S’pore companies to get more help in adopting clean energy technologies
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The Sustainability Alliance guides companies, especially SMEs, in adopting industrywide measures to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – Singapore companies will get more help in adopting clean energy technologies under a sustainability initiative launched on Oct 10.
The Sustainability Alliance guides companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in adopting industrywide measures to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, said the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) at its official launch.
The alliance’s co-chairman, Mr Frank Phuan, said that among other plans, it will be building an online portal in the coming months for SMEs to find sustainability toolkits.
A report will be published in 2025 by the alliance and Greenprint – an environmental, social and governance reporting platform – to help trade associations, government agencies and solution providers to engage businesses better on adopting green practices.
The alliance was formed in 2022, with SCCCI, the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore and SGTech working together to develop resources and concrete actions that companies can take.
With the official launch, 15 trade associations have joined the alliance to implement its objectives. The alliance will also roll out sustainability training for trade associations and programmes for companies to build capacity in going green.
Mr Mark Lee, chairman of SCCCI’s youth business and sustainability committee, said trade associations play a pivotal role in this area, as their close engagement with member companies gives them “unique insights into the challenges they may encounter on their sustainability journey”.
Since it started, the alliance has partnered with Global Compact Network Singapore and organised three runs of a carbon management workshop.
More than 70 people from 50 SMEs learnt more about the key regulations and trends on carbon matters, and were trained in using a carbon and emissions recording tool.
The annual business survey by SCCCI in 2024 found that 63 per cent of respondents said sustainability is important to their business and that adopting such practices gives them a competitive advantage.
But just over half of them said they have incorporated sustainability into business strategies.
According to the survey, their top three sustainability challenges were the high costs associated with sustainable practices, a more immediate concern with business survival and a lack of resources.
At the launch of the alliance, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon said: “To effectively decarbonise the Singapore economy, we will require continued strong support from our trade associations and chambers to bring more SMEs on board the sustainability movement.”
He added that more businesses can benefit if associations facilitate the sharing of resources and information, and work together. This can be done through the alliance.
Dr Koh also announced that the alliance will partner Greenprint, which was launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to help SMEs automatically generate their sustainability disclosures by calculating their emissions.
Greenprint, with Enterprise Singapore, has engaged industry stakeholders to identify key sustainability data that SMEs across different sectors will require for basic disclosures, he added.
This will make it easier for SMEs to make those disclosures.
SMEs that want to do business with multinationals will have to build up their green credentials, Dr Koh said.
“SMEs that integrate sustainability into their business models are in a good position to remain competitive, while those that fail to do so risk losing market share,” he said.
A separate study by NTUC LearningHub found that about three-quarters of business leaders now allocate a portion of their organisation’s annual revenue or profit for sustainability initiatives.
More than 80 per cent of them also believed that all employees should undergo basic training on sustainability, regardless of roles.
The survey polled 150 business leaders and 350 full-time working professionals.
