Joint Release for CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WasteMET Asia

Inaugural events’ success sees strong support from high level industry leaders and renowned waste management experts to address environmental challenges in Asian cities, as they experience the combination of a population growth, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.

Singapore, 6 July 2012 - The inaugural CleanEnviro Summit Singapore 2012 and WasteMET Asia (WMA) 2012, which was held from 1 – 4 July, themed “Innovative Clean Enviro-Solutions for Asia's Growing Cities”, saw participation from high level government and industry thought leaders, international organisations such as the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) and International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) to lead strategic discussions on the environmental challenges, together with key industry players who leveraged on the premier exhibition platform to launch, showcase and introduce their latest innovative equipment and technologies in waste management, recycling and resource recovery solutions.

The CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WMA, held in conjunction with the World Cities Summit and the Singapore International Water Week, attracted over 18,000 participants from 104 countries/regions, including ministers, government officials, top industry leaders, academics and representatives from international organisations.

Close to 100 exhibitors from international and local companies took part in the inaugural WMA, which attracted national pavilions from Canada, Australia/New Zealand and Germany. The events also facilitated the sharing of insights on the latest market trends and exchanged sustainable solutions through its various plenary sessions, conferences and business forums with over 320 ministerial and C-level delegates, as well as approximately 460 technical conference delegates in attendance.

The total value of announcements for projects awarded, tenders and investments reached S$40 million at the CleanEnviro Summit. An additional S$500 million worth of potential deals are under discussions.

These announcements included the S$15 million project for Singapore’s first District Pneumatic Refuse Conveyance System (DPRCS) at Marina Bay and the S$13 million project involving NEA and IBM’s collaboration to develop advanced modelling and predictive capabilities to better manage key environmental concerns in Singapore, such as air quality, extreme weather events, dengue outbreaks and food poisoning incidences.

Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive Officer of the National Environment Agency (NEA) said, “We are very encouraged by the positive response to the inaugural CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WMA. The growing interest in sustainable waste management solutions in many cities in the region is borne out by the strong turnout for the event at all levels. Likewise, concerns over environmental issues such as pollution have led to calls for greater exchange of expertise among cities. This presents a good opportunity for Singapore to position itself as a hub for innovative environmental solutions, leveraging on the nation’s good track record in tackling its own environment challenges as well as its clean and green reputation. What this means is that Singapore will also need to keep abreast of developments, further invest in R&D, and transform the clean environment sector into a new growth opportunity for all.”

Useful discussions in Singapore to discover sustainable and scalable waste management solutions

The Clean Environment Leaders Plenary sessions at the Summit brought government leaders, international organisations and industry leaders together to discuss and address challenges and issues in waste management. Two key highlights of waste management were discussed. The first is the need for strong governance and leadership towards resource efficient cities of the future. This is essential to the realisation of effective and sustainable solutions to waste management. The second is to leverage technology to overcome current challenges in waste management.

Dr Arab Hoballah, Chief of Sustainable Consumption and Production, UNEP, moderator for the Clean Environment Plenary Session One said, “In supporting an event like CleanEnviro Summit Singapore 2012 increases the opportunities to influence the direction of environmental policies for years to come. As an environmental hub, Singapore has an important role to play in galvanising the region’s attention towards environmental problems and opportunities for change. Having had first-hand experience of balancing economic growth with environment sustainability, Singapore offers various good practices and lessons to be replicated in developing countries so as to overcome environmental challenges and promote resource efficiency.”

Another unique platform at the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore was the Clean Environment Regulators Roundtable, the first of its kind, which provided high-level policy makers and regulators from countries such as Belgium, China, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, the opportunity to share environmental regulatory experience, challenges faced in dealing with environmental pollution and waste management issues, and best practices on sustaining a clean environment. The success of the roundtable opens opportunities to explore organising similar sessions in the future.

In addition, the CEO Forum on Sustainability shared robust business cases for sustainability, stressing the key current trends on sustainability and values in adopting sustainability for a sustainable and profitable business. The forum also saw the launch of
NEA’s first sustainability report, the first for a Singapore public agency that publishes the report based on the guidelines by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – the most accepted international standard for sustainability reporting. The report highlighted NEA’s efforts in inculcating an eco-friendly culture within NEA. Some of NEA’s initiatives include solar panels and a rain harvesting system to irrigate the landscaping for NEA’s newest meteorological service facility along Kim Chuan Road; as well as championing the Public Sector Taking the Lead on Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) initiative to reduce electricity and water consumption. The event also drew focus to the increasing challenges facing tomorrow’s cities and the increasing business opportunities in the future of clean environment management. 

Strong Potential for Singapore’s Waste Management Industry

According to a recent World Bank study, 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste are currently generated per year. This volume is expected to double to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025. The strong business potential was further emphasised by the two NEA studies which were commissioned to develop and strengthen the waste management industry in Singapore.

Presented at the WMA Business Exchange session, “A Waste World – Opportunities and Industry”, the first study by EnviroSolutions & Consulting, jointly commissioned by
NEA and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore titled “International Business Opportunities” study highlighted current and future international market opportunities for Solid Waste Management. The second study by Frost and Sullivan, “Best Practices and Opportunities for Singapore’s Waste Management Industry”, was jointly commissioned by NEA with the Economic Development Board, Spring Singapore, Jurong Town Corporation and the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) to identify best practices to improve the productivity of Singapore’s solid waste management industry.

The WMA Business Exchange sessions were platforms for business leaders and industry experts to gather in-depth insights to the waste management industry opportunities in Asia and Singapore as well as to facilitate discussions between buyers and sellers of solution providers.

The WMA Exhibition garnered strong participation with good feedback received from delegates and exhibitors. Mr Greg Brereton, Business Development Manager (Environment), Steinart Australia Pte Ltd shared that, “The WMA was a beneficial platform that allowed us to meet with many high level trade visitors and showcase our leading technology of RTT Steinart equipment. We were also able to leverage on WMA to unveil our Unisort+Flake – a flake sorting machine, for the first time in Asia. We look forward to the next show and doing business with all the people we met here.”

The event was also abuzz with industry news at the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore. For example, Eco-Wiz, a Singapore company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three companies from Asia and Europe with a total value of more than $10 million. Eco-Wiz is a local leading food waste management company that has been able to take their technology into the Asia and European markets with its food waste technology that recycles food waste into reusable water. Dowa Eco-Systems, founding sponsor of the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore, also opened their second plant in Singapore. This new plant facility is designed to recover precious metals from electronic scrap and trimmings generated by local electronics manufacturers. This new plant will also be able to process about 150 tonnes of e-waste and industrial solutions annually.

Dr. Ho Nyok Yong, President, Samwoh Corporation Pte Ltd, commented: “The events gave us a good indication of the potential growth areas available in the waste management sector. It also provided us with a springboard into Asia, allowing us to extend our business reach. Overall, it was a rewarding experience to be a part of the events.”

Strong support from international organisation through co-located events

The strong support from key international organisations like The World Bank, UNEP, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC), the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WMA drew attention to the role of governance, leadership and technology to meet future environmental challenges, particularly in the exploitation of energy, water and waste nexus for more efficient design of future cities.

The second CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WMA is to be held in 2014, in conjunction with Singapore International Water Week 2014 and World Cities Summit 2014 promises to be a bigger event. In this same vein, the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore will continue to focus on waste management and possibly include public health and pollution topics for 2014. Together with the co-located components with SIWW and WCS, the three summits will tap on the synergies between water, energy and waste in urban planning. The expo will also be expanded to accommodate an even wider selection of waste management solutions. Moving forward, CleanEnviro Summit Singapore and WMA will continue to serve as a test-bed hub for sustainable, innovative and cost effective technologies, promote the transfer of knowledge and best practices to all in the region.

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