'We're environmentally pampered'

A chat with Howard Shaw, executive director of the S'pore Environment Council
Venessa Lee Today Online 5 Jun 10;

How much do Singaporeans care about saving the Earth, judging from their actions?

You can't generalise but there is a growing fraternity of the converted, the Prius-drivers and the reusable-bag users. This is mainly the English-speaking, highly-educated group, which has been expanding since the early 1990s.

Also, among the young, there's a huge increase in awareness and understanding, even at Primary level. In my daughter's school, every class has an Eco Monitor, someone in charge of doing the recycling.

When I first entered the field in 1996, there were about 20 green groups, or green clubs, in schools. About 15 years down the road, there are slightly more than 200 green clubs, a 10-fold increase.

There's hearts and there's minds. The knowledge is there; it's pervasive - knowledge of environmental issues, climate issues, resource issues.

It's part of the National Education curriculum and the press and various community organisations have played a role as well.

The issue is really the hearts. How many of them are actually doing something about it, pursuing a greener lifestyle? That's the challenge, really. It is on the increase, but at a rate that really needs to be spurred on a bit.

Is the Government leading in terms of green initiatives, and are Singaporeans biting?

I think there has always been an emphasis on the environment. The Garden City is a good example of that, as is the cleaning up of our waterways and the Singapore River.

So the Government has led in this way. They have also adopted certain green procurement policies for the public sector.

One good example is green buildings ... (eventually) Government buildings need to achieve the Green Mark standard.

What about the response to the Government's lead in conservation issues?

If you talk about businesses, I think the MNC (multi-national corporation) community in Singapore has always been a leading sector. A lot of their basic operating policies are governed by their HQs.

In the early days in the mid-1990s, for instance, a big MNC with environmental management standards would come to Singapore and source for suppliers and impose those standards on their suppliers as well.

Property companies are another very good example. Leaders like CDL (City Developments) had the vast majority of green buildings in Singapore, it still has the majority of Green Mark buildings. And people like CapitaLand and Keppel Land are following suit.

When you have anchor tenants like big banks coming to Singapore, they think, where am I going to set up office? The green building has become part of their criteria. They don't want to operate in an energy-thirsty building.

You mentioned MNCs and highly-educated, English-speaking types. What about small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and heartlanders?

I think that is the challenge because that constitutes the majority. We have approached many an SME and the perception is that in going green, the benefits do not outweigh the costs. They say: "Why are you trying to tie more lead weights to my feet? I'm just trying to keep my head above water here."

How would you persuade them otherwise?

I think that it's a matter of implementation, as well as the scale of implementation of green initiatives. They can start with the simple things and often these are things that would actually reduce your operating costs.

We have a green office programme ... it's a checklist of how you can basically save energy, materials, stationery and all that in the administrative environment. It actually suits companies of all sizes. It's a great starting point for SMEs and they get the accreditation of being an eco office.

Do you think a big push on the part of the Government would work?

I think we do this year after year (laughs). It's called Clean and Green Singapore and it's in the month of November. It used to be known as Clean and Green Week.

I don't know of any other country, where, led by the ministry (Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources) and National Environment Agency (NEA), they've dedicated one month to environmental promotion and activities to educate the public.

And it's totally a Government-created campaign. It was led by the Government, the public sector ... but it reaches out to the other two sectors, the people and the private sector that now are involved. The 3P model, they call it, which has worked well.

What is the role of NGOs in this?

NGOs very much represent the interests of the people. We were initially set up to create a kind of groundswell in the environmental movement.

One of the side effects of the Government being effective in their job is that we citizens became environmentally pampered.

I don't know of one other country in Asean where you can just drink out of a tap.

Or your garbage, for example. For 90 per cent of the population, it's thrown down the chute and it's handled ... it's out of sight, out of mind.

So we become a bit of a nanny state and we have "nanny" mentality, that nanny will do everything for us. And nanny is of course the Government (laughs).

As a result of that ... people aren't actually taking responsibility for the environment. When I say "people", I mean, the man on the street. A lot of public strategy policy documents, for example, are put online for public comment - but the feedback is often at a very low level.

The NGOs' role is to facilitate the "bottom-up", as opposed to "top-down", movement and also to facilitate and coordinate bigger things, working with the other two Ps - the private and public sectors.

The SEC was restructured from the National Council on the Environment (NCE). Do you think that it's ironic that your origins hark back to the Government?

Government Initiated NGOs, we call them GINGOs (laughs). Someone had to start it. SEC has grown ... we are 100-per-cent independent, although we also work in collaboration with the Government.

SEC was borne out of a Government-initiated society, the NCE, to an independent Institution of Public Character.

But the benefits of the early-day initiation were a credible organisational structure and good alignment with the interests of Singapore towards being a sustainable city-state.

We still have Government representation in an advisory role on our board but that's important, we need to stay aligned.

How do you do your part in being green?

I hate throwing things away, I'm guilty of hoarding and clutter until I find some way to recycle my stuff.

We live in a house, with three generations living under one roof ... energy is a big issue, the use of more natural ventilation, minimising the use of air con.

The writer is a correspondent at Today.