Two Things We Need
5 years, 5 months, 19 days, 17 hours
2 February 2024
The two things we need if we are to secure the future of our planet: leadership and collaboration.
The KPMG Wellness Garden in Singapore was opened last September. It is a one hectare haven for the community, with therapeutic garden, play garden, nature fitness area, pond trail, barrier-free paths and seating areas. It is the sort of thing that rightly our Singapore Member Firm can be proud of, but this is not a piece in homage to the CSR activities of our firm. It is about how the Singaporean government in its pursuit of creating a sustainable future as a ‘City in Nature’, is combining strategic analysis of what needs to be done with leading by example and community and business engagement. The Garden, which was built by the National Parks Board and sponsored by KPMG ‘is a great example of how government and corporates can collaborate for the public good’ said the Minister who attended the opening.
Tuang Liang Lim is Singapore’s first Government Chief Sustainability Officer. I was introduced to him this week by colleagues, Sharad Somani, Jonathan Ho and Cherine Fok, and as he ran through the many initiatives the government is undertaking I just kept thinking, I wish other governments were taking a similar approach.
The Net Zero target for the country is 2050. But for the government itself, it is 2045. To set an example. There is maximum transparency not just of progress but what the government is doing to reach the target. So other organisations can learn from that. There is an underlying strategic approach that applies across all sectors: reduce, replace, recycle. For clarity and consistency. There is proactive reach-out to communities and businesses through the Community Partnerships Office, for myriad different projects. To support a sense of shared future, and foster the collaboration to deliver it.
As I lifted my glass of water over dinner, Sharad picked his moment to tell me that 20% of it would be recycled grey water. It is a city which harvests 75% of all the rain which falls on it and is planning for water self-sufficiency whilst reducing the level of reliance on and unit cost of desalination. And where the aircon in government buildings is set to 25 degrees, saving energy, carbon emissions and money, where green procurement standards for buildings are now being extended to ICT and government is overlaying generic sustainability training with material to help build an understanding of the specific environment of Singapore.
For me this is a powerful mix of the two things we need if we are to secure the future of our planet: leadership and collaboration.