Green and bare it: interviews with NEA and SEC leads

Straits Times 30 Nov 07;

With the launch of the new Clean and Green Singapore campaign this month and the United Nations-sponsored meeting on climate change in Bali next week, it is turning out to be a very busy time for Singapore's environment champions. Two of them speak to Jeremy Au Yong about how environmental awareness has grown beyond just a week-long campaign.

Two 'green' champions have witnessed this transformation personally and up close. They are: Mr Tan Wee Hock, director at the National Environment Agency (NEA), and Mr Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council (SEC). Both are encouraged by what they see.


WHEN Mr Goh Chok Tong launched the first Clean and Green Week, he urged Singaporeans to keep the country clean - but not because they feared getting fined.

That call by Senior Minister Goh, who was then deputy prime minister, was made in 1990, a time when protecting the environment largely meant keeping it litter-free.

Today, although the $150 fine for first-time litterbugs still stands, the campaign has undergone a complete transformation - its success notwithstanding.

For one, it is much longer now.

No more is it the 'Clean and Green Week'. From this year, it is 'Clean and Green Singapore', an event that is a year-round effort.

Also gone is the focus on a single but different theme each year. Likewise, domestic issues like littering.

The approach now aims for a broad goal in promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle, spotlighting such issues as energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Two 'green' champions have witnessed this transformation personally and up close. They are: Mr Tan Wee Hock, director at the National Environment Agency (NEA), and Mr Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council (SEC).

Both are encouraged by what they see.

One of the biggest differences the duo noticed is how ordinary Singaporeans have enthusiastically embraced the initiative, turning what was once a government-run campaign into an active movement on the ground.

'In the beginning, the whole thing was very top down. The Government organised all the activities,' says Mr Tan, who joined the Environment and Water Resources Ministry 22 years ago and now chairs the Clean and Green Singapore committee.

'Now, you see a lot of others such as the grassroots and the private sector getting involved.'

He points to programmes like Bring Your Own Bag Day, which was organised by NEA and SEC , in partnership with retailers, and the Clean and Green Ribbon project - an online pledge to go green - set up with a group of youth.

Adds Mr Shaw: 'If you look at non-school green groups, there were just a handful of them when I joined SEC in 1996. Today, there are 50 to 60.'

There is more.

Participation in the National Recycling Programme has quadrupled in five years from 15 per cent in 2001 to 59 per cent last year.

Singapore's energy intensity - a measure of the energy efficiency of a nation's economy - has also improved 15 per cent between 1990 and 2005.

In the first 10 months of this year, Singapore more than doubled the number of hybrid cars on the road. Around 516 have so far been sold this year, far exceeding the entire population of 379 hybrids found here at the end of last year.

Proof can be found even in something as simple as attendance at Clean and Green events. The Nov 3 and 4 launch event of the new Clean and Green Singapore drew around 20,000 people to Bishan Park - the biggest crowd in the campaign's 17-year history.

Though he acknowledges a groundswell of green culture, Mr Shaw is careful to separate the current wave from the 'fad' of the 1970s.

'Then, it was very fashionable being green. In the early 1980s, it petered out,' he says.

'Then we started to get very good data on climate change and on resources. We have also actually started seeing real changes in our environment. Those two together have created a new movement that I feel is not a fad.'

Mr Tan believes this growing sentiment will, however slightly, put Singapore in good stead at the United Nations-sponsored conference in Bali next week.

Two meetings there will set the agenda on combating global warming for years to come.

One is of countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol, which requires its signatories to reduce their carbon emission by a stipulated target and by a specified deadline. The other is of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is the parent treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.

He says: 'Bali will be a negotiating platform and when you negotiate, you will have to state your position and defend it.

'When you have an environmentally aware community, it strengthens your position.'

For a long time, the Kyoto Protocol, which gives only developed countries targets for carbon emissions, had been a contentious issue for Singapore. The Republic signed the document only last year.

Mr Tan defends the position: 'A lot of people ask, 'Why didn't you sign earlier?' But it doesn't matter when you sign, it's just a signal of your commitment.

'The bigger question is as a people and as a country, what are you prepared to do?'

Both Mr Shaw and Mr Tan say Singapore and its people are prepared to do a lot.

They point to policies like the early adoption of the tougher Euro IV emission standards, energy labelling on appliances, rebates for hybrid cars and also being among the first in the world to have an Environment Ministry.

And as more ordinary people catch the eco-friendly bug, both men are determined to lead by example.

Mr Shaw says he boils only as much water as he needs.

'If I'm going to make only one cup of tea, then I won't fill the kettle the whole way. If I fill it only one-quarter of the way, then I'm saving energy on the other three-quarters.'

He recycles regularly and even brings his own containers to pick up take-away food. The family now has two fuel-efficient hybrid cars.

His green-thinking has rubbed off on his two children, to the point that his younger daughter, Amber, seven, is known to scold people for leaving the door ajar when the air-conditioner is on, 'making the world hotter'.

Mr Tan has one car. He refuses to buy a second one. 'My wife will drop me off at work or sometimes, I take public transport.'

Despite the strides made in the green movement here, both admit there is still much to do.

When asked pointedly if Singaporeans are an eco-conscious people, both pause, before Mr Tan says with a laugh: 'That's the $64-million question'.

One problem is their scant exposure to real environmental issues. 'Other than when the haze comes, our air quality is very good,' says Mr Tan.

Another is that environmental problems tend to be seen in the long term, which makes it difficult to convince people of its urgency.

Says Mr Shaw: 'If I put X dollars into a charity, I know it will benefit a certain number of people. With environmental issues, it's not so clear.'

The two men agree that the drive forward will have to come both from the top and the bottom.

'When everything is top down, you get results quickly, but it's not sustainable,' said Mr Tan. 'When you are top down, you can get an environmentally conscious country, but you don't get an environmentally conscious people. The difference is, if you are environmentally conscious, you will be environmentally conscious everywhere, not just in Singapore.'