Q: Congratulations on the recent release of PUB’s inaugural Sustainability Report. Can you share with our reader the drivers and considerations for putting this report together?

Worldwide, there is growing emphasis on the need to combat climate change. In Singapore, the government announced this year the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which is our national roadmap towards sustainable development and net-zero carbon emissions. PUB’s inaugural sustainability report is timely as we aim to affirm our continued commitment to sustainability to our stakeholders and build more transparency and accountability around our sustainability efforts. We also take the opportunity through our report to encourage our stakeholders to join us in our sustainability journey and play a part in protecting our waters and the environment.

Q: What are some key insights that a reader can glean from the report?

The report illustrates PUB’s take on sustainability and our overall sustainability approach, with details of the initiatives that PUB intends to implement to further this objective in the future.

While this sustainability report is PUB’s first, sustainability is not new to PUB. From our early efforts to build up our water resources and more recent ones in diversifying it, every one of PUB’s milestones serves to strengthen Singapore’s water security and sustainability. Sustainability means being able to continue to deliver our business into the long future responsibly. In this sense, sustainability is everything that PUB does – from ensuring that we have an adequate water supply in the face of climate change, having an engaged and competent workforce, to building strong partnerships with the community, and achieving business excellence. These efforts form the four main pillars of PUB’s sustainability framework.

Q: PUB successfully closed the water loop some two decades ago. Today, in the face of climate change, it is working on closing the carbon loop. Could you weigh in on PUB’s strategy in reducing carbon emissions?

In line with the Paris Agreement in 2015, Singapore has committed to reduce our Emissions Intensity by 36 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and stabilise our greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of peaking around 2030. More recently, under the Singapore Green Plan and GreenGov.SG movement, the public sector aims to peak its carbon emissions around 2025, ahead of the national target. PUB’s efforts towards decarbonisation are aligned with the national and public sector targets.

As PUB moves towards more diversified and climate-resilient sources of water as part of our water loop, the large energy and carbon footprint of these climate-resilient water sources pose the greatest barrier to their sustainable use. Singapore imports almost the entirety of its energy needs in the form of fossil fuels, including what is required to produce water and treat sewage. In the face of a climate-threatened future, it is then critical for PUB to not only ensure a closed water loop, but also work towards closing the corresponding carbon loop.

With PUB’s indirect emissions from electricity consumption accounting for about 80% of PUB’s total emissions, the most direct method would be to find ways reduce this large demand. PUB actively explores more energy-efficient technologies to be adopted in our new plants and infrastructure. They include biomimicry and pressure-retarded osmosis, which will bring down desalination energy requirement from the current 3.5kWh/m3 to close to 1kWh/m3 at the system level in the long term.

However, with technological constraints, there is a limit to how much PUB can reduce this energy requirement. To further decarbonize our operations, PUB also actively explores alternative sources of energy to replace the current fossil fuel-based energy sources. In land-scarce Singapore, PUB’s vast reservoir surfaces present great potential to harness an alternative source of energy – solar energy. To date, PUB has awarded tenders for floating solar PV systems that can generate 64MWp of solar power, the largest of which is the 60MWp system at Tengeh Reservoir which was commissioned in July 2021.

With these efforts to reduce and replace our carbon emissions, we would only be able to abate approximately 60% of our total emissions by mid-century. To achieve net zero, capturing and removing carbon that we emit is the next big task on hand. With the recent launch of PUB’s Carbon Zero Grand Challenge, PUB is studying new technologies such as CCUS and carbon removal solutions that can be integrated with our water treatment facilities so that we can achieve net zero emissions by mid-century.

Are you a regional distributor or reseller? Our exhibitors are looking to meet you at SIWW2022!

With 15 participating Country and Regional Pavilions, our international exhibitors are looking to meet regional distributors and resellers who are keen to represent their products in the Asia-Pacific region.

If you are a distributor/reseller based in the following countries, we invite you to join our SIWW2022 Water Expo Distributor Programme:

• Brunei

• Cambodia

• Indonesia

• Laos

• Malaysia

• Myanmar

• Singapore

• Thailand

• Vietnam

Email us your company name, business contact details, and company portfolio/website to Geoffrey_STEPHENS@pub.gov.sg. More details to follow in early 2022.

There are myriad of exhibitor / sponsorship / advertising opportunities for you to get involved with SIWW2022. Here’s why you should:

• Position your brand centrally in front of a wide range of water professionals

• Gain brand exposure, reinforce top-of-mind recall during buyer decision process

• Network with like-minded delegates

• Generate new business connections and sales

• Inform specific target audience about your latest technologies and solutions

To make a booking, email us at sales@siww.com.sg

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