Singapore has launched a major drive to develop smart and green buildings, and also increase construction productivity.
Singapore has been listed as Asia’s most sustainable city, and second in the world, in this year’s Sustainable Cities Index by Arcadis, reported The Business Times.
This is a major improvement from last year when the city-state was ranked 10th globally.
Zurich remains in top spot, followed by Stockholm, Vienna and London.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Seoul is ranked seventh globally, while Hong Kong and Canberra are in 16th and 18th spots respectively.
Singapore was ranked lower than Seoul and Hong Kong, which were ranked seventh and eighth respectively during the index’s maiden launch last year.
Meanwhile, North American cities failed to make the top 20 list of the index.
Conducted by the Center for Economics and Business Research, the Sustainable Cities Index studies environmental (Planet), economic (Profit) and social (People) demands in order to develop an indicative ranking of the world’s key cities.
Aside from being Asia’s most sustainable city, Singapore also tops two of three sub-indices in Asia – Profit and Planet.
However, factors such as lack of work-life balance and high cost of living placed Singapore seventh in Asia and 48th globally for the ‘People’ sub-index.
As an island nation, Singapore has its unique set of challenges, such as lack of natural resources and limited land to develop, noted Eugene Seah, City Executive Director at Arcadis.
“Therefore, Singapore has to be innovative and cultivate a durable and productive management system in order to stay sustainable moving forward,” he said.
With this, Singapore launched a major drive to be more sustainable on various fronts – from smart and green buildings, smart logistics planning and master-planning to construction productivity.
“We are heartened that Singapore’s green building movement and green building masterplans have played a pivotal role in placing Singapore on the world map as the most sustainable city in Asia,” said John Keung, CEO of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
“It was not just a conscious, top-down approach but also the commitment and close collaboration of the public, private and people sectors that made such an achievement possible for Singapore.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
