Professor Tan Eng Chye
NUS President
“NUS is harnessing the collective expertise of our academia and operating units to grow possibilities and push frontiers on sustainability and climate action using the campus grounds as a real-world testbed. We are committed to contribute to global climate action and support the Singapore’s Green Plan 2030.”
Mr Clarence Ti
Deputy President (Administration)
“We are building practice leadership in campus sustainability – in campus design, decarbonisation, climate defence, dematerialisation and creating change through dialogue.”
Mr Koh Yan Leng
Vice President, (Campus Infrastructure)
Towards Carbon Neutrality – Reductions First
Towards a Cool NUS
“This is a wonderful way to make our university a living lab for new technology and bringing it down to actual practices. I am very encouraged by this Initiative, and I would like to commend Southwest CDC, NUS and Sembcorp for coming together on this,”
“This is a wonderful way to make our university a living lab for new technology and bringing it down to actual practices. I am very encouraged by this Initiative, and I would like to commend Southwest CDC, NUS and Sembcorp for coming together on this,”
Brambe, comprising NUS architecture alumni Bernie Ang and NUS environmental studies alumni Amanda Tay, used plastic waste with jesmonite to build street furniture. They have grown this into a business, providing customised trophies and homewares.
NUS industrial design alumni Tommy Cheong, in collaboration with Blangah Rise Primary School, led the curation of a Sustainability Resource Pack that aims to guide young learners to understand sustainability issues first, and then ideate new solutions.
NUS industrial design alumni Ana Zeng incorporated discarded fruit peels into detergent or “Eco Enzyme”. She has since founded a non-profit social enterprise, EcoEnzyme Learning Studio, to teach people how to create such detergents at home and build a supportive learning community around it.
While new buildings have achieved Green Mark (GM) Platinum and above certifications in design, we are also optimising the energy consumption in these buildings during operations. By 2025, we strive to beat the increase and achieve 118 ktCO2e as an interim target, aiming for 7.5 ktCO2e reduction through green lab initiative and commissioning campus-wide rooftop solar panels.
We are striving to maximise our solar capacity to 14 MWp by 2030 through higher efficiency solar panel technology and increased roof top coverage.
SDE4 is the first purpose-built net-zero energy building in Singapore.
At President’s Award for Environment 2023 award ceremony, we shared our net zero energy design philosophy with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and guests, including Mr Tharman’s spouse Ms Jane Ittogi, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Dr Amy Khor, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Ms Grace Fu and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Baey Yam Keng.
A virtual model of NUS Kent Ridge campus showing micro-climate sensor network of 40 weather stations, 6 infrared cameras and 3 meteorological towers.
We aim to plant 100,000 trees by 2030, contributing to 10% of Singapore’s OneMillionTrees movement.
An energy audit conducted in an energy-intensive building highlighted ultra-low temperature freezers (i.e. deep freezers) as a key intervention.
We will be maximising food waste recycling with a hub and spoke model to transport food waste from various parts of campus to our three onsite composters and a new food waste valoriser. In 2025, we aim to reduce excessive food waste generated from catering. We are also closing plastic waste loops by collecting more types of plastics (e.g., low-density polyethylene) to repurpose as modified bitumen for paving campus roads. By 2025, we strive to achieve 28% recycling rate and 0.16 kg/day/capita as an interim target, by maximising recycling and reducing our total waste generated.
We have conducted site visits to our recycling collectors’ material recovery facilities at Lok Yang Road to check how our recyclables are processed.
Our recycling collectors transport these clean recyclables to local material recovery facilities for baling and consolidation before exporting them to neighbouring countries for recycling.
Unwanted textile, including pillows were sent for recycling by Cloop while reusables like clothes hangers were set aside for reuse by incoming student residents.
Unwanted textile items sorted for recycling by Cloop
-Mrs Enda Chan,
Subject Head, Environmental Education.
Student-initiated reminders placed at food court stall fronts to minimise food waste. Read more here.
Rooftop solar panels installed campus wide such as in the College of Design & Engineering (CDE) precinct
Find out more about our Green Lab Initiative.
We are on track towards reaching our target.
We need to do more to achieve our target.
Baselining or other preparation works being done.
Contributing to Singapore’s journey in becoming a City in Nature, we aim to extend green spaces on campus by growing more naturalised gardens and nature ways and enriching our diversity of flora and fauna. Contributing to Singapore’s OneMillionTreesmovement, we pledge to plant 100,000 more trees on campus by 2030. Find out more about Trees of NUS
Contributing to Singapore’s journey in becoming a City in Nature, we aim to extend green spaces on campus by growing more naturalised gardens and nature ways and enriching our diversity of flora and fauna. Contributing to Singapore’s OneMillionTreesmovement, we pledge to plant 100,000 more trees on campus by 2030. Find out more about Trees of NUS
We are on track towards reaching our target.
We need to do more to achieve our target.
Baselining or other preparation works being done.
Rooftop solar panels installed campus wide such as in the College of Design & Engineering (CDE) precinct
Find out more about our Green Lab Initiative.
-Mrs Enda Chan,
Subject Head, Environmental Education.
Student-initiated reminders placed at food court stall fronts to minimise food waste. Read more here.
Large amounts of waste is generated during biannual hostel checkout at the end of semester. To prevent indiscriminate dumping in the chutes, ground level collection points are setup for hostelites to sort waste, recyclables and reusables before moving out.
Reusable items in good condition are sorted by students. Textile items like pillows and bedsheets are sent to Cloop, while clothes hangers are set aside for reuse by incoming hostelites.
Unlike the public commingled (mixed) recycling collection, we practise segregated recycling on campus where our community sort at source to minimise contamination. Clean Plastic PET♳ bottles collected here are sent for processing to be converted into food grade rPET♳ resins to close the plastic waste loop.
Packaging materials (plastics bottles, metal cans, paper and glass containers) are transported in clean homogeneous streams to local facilities for baling before overseas export to recycling plants.
Photos taken at local recycling facilities at Lok Yang Road, Singapore.
E-waste on campus is collected by ALBA through dedicated bins placed on campus or directly through ALBA STEP UP app. Collected e-waste is then distributed to local facilities like EWR2 which takes apart components, sort materials and harvest precious metals.
A work bench for dismantling electronic equipment at EWR2 in Tuas Singapore. Source reference from Mothership
Textile, including clothes, pillows, bedsheets, are collected through Cloop bins on campus and annual campus-wide reuse drive. Collected textile are distributed to ISO-accredited recycling partners like LifeLine Clothing Malaysia Sdn Bhd, to be sorted for reuse, upcycle or recycle internationally.
LifeLine Clothing factory floor in Port Klang, Malaysia, where fabrics are sorted into more than 500 categories before being baled and exported Source reference from CNA.
Horticulture waste on campus is generated through regular landscaping and tree pruning activities. Majority is sent to waste-to-energy biomass plant, while a small portion is converted to mulch for use on campus grounds.
800 Super’s integrated facility in Tuas South boasts various capabilities, including sludge treatment and animal feed processing. Source reference from Straits Times.
Using campus grounds as a testbed, we are collaborating with industry and academic partners to convert mixed plastic materials into bitumen for road paving while ensuring structural integrity, safety and environmental performance.
In facilities outside the campus, plastic materials are shredded before processing to form a bituminous mix for road works.
Kitchen staff sort pre-processing food waste like fruit peels and vegetable scraps into dedicated food waste collection bins.
Collected food waste is sent to one of our three onsite aerobic digestors to be turned into compost for campus landscaping, or to the waste valoriser at Tembusu/Cinnamon Residential College to be processed into aquaculture feed.
Besides PET♳, additional plastic streams (HDPE♴, LDPE♶ and PP♷) are collected through the pilot Resource Sorting Stations placed outside hostels.
Plastic lab consumables, such as pipettes containers (PP♷) pictured above, will be collected through dedicated bin points in laboratories.
Using campus grounds as a testbed, we are collaborating with industry and academic partners to convert mixed plastic materials into bitumen for road paving while ensuring structural integrity, safety and environmental performance.
In facilities outside the campus, plastic materials are shredded before processing to form a bituminous mix for road works.
Kitchen staff sort pre-processing food waste like fruit peels and vegetable scraps into dedicated food waste collection bins.
Collected food waste is sent to one of our three onsite aerobic digestors to be turned into compost for campus landscaping, or to the waste valoriser at Tembusu/Cinnamon Residential College to be processed into aquaculture feed.
We urge hostelites to bring their own reusables when taking away at the Grab & Go breakfast counters, as a less wasteful option to single-use disposables.
Takeaway disposables made up about 13%1 of waste disposed of in NUS. To phase out disposables, we are trialing alternatives like reusable takeaway systems or switching to compostable ware.
We have conducted site visits to our recycling collectors’ material recovery facilities at Lok Yang Road to check how our recyclables are processed.
Our recycling collectors transport these clean recyclables to local material recovery facilities for baling and consolidation before exporting them to neighbouring countries for recycling.
We will be maximising food waste recycling with a hub and spoke model to transport food waste from various parts of campus to our three onsite composters and a new food waste valoriser. In 2025, we aim to reduce excessive food waste generated from catering. We are also closing plastic waste loops by collecting more types of plastics (e.g., low-density polyethylene) to repurpose as modified bitumen for paving campus roads. By 2025, we strive to achieve 28% recycling rate and 0.16 kg/day/capita as an interim target, by maximising recycling and reducing our total waste generated.
An energy audit conducted in an energy-intensive building highlighted ultra-low temperature freezers (i.e. deep freezers) as a key intervention.
We aim to plant 100,000 trees by 2030, contributing to 10% of Singapore’s OneMillionTrees movement.
A virtual model of NUS Kent Ridge campus showing micro-climate sensor network of 40 weather stations, 6 infrared cameras and 3 meteorological towers.
At President’s Award for Environment 2023 award ceremony, we shared our net zero energy design philosophy with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and guests, including Mr Tharman’s spouse Ms Jane Ittogi, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Dr Amy Khor, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Ms Grace Fu and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Baey Yam Keng.
SDE4 is the first purpose-built net-zero energy building in Singapore.
We are striving to maximise our solar capacity to 14 MWp by 2030 through higher efficiency solar panel technology and increased roof top coverage.
While new buildings have achieved Green Mark (GM) Platinum and above certifications in design, we are also optimising the energy consumption in these buildings during operations. By 2025, we strive to beat the increase and achieve 118 ktCO2e as an interim target, aiming for 7.5 ktCO2e reduction through green lab initiative and commissioning campus-wide rooftop solar panels.
