From Our Leaders
President's Foreword
At the National University of Singapore (NUS), sustainability is a long-term commitment that shapes how we educate, research, innovate, design our campus, and empower leadership and action within our community.
Over the past three years, we have made progress in this mission. We have deepened interdisciplinary collaboration, expanded sustainability education, advanced impactful research, transformed our grounds into a living laboratory for sustainability solutions, and spearheaded sustainability initiatives both within and outside the campus.
This report reflects the progress we have made across these areas in 2025, spanning from launching a first-of-its-kind Master’s in sustainable healthcare, to supporting NUS-born startups that are making a difference in areas such as energy conservation and carbon emission reduction.
In 2026, Singapore designated the Year of Climate Adaptation — a timely reminder that climate change is no longer a distant challenge. At NUS, we are supporting national efforts through research and real-world applications that strengthen climate resilience.
Our researchers are developing integrative urban solutions to tackle extreme heat, coastal vulnerability, and flood resilience, while projects under Initiatives for Climate, Oceans & Nature are advancing nature-based solutions, marine conservation, and peatland restoration. On campus, we are integrating sustainability features such as wind corridors and biophilic design to improve thermal comfort. We are also expanding our renewable energy portfolio, targeting 12 megawatt-peak (MWp) of solar energy by 2028.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also emerging as an important enabler of sustainability. Across NUS, AI is being applied to optimise campus cooling systems, improve energy monitoring, strengthen waste management processes, and support climate and weather modelling.
At the same time, we recognise that AI itself carries environmental costs, particularly in energy and resource consumption. Through initiatives such as the NUS Energy Solutions Hub and the Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed, we are advancing research into energy-efficient digital infrastructure and sustainable cooling technologies suited for tropical environments.
As we look ahead, NUS remains committed to bringing together academia, industry, government, and society — to develop solutions that help build a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future for Singapore and beyond.
Professor Tan Eng Chye
President
National University of Singapore
Chief Sustainability Scientist's Message
Often, we treat environmental problems as isolated incidents.
We see a flood and think of how we can improve drainage in the area or erect flood barriers. We see plastic bottles in the trash and think the answer is more recycling bins.
While not wrong, these solutions are incomplete as they fail to consider the larger system that created the problem. For natural disasters like floods, this would include climate change and carbon-intensive energy production. For the proliferation of plastic waste, consumer psychology and materials engineering play a part.
With the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss upon us, and their consequences becoming ever more complex, we are seeing the creation of wicked problems. This leads us to the big question: how can we simultaneously grow more food, produce more energy, and conserve more biodiversity — while tackling the impacts of climate change?
The answer lies in mission-driven research that leads to impactful solutions. For that, we need experts from across disciplines to collaborate, to work seamlessly across domains and sectors, putting their minds and hearts together to solve the world’s hardest problems. It is this belief that sets the foundation for NUS Sustainable Futures, which frames the university’s approach to sustainability.
Launched in 2025, this agenda-setting initiative aims to break down academic and sectoral silos, empowering experts from science, social sciences, policy, industry, and government to tackle environmental challenges together.
NUS Sustainable Futures works across faculties and schools at NUS, as well as research institutes, centres, laboratories, consortia, and partnerships to facilitate greater collaborations in priority research topics in sustainability. These range from clean energy technology and sustainable digital infrastructure to peatland restoration, climate and weather science, and urban design and resilience.
The initiative is strategically organised around three problem-solving communities: NUS Energy Solutions Hub (NESH); Initiatives for Climate, Oceans & Nature (ICON); and Integrative Urban Solutions (IUS).
Beyond research, it also includes the Sustainability Academy, which develops and curates professional programmes to upskill learners on topics ranging from green finance to carbon services.
There is great urgency for countries to act appropriately and decisively. NUS Sustainable Futures is the university’s commitment to turn knowledge into real-world solutions that create impact at scale.