Best Practices
National Parks
(NParks) is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore – a City in a Garden. NParks is actively engaging the community to enhance the quality of their living environment. It manages over 300 parks and 4 nature reserves. Adding to this is the extensive streetscape, or roadside greenery, that forms the backbone of our City in a Garden.
As the lead agency on biodiversity conservation, NParks has developed an urban biodiversity conservation model, which aims to conserve representative eco-systems in land-scarce Singapore. In addition, it also monitors and coordinates measures to enhance the presence of biodiversity in Singapore’s urban landscape.
Ensuring Water Sustainability
PUB or the national water agency is responsible for the collection, production, distribution and reclamation of water in Singapore. Over the last 50 years, through strategic planning and investment in research and technology, Singapore’s national water agency PUB has built a robust and diversified supply of water known as the ‘Four National Taps’. The water supply comprises (1) Local Catchment Water, (2) Imported Water, (3) highly-purified reclaimed water known as NEWater, and (4) Desalinated Water.
NEWater, is a Singapore's success story and the pillar of Singapore’s water sustainability. The company offers a high-graded reclaimed water produced from treated used water that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultraviolet disinfection, making it ultra-clean and safe to drink. In 2010, Singapore’s latest and largest NEWater plant was completed. Together, Singapore's four NEWater plants can meet up to 30% of the nation’s current water needs.
Parkroyal on Pickering
PARKROYAL on Pickering and the adjoining One Upper Pickering received the BCA Green Mark Platinum rating in 2012. The joint hotel and office development was also a recipient of the Solar Pioneer Award for using solar powered landscape lighting in its sky gardens.
PARKROYAL on Pickering’s sustainability features are designed to help save more than 3,000 MWh in energy – which can serve around 650 4-room housing development board (HDB) households – and almost 7 million litres of water each year. Sky gardens and lush landscaping make up more than 2 times the plot size. Its energy-saving features include the extensive use of LEDs and the installation of photovoltaic cells on its building roof to harness solar energy. On-site rainwater harvesting also provides water to sustain the plants in the building. To encourage recycling, hotel guests at PARKROYAL on Pickering enjoy the convenience of dual refuse and recycling bins in their rooms.
MANAGING THE road congestion
Singapore responded to managing the road congestion by being the first country to use road pricing. This road pricing is called the Electronic road pricing (ERP) and based on a pay-as-you-use principle, motorists are charged when they use priced roads during peak hours. ERP rates vary for different roads and time periods depending on local traffic conditions. This encourages motorists to change their mode of transport, travel route or time of travel.
Another initiative that Singapore did is enhanced the public transport services by implementing the car-sharing concept and free-peak travel (encourage commuters to travel early before the peak periods), improved the living environment such as the air quality (replacement of old diesel vehicles) and lastly, maintained an affordable public transport by conducting a public transport fare review annually, and implementing a public concession scheme where it is available for selected groups of individuals (children under the age of 7, students from primary to tertiary (polytechnics and universities), full time National Servicemen, senior citizens, Persons with Disabilities (PWD) and the adult monthly travel card).
National Heritage board (NHB)
Founded in August 1, 1993, NHB was established to foster nationhood, identity and creativity through heritage and cultural development. The NHB protected numerous heritage sites such as, Indian heritage centre, Sun Yat Sen Nanyang memorial hall, Malay heritage centre, the Asian civilizations, Peranakan, national, Singapore Philatelic, world war two site museums, Singapore art and national museums.
Museums in Singapore are tend to be awaken by celebrating every histories into living galleries on food, fashion, theatre and photography, celebrate local histories through re-creation of pasar malam (night market), establish websites that attracts online users in using virtual museums and implementing heritage festivals (that features music concerts, culinary and handicraft demonstrations, and night markets) to fully enhance the awareness and insights about the multiculturalism and culture of Singapore.
