Through this, the Lien Centre hoped that CDL and SSA will help Singapore’s foreign counterparts to learn how successful business and social value creation are possible in tandem.

Soundbites from students

“I was so surprised by your company’s efforts to make the world better through your business. It’s important to live with nature in the future. I [gained much] knowledge about the strategy. Thank you for hosting this event.”

“The visit to the facility was wonderful. The site included so many eco-minded functions. The presentation was very convincing and comprehensive. The presenter and members of Singapore Sustainability Academy were full of hospitality and care. Thank you for the opportunity.”

More than 60 youths attended the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s Youth Partners Appreciation and Networking Session held at the SSA. Organised annually to kick start the year, the session gathered prominent and passionate youths in the NEA’s youth circles to share about environmental initiatives and issues, followed by a networking dinner. Besides learning about topics like Energy Efficiency and Conservation, 2017 United Nations Climate Conference, and COP 23, the event highlighted the recent efforts and accomplishments of some Singaporean youths in the climate scene.

The event was well-attended by passionate youths from the Tertiary Institutions Council for the Environment, the NEA’s Youth Environment Envoys, staff and students from environmental clubs in Institutes of Higher Learning, and other partners from the youth sector. On top of appreciating and acknowledging youth partners for their inspiring work, the session also gave an outlook for upcoming programmes and initiatives in 2018, an especially exciting year for the environmental movement as Singapore’s Year of Climate Action.

The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources officially launched Singapore’s Year of Climate Action on 26^th January 2018 at the SSA. Co-organised with CDL, the event aimed to give prominence to this landmark year for Singapore, and raise national consciousness around the need to take individual and collective action against climate change for a sustainable Singapore. The event was graced by Guest of Honor Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Sherman Kwek, Group CEO of CDL, and over 50 ambassadors and diplomats. It saw a turnout of over 200 representatives from government, corporations and civil society. Minister Masagos delivered a rousing opening speech that credited organizations and individuals who had been taking action for the climate prior to 2018, and encouraged others to follow suit. Mr Sherman Kwek addressed the audience on the need for businesses to embark on sustainability integration, citing CDL’s own positive experience in doing so.

At the event, CDL launched the second edition of its Little Green Hearts series: Budding Little Green Hearts. A new community programme to connect kids to nature organised in partnership with local non-profit Ground-Up Initiative, the initiative involved 35 pre-schoolers from LEAP SchoolHouse in the planting and decorating of a herb planter box at SSA. The CDL 6^th Sculpture Award Commissioned Artwork – Towards Zero-waste, using residual wood from SSA construction, was also unveiled by Minister Masagos. CDL E-Generation Challenge Distinction Award Winner Inch Chua, a home-grown local singer, specially composed and performed a song on Climate Action to commemorate the momentous occasion.

The launch also showcased the efforts and initiatives of 10 local organisations to combat climate change through interactive booths and activities. They ranged from ground-up groups like Singapore Youth for Climate Actions to bike-sharing company MoBike, and government agencies like the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Public Utilities Board (PUB). The booths helped attendees to learn about how different sectors are contributing to climate action. As a key representative from the private sector, CDL is proud to be part of this national movement and fulfil Singapore’s pledge for the Paris Climate Agreement

The ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) is an international non-profit body that facilitates sharing of knowledge and best practices from CSR Networks across five ASEAN countries. Leveraging the SSA as a platform to engage business, community and youths over low-carbon, resource efficiency, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ACN convened a closed-door dialogue between almost 20 members of its corporate partner networks and ACN’s staff and management. They explored areas for alignment between companies’ CSR strategies and ACN’s work around promoting responsible business in the region.

Through sharing about ACN’s vision for promoting sustainable development in the region, its workplan and pillars of work, they sought to identify ways that ACN could bring value to corporate partners’ CSR strategies. Having integrated its ethos of ‘Conserving as we Construct’ into its business operations since 1995, CDL strongly believes that businesses play an important role in advancing sustainability in the corporate ecosystem.

Climate Conversations is a new, non-profit organization that engages the public to have meaningful conversations with friends and family about climate change. It provides training for interested individuals to become facilitators, who will hold conversations with their networks to inspire them to care for the environment and their future while mobilizing them to action. It takes a personalized approach to spreading the word about climate change, empowering people to discuss it meaningfully with others as an effective way of getting them to internalize the importance of acting.

They held a series of training sessions for new facilitators at the SSA over three weekends, where 15 new facilitators were taught the basics of climate communications and how to host an impactful conversation. Aiming to reach out to those who typically are not concerned about climate change or don’t know much about it, the Climate Conversations model targets to reach over 10,000 people in the next three years. The Academy was an apt venue to hold the training sessions, as a dedicated platform to ramp up public outreach and engagement over sustainability.

The BCA BiG Club, which promotes greater awareness and understanding of sustainability among passionate youths and future green building professionals, organized a learning journey to the SSA and City Square Mall for 38 club members from local polytechnics. Put together by its youth leaders, the learning journey brought the students on a tour of the Green Mark Platinum-certified City Square Mall to learn about its distinguishing green features, followed by an upcycling workshop in the SSA. The students saw first-hand how the SSA runs on energy produced by the solar panels on its ceiling, as well as how it tracks its energy consumption in real-time during a short tour. The upcycling workshop then gave them the opportunity to learn about how to practice sustainability in their daily lives in a fun way, while building ties between these like-minded youths.

Youth development is one of CDL’s main priorities in our community investment programmes. With 2018 having been designated Singapore’s Year of Climate Action by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, CDL has ramped up efforts to support youth climate actions through the SSA as a platform for collaboration, capacity-building and training. On 20^th December, the SSA hosted a meeting and brainstorming session for local environmental interest groups and non-profits, to discuss upcoming plans and partnerships for the year ahead. The meeting was organized by representatives from #LepakinSG and Singapore Youth for Climate Action.

The inaugural session gathered over 50 participants from over 30 local organizations in different fields, representing a range of causes like food waste, plastic pollution, biodiversity, climate communication and awareness, and the arts. Through a series of small group discussions and collective sharing, the group came up with new projects for different sectors in the year 2018 and proposed avenues for further collaboration and actions.

In line with the SSA’s mission to contribute to a low carbon society, CDL supports the  ‘Climate Take Back’ initiative organized by Interface, one of SSA’s founding partners.   It aims to drive a fundamental shift in global responses to climate change by bringing together leaders in different fields to collectively imagine a new climate future. Knowing the potential for youths to contribute to creating a climate fit for life, the workshop brought together 46 young leaders from Singapore in an outcome-oriented ideation workshop on 16 December, to move the ‘Climate Take Back’ dialogue forward.

This half-day session gave them the opportunity to learn about tangible examples of what practices have been helping us go beyond a carbon reduction mindset to one of reversal, and to engage with industry practitioners  and other young climate leaders  to look at new approaches to climate action. Participants were first introduced to the Zero-Energy Academy as an example of how companies can facilitate collective action and dialogue around climate change. They were then given an overview of the ‘Climate Take Back’ initiative before breaking up into groups to work on one of four ‘Climate Take Back’ pillars: ‘Live Zero’, ‘Love Carbon’, ‘Lead the Industrial Re-Revolution’ and ‘Let Nature Cool’. Participants worked in small groups to come up with ideas and action plans to achieve these four pillars, and presented their solutions to the group who voted on the most innovative and comprehensive solution.

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) is a programme by the U.S. Government that aims to empower Southeast Asian youth to collaborate on regional and global challenges. Every year, YSEALI organizes alumni from their Southeast Asian networks to conduct projects and activites to catalyse social and environmental change, under a programme called YOUnified. YSEALI YOUnified projects tackle a wide range of pressing issues, from environmental protection, to minority rights and human trafficking, to youth empowerment and entrepreneurship.

This year, Nor Lastrina Hamid, a prominent YSEALI alumni from Singapore, held one of Singapore’s four YOUnified 2017 events at the Academy. The talk and panel discussion featured six outstanding youths with five under 25, and their ongoing efforts to tackle environmental issues, such as waste reduction, biodiversity conservation, haze prevention and others. The youths are:

• Malika Avani, The Healing Drum
• Hazeera Bi, Eco-SIM
• Sankar Ananthanarayanan, Herpetological Society of Singapore
• Gauri Shukla, SOS Against Haze
• Cheryl Lee, Up2Degrees
• Jonathan Halim, Freegan in Singapore

The audience of young people were similarly inspired and excited to connect with other equally passionate and committed youths, asking questions and planning future initiatives throughout the evening.

At the workshop, NEA held Environmental Systems Thinking Workshops for their Youth Environment Envoys (YEE), where over 20 future youth leaders received conceptual and practical training on sustainable development. They were groomed to develop teamwork, communication, networking, systems thinking and project management skills by sustainability consultants from Systainability Asia. The workshop also enabled them to design, develop and launch their own environmental projects.

The Academy received 80 students and two lecturers from the Republic Polytechnic Diploma in Green Building Energy Management over four days in November. The students who are 16-17 years old are completing a course on ‘Green Building Technology and Design’.  They toured and learnt about the green features and initiatives of City Square Mall, Singapore’s first Eco-Mall opened in 2007.    They then proceeded to the Academy on the Mall’s Skypark where they further expanded their knowledge on green building features and solar technologies.

The CDL Sustainability team showcased the Academy’s positive energy achievement and real-time energy monitoring system. Students also learnt first-hand about the Nature’s Barcode^TM certified Glued Laminated Timber and Cross Laminated Timber used to construct the SSA.  The team also shared about the sustainability-related programmes and events that have been held in the SSA for businesses, the community and youths. The students were inspired by what they learned, and left especially impressed by the Academy’s advanced solar technology and commitment to walking the talk in sustainability.

The 4^th Annual Sustainability Forum for CDL and the Hong Leong Group was held at the Academy on the 20^th of November. Attended by some 90 directors, senior management and sustainability committee members from 11 Group companies, the Forum convened a high-level panel of sustainability experts to explore and discuss about ‘Emerging Trends in Sustainability’. Sustainability is gaining traction globally, especially among businesses looking to tap into new opportunities that also create shared economic, environmental and social value. The annual event sought to rouse interest and conversation among directors and top management on how their own companies could leverage on upcoming sustainability trends to create business value.

The Forum began with opening remarks by CDL CEO Mr. Sherman Kwek who spoke about how CDL’s early adoption of sustainability since 1995 has strengthened our resilience and ability to adapt to new global challenges. The keynote address by Mr. David Galipeau, Chief Impact Officer of Asia-Pacific, United Nation Development Programme, was highly engaging and insightful.  Mr Galipeau shared how businesses can embrace urbanisation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for economic opportunities and create positive impact on their stakeholders and communities.

Two experts in green financing, Mr. Mikkel Larsen, Managing Director and Co-Chair of Sustainability Council, DBS Bank and Ms. Herry Cho, Head of Sustainable Finance, Asia Pacific, ING Bank, addressed the audience on the opportunities present in green bonds and social impact investment, and how collaborations and innovations can drive financing for sustainable development. Subsequently, Ms. Karen Lee, Sustainability Lead for Asia, Interface, gave a manufacturer’s perspective on how sustainability integration creates business value, as the world’s largest maker of carpet tiles and a pioneer organization in sustainability practices.  Finally, covering the crucial but often-overlooked topic of gender diversity on boards was Ms. Janet Ang, Member of the Diversity Action Committee Singapore and Vice President of Industry Solutions and Smarter Cities, IBM Asia Pacific.

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Ms. Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, which saw a highly-engaged audience seeking strategic and practical advice from the esteemed panel on how to embrace sustainability best practices such as SDG integration and gender diversity, especially for medium enterprises and first-time adopters.

The Singapore Sustainability Academy hosted the exclusive Urban Land Institute (ULI) Singapore Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) mentoring session on the evening of 24 November. 34 women working in the real estate industry gained advice, inspiration and tips from them on advancing their career in the male-domineering industry. The mentors were:

• Peter Hyland, Regional Director, Urbis
• Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited
• David Edwards, Director, Portfolio Manager – Real Estate, Deutsche Asset Management
• Magdalene Chua, Partner, Assurance, PwC
• Richard Paine, Managing Director, Paya Lebar Quarter, Lendlease
• Ong Choon Fah, CEO, Edmund Tie & Co
• Hwang Yu-Ning Acting Deputy CEO & Chief Planner, Urban Redevelopment Authority
• Benett Theseira, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, PGIM Real Estate
• Stephen Pimbley, Director, Spark Architects
• Natalie Breen, Partner and Real Estate Legal Leader, PwC

Organized in a “speed dating” format, mentors were assigned to one of five roundtables where they interacted with mentees and gave them advice. Mentees later moved around to different roundtables to speak with other mentors. The groups discussed career advancement, management, methods to juggle family and work and numerous other topics relevant to the young, high-potential women at the session.

16 graduate students from Universitas Ciputra (Ciputra University) in Surabaya, Indonesia, visited the Academy to learn about best practices in business and sustainability from a Singapore company. The visit was organised by the Singapore Management University’s Business Families Institute, Southeast Asia’s pioneer regional business family-centric institute focused on addressing the needs of business families in the region. The students run their own family businesses in Indonesia across a range of industries. They visited the Academy to observe a key showcase of partnership and collaboration between the People, Public and Private sectors.

Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An, shared with the visiting students about how CDL sustainability efforts have evolved beyond a mere corporate social responsibility initiative, to becoming a core business strategy that creates long term value for the company and its stakeholders.   After a tour of the SSA to observe the successful integration of green building features, the students also visited City Square Mall to learn more about its green technologies and initiatives as Singapore’s first eco-mall.

The NEA Corporate Environmental Champions Workshop, held at the Singapore Sustainability Academy on 27-28 November, aimed to equip representatives of corporate and non-government organisations with skills and knowledge to implement environmental initiatives within and beyond their organisations. Seeing increased interest from these sectors around sustainability, the programme was well-attended with over 30 participants from a wide variety of organisations like Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Nature Society, Ricoh (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Ministry of Health, Interface Asia, LepakinSG and 15 others. The two-day workshop was conducted by Ms Farizan d’Avezac De Moran, Senior Partner of GreenA Consultants, and officials from NEA.

Participants acquired both useful project management skills and valuable insights on sustainability through the workshop. This was designed to help them drive environmental initiatives in the office setting after the workshop, while inspiring and equipping them knowledge through sharing sessions by experienced NEA environmental partners. After the workshop at the SSA, participants then went on an educational site visit to Semakau Landfill. With inputs and lively participation from representatives of diverse organizations, the workshop successfully imparted practical and relevant knowledge to help them push their organizations to greater sustainability.

As part of CDL’s efforts on knowledge sharing and capacity building, CDL hosted seven delegates from the Buildings Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Administrative Region on  the 6th of December. They began their excursion at the SSA with a brief introduction to CDL by Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An. Four of SSA’s Project Partners, namely REC Solar, Venturer, Schneider Electric and Woh Hup Construction were also present to provide their technical inputs on the SSA’s most unique sustainable features, like the solar panels and real-time energy tracker.

The delegates were particularly keen on learning about the application of Cross Laminated Timber and Glulam which were not only made from renewable sources but due to the prefabricated nature of the structural wood, enabled CDL to complete construction in under six months. Timber specialists Venturer shared their insights and process generously whilst Schneider Electric, who installed the real-time automation control and energy management system edified the group on the inner workings of the system.

The delegation then proceeded to South Beach, CDL’s award-winning mixed development located along Beach Road. They were taken for a tour of the area and treated to a view of the photovoltaic modules fitted on the buildings as well as the microclimatic canopy engineered and designed to provide naturally ventilated shelter, encouraging airflow and filtering out radiant heat.

The last stop on the tour was at the Brownstone Executive Condominium which is renowned for its extensive and possibly largest application of prefabricated, prefinished, volumetric construction in the world. Teambuild, the contractors, presented on the key features of this development which achieved higher productivity and lower environmental impact through innovation.

The delegates engaged CDL’s technical experts throughout the tour and drew parallels to the status of development and productivity in Hong Kong, thus creating opportunities for both parties to learn from each other.

Connected Threads Asia conducted the final session of a series of talks on the topic of Fashion Sustainability. With a focus on “The Business of Sustainable Fashion”, four invited speakers from Green is the New Black, Zerrin, Coopita and Source Collections came together to share about how they maintained sustainable fashion businesses in the highly competitive fashion market in Singapore. The speakers also discussed the challenges and opportunities of setting up sustainable fashion brands in Singapore, through their own experiences and successes.

The event was accompanied by an exhibition by students from Raffles Design Institute, who showcased their own works from a project that tasked them to come up with a sustainable fashion line. The audience later voted on their favorite projects from a creative selection featuring clothing, jewelry, accessories and other products made by the students.

45 local and international students from the Singapore Management University (SMU) visited the Academy as part of a class on ‘Managing Sustainability’ on 20 October. The class, SMU’s first dedicated module on corporate sustainability, is co-designed and taught by CDL Chief Sustainability Officer, Esther An. The students hail from a range of countries, with diverse majors such as Accountancy, Business, Economics, Information Systems and others.

The tour of the Academy was accompanied by a presentation by Esther and followed by a visit to CDL’s mixed developments, South Beach. Esther showcased the Singapore Sustainability Academy (SSA) as an example of how businesses can create shared value and goodwill among the business and nonprofit community, and future youth leaders of tomorrow. The positive-energy SSA has generated both tangible and intangible value for CDL and its stakeholders through its annual electricity savings, capacity-building for energy managers, and sustainability advocacy and outreach to hundreds of business partners and youths since its opening. The students were enthused and inspired , continuing to ask questions and observe the Academy’s green design and features after the tour.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) invited Dr Marcus Gover, Chief Executive Officer of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) from England to speak at their Professional Sharing Series that was held in the Singapore Sustainability Academy on 5 October 2017.

Some 70 experts from business, government, NGO and academia sectors attended this session. Dr Gover shared insights on the challenges and best practices on resource efficiency and circular economy in UK from WRAP’s research and initiatives with stakeholders; and the challenges and opportunities ahead for industries globally.

Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) organized a briefing for 80 directors of listed Catalist companies to learn more about the basics of sustainability reporting, and how a first-time reporter should start. The briefing opened with a welcome by June Sim, Head of Listing Compliance at SGX. Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of City Developments Limited, also welcomed participants to the zero-energy Academy and spoke on its vision, mission, and making. Then, Yeo Lian Sim, SGX Special Adviser (Diversity), gave an overview of Sustainability Reporting and the SGX Guide to reporting. Following that, Christopher Chong, Lead ID of Singapore O&G and Chaiman, Emerging Towns & Cities, spoke on Implementing Sustainability Reporting from a Board Director’s Perspective. Finally, Wong Dan Chi, Director of Paia Consulting, gave participants useful pointers from a Sustainability Consultant, on how to begin reporting and the most important things to look out for.

This was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session. The panel comprising Yeo Lian Sim, Esther An, Wong Dan Chi and Michael Tang, Head of Listing Policy & Production Admission, Regulation, SGX, answered questions and alleviated the audience’s concerns about how first-time reporters should start their reporting journey. The directors in attendance benefited from the reporting veterans’ insights and tips.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) held their annual pre-school Environmental Education Advisor (EEA) Networking Session at the Academy. The session provided a platform for pre-school EEAs to network and learn more about the initiatives that NEA and its partners are rolling out. Over 80 pre-school teachers and advisers attended the interactive and lively session on 4^th September 2017, where they learned about best practices in environmental education through booths and sharing sessions from guest spears and experienced pre-school EEAs.

CDL hosted over 70 local and international participants of NTU’s annual Asian Business Case Competition (ABCC) at the Singapore Sustainability Academy on the 4^th of September. The students from countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were in Singapore to participate in the 6-day case competition, targeted at encouraging NTU students to delve further into the topic of sustainability. As a Platinum Sponsor, CDL worked closely with the organizers to develop the competition’s main case study, which exhibited leadership in sustainability for their Sustainable Enterprise Challenge (SEC).

At the zero-energy Academy, Esther An, CDL Chief Sustainability Officer,, shared with participants about CDL’s sustainability journey and the vision and mission of the Academy. The students were also given a tour of the zero-energy Academy, which highlighted some of the key green features of the space such as its use of sustainable, Nature’s Barcode™ verified wood, solar panels, and real-time energy consumption tracker. The participants were enthused and asked many questions about the sustainable features of the building and how CDL fits into the bigger picture in terms of sustainability in Singapore.

To introduce NEA’s new Uniformed Group (UG) Badge Programme which adopts a Values In Action approach, NEA held a dedicated session for teachers working with scouts on 19 August 2017, at the Academy. Through a half-day workshop with interactive activities and games, the teachers effectively learned about the two badges, “Keep Singapore Clean” and “Resource Conservation”, which are aligned to NEA’s Guiding Principles, “Let’s Be Considerate” and “Let’s Not Be Wasteful”.

CDL, in collaboration with Interface, held its first Sustainability Thought-Leadership Forum on Building a Circular Economy at the Academy. At the session, Malavika Jain Bambawale, Director/ASEAN Lead, Strategy and Sustainability, Accenture, shared about the five circular economy business models, showing examples of businesses that have successfully adopted them. The presentation was followed by an engaging panel discussion featuring Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Interface; Lee Hui Mien, Head of Sustainability, IKEA Southeast Asia and Malavika Jain Bambawale, and moderated by Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited. They discussed how businesses can create business value by shifting away from the linear model, while making the circular economy attractive to consumers and investors.

The Academy was packed with over 100 guests from the People, Public and Private sectors. The panellists took questions from a highly-engaged audience, which was followed by a networking session where guests continued to exchange insights.

A partner of the Academy, Interface held an Ideation workshop with Forum for the Future, along with a networking event, to gain insights from industry peers about the future of learning, as well as discuss solutions to create spaces that will positively address our changing needs.

The workshop, titled The Future of Learning Spaces in Asia Pacific, was a highly interactive ideation exercise involving a group of architects, designers, educators and entrepreneurs. Besides gaining industry insights, the workshop helped participants co-create potential innovative responses to emerging change.

The networking session, titled Creating Positive Spaces of Tomorrow, Today, involved professionals in the built environment. A panel of consisting of Tan Shao Yen, Chief Executive Officer, CPG Consultants and President, Board of Architects, Singapore; Jayne Harrison, Founder & Principal, JDH Architects; Robin Hales, VP Product APAC, Interface; and Anna Simpson, Senior Associate, Forum for the Future and Author of The Innovation-Friendly Organisation, discussed design solutions proven to impact factors like occupants’ productivity and creativity while creating a positive impact on our planet.

The CSR Asia Strategic Partners Gathering was held at the Academy 19 April. During the session, Richard Welford, one of the founders and the chairman of CSR Asia shared on the merger between CSR Asia and ELEVATE, a leading professional services firm delivering improved social, environmental and business performance in the global supply chain.

The SSA, a Green Mark Platinum Award development, was featured during the International Green Building Conference (IGBC) as a unique showcase of green building commitment and platform for sustainability advocacy.

During the conference week, over 60 local and international delegates visited the Academy over 2 days to learn about its green features and practices, as well as the training and networking events in sustainability that it has facilitated. Among them were chief executives of the Green Building Councils of South Africa, South Korea and Malaysia.

Chief Sustainability Officer Esther presented on the topic of “Build Green: Be the Change” to all groups of delegates. She shared about how CDL has integrated green building and sustainability into its business for value creation, and the Academy’s role as a showcase of green building commitment and sustainability advocacy.

Both tours were supported by technical experts from Schneider and REC, the Academy’s energy monitoring portal and solar panel providers respectively. They elaborated further on the technicalities of the Academy’s green features. In total, the Academy received 60 visitors from Singapore and overseas, who continued to ask questions and explore the Academy after the tour.

The Royal Danish Embassy of Singapore held a dialogue between high-level leaders in government and the private sector from Singapore and Denmark at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, with a focus on sharing lessons and best practices between two small yet ambitious cities in the fight against climate change.

Titled ‘Cities & Citizens Confronting Climate Change’, the event featured presentations by distinguished political and industry leaders, moderated by Ms Jessica Cheam, Managing Editor of Eco-Business. The event opened with a welcome by the moderator, before Her Excellency Dorte Bech Vizard, Ambassador of Denmark to Singapore and Brunei, took the floor to welcome guests from both countries and kick off the dialogue with the thought-provoking message that climate change is the ‘black elephant’ in the room. This was followed by an address by the Guest of Honor, Mr Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director of the Centre for Liveable Cities, Ministry for National Development, on “Towards a sustainable future”. Mr Khoo touched on how Denmark and Singapore are small in size, but can be hugely influential in stirring others to become more sustainable. Then, Mr Morten Kabell, Mayor of Technical & Environmental Affairs, City of Copenhagen, spoke on “How cities can and should act”. Mr Kabell emphasized the need for mutual learning and collaboration between Singapore and Copenhagen, giving examples of climate-friendly practices from both cities. Following that, Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited (CDL), shared on “How to grow a ‘green force’ in cities”, citing how CDL has engaged its key stakeholders on the need to be sustainable through education and empowerment. Finally, Mr Andreas Maaløe Jespersen, Associate Researcher at iNudgeyou, spoke about his experience in “Getting citizens to go green” through behavioral economics principles.

The presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion and audience dialogue. The panel comprising Mr Morten Kabell, Ms Esther An and Mr Andreas Maaløe Jespersen took questions from the moderator and audience on the challenges and opportunities arising from cities’ fight against climate change, with inputs from Mr Khoo Teng Chye. The event, attended by representatives from government agencies, academia, research and industry, ended on a high note with the audience continuing to interact with panelists and exchange insights over lunch.

Global Initiatives, in partnership with Interface, held a roundtable with 21 regional sustainability experts from the business, government, NGO and academia sectors to share insights and perspectives on cross-sectoral collaboration to address climate change. Ms Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer of Interface, first addressed the group on Interface’s Climate Take Back initiative. Senior representatives from the building, energy, consumer goods and agricultural sectors then had a fruitful discussion on how industries can move towards a low-carbon economy, moderated by Mr Tony Gourlay, CEO of Global Initiatives.

After the Roundtable, Global Initiatives hosted a cocktail networking session to mark the launch of the Responsible Business Forum Singapore 2017 and their #SDGActionNow campaign, co-organised with the United Nations Development Programme. They also unveiled the campaign video featuring CDL as an example of best practice for UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

In its 7^th edition, the CDL-GCNS Young CSR Leaders Award was launched in 2011 as a cross-sectoral programme to cultivate a new generation of young leaders to champion a sustainable future for Singapore and beyond.

10 finalist teams from various universities, polytechnics and junior colleges/high schools were selected from a competitive pool of over 130 student teams – a record number of sign-ups for the competition.

The teams gave impressive presentations before an esteemed judging panel on their proposed sustainability strategy and initiatives for 10 company cases, namely AkzoNobel, APRIL, Cargill, DSM, EY, Hong Leong Asia, Informatics, Singtel, Suntory and Veolia.

The judging panel comprised of Ms Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited; Mr Lee Kheng Seng, Director of Communications and 3P Partnerships, Ministry of Environment and Water Resources; Mr Tony Gourlay, CEO, Global Initiatives; Mr Steven Okun, Governor, American Chamber of Commerce and Ms Christina Lee, Founder and CEO, Global Green Economic Forum.

The winners will be announced and awarded at the GCNS Summit on 29 August.

In conjunction with its Annual General Meeting and Management Committee Meeting, Global Compact Network Singapore held a thought leadership event titled The Future of Sustainability and Reporting for Corporate Sustainability. Attended by nearly 100 members, including companies such as Shell, Singapore Business Federation, Singapore Pools and NTUC, the event addressed frequently asked questions about integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how to report on a company’s efforts to achieve them.

Speakers on the panel were Ms. Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited; Mr. Simon Bennet, General Manager (Sustainable Development), Swire Pacific Offshore Operations; Mr. Tony Wines, CEO, Turnkey Group; and Ms. Yeo Lian Sim, Special Adviser, Singapore Exchange. They shared how opportunities could be found by embracing the SDGs, as well as the use of corporate reporting as a strategic tool in business. The event concluded with a panel discussion with the speakers, moderated by Ms. Fang Eu-Lin, Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP.

About 40 students, mostly from universities and polytechnics, attended the National Environment Agency Youth Environment Envoy workshop. Held on 17 to 18 June 2017 at the Singapore Sustainability Academy, its aims to groom a network of youth to become leaders and change agents. CDL shared the importance of embracing sustainability for businesses and corporates, and facilitated discussion alongside presenters from MEWR and Earth Fest.

In conjunction with World Environment Day, the Singapore Sustainability Academy was officially opened by Mr. Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security, together with Mr. Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Jointly created by City Developments Limited and the Sustainability Energy Association of Singapore, the Academy is the first major People, Public and Private (3P) ground-up initiative in support of global and national goals to tackle climate change. The opening also introduced many of the Academy’s initiatives, such as the Women4Green Network, and the Sustainability Studio.

Over 160 invited guests attended the opening, including notable names such as the Canadian High Commissioner Lynn McDonald; Mayor Teo Ho Pin, North West CDC; Mr. Choi Shing Kwok, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources; amongst many others.

For more information, please refer to the press release here.

CSR Asia hosted Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for a session on the value and challenges of corporate sustainability reporting in an evolving landscape. The event provided a unique opportunity for an open conversation with GRI about the concerns and needs around transparency.

Mr Timothy Mohin, Chief Executive, GRI shared about the organisation’s reporting standards and the future of corporate sustainability reporting, fielding many questions from the floor about the opportunities and challenges of reporting a company’s sustainability efforts. CDL also shared on its sustainability reporting experience and how GRI’s reporting standards have complemented CDL’s corporate sustainability journey, enabling it to effectively connected the company’s ESG disclosures with financial impact to communicate tangible value creation for its investors and stakeholders.

The Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) held a roundtable session on “Aligning corporate strategies to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs): Challenges and opportunities”. The session also introduced World BCSD’s CEO Guide to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Presented by Mr Filippo Veglio, Managing Director, Social Capital, World BCSD, the session explored the crucial role that business should play in achieving the SDGs as well as positioning clear actions that business leaders can take to align their organizations with the SDGs and unlock the value they represent. The audience was provided with a comprehensive overview of the key implications for business across the spectrum of risk, opportunity, governance & transparency, and the need for collaborative action.

CDL and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) announced the launch of the Singapore Sustainability Academy on 5 August as the first major People, Public and Private (3P) ground-up initiative in support of the national goals to tackle climate change. This is also the first time that a local private property developer and a Non-Profit Organisation have teamed up to create a major training and networking facility on sustainability.

The launch was graced by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. The zero-energy academy is set to promote a low-carbon economy, resource efficiency, and sustainable practices among businesses and the community, in particular, youths.

Jointly designed by CDL and ONG&ONG Pte Limited, and built by Woh Hup (Private) Limited, the SSA will be the first in Singapore to have its construction materials, Cross Laminated Timber and Glued Laminated Timber verified by the Nature’s BarcodeTM system as coming from responsible sources.

For more information, please refer to the press release here.