NEA and South West CDC champions environmental and social sustainability by empowering individuals to adopt energy saving habits

JOINT NEWS RELEASE BETWEEN NEA AND SOUTH WEST CDC

Singapore, 19 November 2011 – Residents in South West district can now be environmentally and socially responsible simply by reducing home energy consumption through the iContribute – South West Energy Challenge. This will be announced at the South West Clean & Green (CGS) Carnival at the Singapore Science Centre.

As part of its ten-year ECo Plan (Environment & Community Plan) to reduce energy consumption by ten percent, the South West Energy Challenge is a five-month long programme jointly developed by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the South West Community Development Council (CDC), supported by corporate partners – ExxonMobil Asia Pacific and Philips Electronics Singapore. It promotes active awareness and ownership among residents to save energy, which in turn helps them lower their electrical bills and save money in the long run.

The programme aims to garner at least 500 pledges from visitors at the carnival to adopt energy saving habits such as changing to energy-efficient light-bulbs, setting air-con temperature at 25 degrees Celsius and choosing appliances with more ticks. Their pledges will be displayed on the iContribute tree at the carnival.

Adding the element of social responsibility into this year’s carnival theme – “Growing a Clean and Green Environment”, organisers have partnered with ExxonMobil for the fourth year running, who will donate $10 for every household showing a reduction in energy consumption (capped at $5,000) to the Kids-Up @ South West programme which is an educational fund to help pay educational expenses for children from low-income families.

Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources who will be launching the programme commended South West CDC’s efforts in encouraging the public to do their part in protecting the environment and contributing to a good cause at the same time, “I am heartened to see the strong community support in our efforts to encourage the public to preserve and protect the environment. By reducing energy consumption, we are also reducing our carbon footprint that helps in mitigating climate change. We hope that this programme will generate greater awareness on energy conservation and also foster a closer bond among the community in building a sustainable environment for our future generations.”

Dr Amy Khor, Mayor of South West District shares, “At our recent Climate Change poll, it is encouraging that more than 90% of the 130 respondents from the community recognised that climate change as a pressing issue. This serves as an impetus to our ongoing efforts to build an eco-friendly and energy-efficient district. More importantly, we are rallying the households to participate in the iContribute – South West Energy Challenge to play a deeper role in advocating energy efficiency and community ownership.”

Various volunteers including ExxonMobil employees, ITE College West students and community leaders helped to install energy-efficient light-bulbs for low-income households in the South West district since last Saturday. Over the next three months, more than 3,500 low-income households will receive this free installation and it will be the second run since 2007. Besides changing light-bulbs, volunteers also educate residents with the various energy-saving tips which could translate to more cost savings and protect the environment at the same time.   

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