Revolutionary Education System of Singapore Vol.2: A Sustainable Approach

Why is Singapore the perfect place to learn sustainability?

Perhaps there are few countries more aware of the importance of sustainability than Singapore, a nation known for its scarcity of land and resources. Here, sustainability is not merely a choice but a crucial necessity for the survival and prosperity of the country.

Moreover, Singapore is renowned for its pioneering sustainable development initiatives. By visiting the NEWater Factory, Gardens by the Bay, and the Edible Garden, we can witness how Singapore creatively implements the principles of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – in the areas of wastewater treatment, energy efficiency, and future urban planning using technological innovations for a harmonious and sustainable city life.

Resource Challenges in Singapore

Before delving into Singapore's sustainable development, it is essential to understand the backdrop of the resource challenges it faces. This insight allows a better understanding of why Singapore maintains a strong sense of urgency and meticulously plans for the future, viewing sustainable development as a matter crucial to the nation's survival.

Singapore has a land area of approximately 719 square kilometers with around 5.64 million permanent residents living on this relatively small landmass, a number continuously growing. This population density places immense pressure on Singapore's limited land resources.

Furthermore, Singapore grapples with the scarcity of freshwater resources and food security. Over the years, Singapore has depended on Malaysia for freshwater supply. However, this agreement is set to expire in 2061, posing a significant threat to Singapore's water security.

The scarcity of land resources dictates that achieving self-sufficiency in domestic agriculture is a luxury for Singapore, leading to 90% of food needing to be imported. The global food crisis of 2008 served as a wake-up call for Singapore, prompting the "30 by 30" goal to meet 30% of the food demand domestically by the year 2030.

NEWater Factory:  Wastewater Recyling Technology

As previously mentioned, Singapore heavily relies on importing freshwater from Malaysia. However, Singapore has been reluctant to be deeply tied to another country concerning vital resources that affect national survival.

Since the 1970s, Singapore has been developing technologies for wastewater recycling to gain greater autonomy in freshwater resources. The NEWater Factory stands as a testament to Singapore's efforts over the years. Through advanced purification processes like microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet disinfection, the factory transforms wastewater into clean, potable water.

Currently, Singapore has five NEWater Factory plants contributing about 40% of the water supply, reducing the country's reliance on traditional water sources.

Gardens by the Bay: A Perfect Blend of Nature and Technology

The garden complex standing beside Marina Bay Sands is not only a magnificent landmark but also showcases Singapore's innovative integration of nature and technology in urban living. Towering supertrees in the vertical gardens provide shade and greenery while equipped with photovoltaic panels to harness solar energy for renewable power generation, supplying energy to surrounding gardens and facilities.

Additionally, two other famous conservatories at Gardens by the Bay, Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, demonstrate Singapore's sustainable creativity in conserving biodiversity and addressing climate impacts.

The cloud forest refers to an extremely rare ecosystem found only at the peaks of high mountains, constituting approximately 2.5% of the world's tropical rainforests and harboring many endangered species. With the warming climate causing cloud cover to ascend, these original cloud forests are becoming drier and unsuitable for the survival of these species.

The cloud forest in Singapore enables the survival of many endangered species. Meanwhile, the Flower Dome fully embodies the essence of maximizing energy efficiency through sustainable recycling, where even fallen leaves are precious resources that can be recycled. All horticultural waste is collected and transformed into wood chips, which are then used as fuel in biomass boilers to generate renewed energy for the cooling systems in the conservatories.

Edible Garden: Exploring New Urban Farmscapes

The Edible Garden showcases Singapore's creative ideas for integrating a more livable, sustainable urban lifestyle and addressing food security. By establishing ingredient gardens in restaurants, schools, and residential areas, a school trip to Singapore can include visits to farms where building rooftops and terraces are transformed into vegetable farms, and seemingly ordinary vines also be edible flowers. By adding more greenery to the city, urban farms become a potential solution for food security.

The Edible Garden has also designed a novel recirculating irrigation system that reduces water consumption in agricultural cultivation by 90% and decreases substrate demand by 50%.

During the journey in Singapore, besides appreciating the innovative spirit of sustainable development and the value placed on resource conservation, we also discovered Singapore's strong emphasis on perpetuating the spirit of sustainability through education.

This is also one of the intrinsic meanings of global citizenship that we hope students will absorb during their school trip to Singapore: making changes for future generations and contributing to a better tomorrow.

If you want to discover more about the innovative educational system of the Lion City, join us on an insightful school trip to Singapore.

Sources:

https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-for-thought/article/detail/a-sustainable-food-system-for-singapore-and-beyond

A sustainable food system for Singapore and beyond. https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-for-thought/article/detail/a-sustainable-food-system-for-singapore-and-beyond

https://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/about-us/our-gardens-story/sustainability-efforts.html

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