What you can do to help fight the climate crisis

As we continue to face the realities of climate change, the built environment has become a key area of focus for sustainability efforts. In this three-part series with sustainability advocates Esther An and Joy Gai, who are both at the forefront of the climate movement, we discuss how we can work to transform the built environment, and make our cities and communities more sustainable.

As a small island nation, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The government has implemented various initiatives, such as encouraging the construction of green buildings and the implementation of the 2030 Singapore Green Plan, but the battle against climate change is not limited to the efforts of policymakers alone – everyone has a role to play in this fight against the climate crisis.

The time to act is now. By taking meaningful steps towards sustainability, we can collectively make a significant impact.

To find out more about the importance of our individual and collective actions, we sat down with Esther An, chief sustainability officer at City Developments Limited (CDL) and Joy Gai, who is the Programmes Head for World Green Building Council’s Asia Pacific Region, as well as a life coach at sustainability movement Joy of Sustainability (JOS).

Meet the advocates

Esther An

Chief Sustainability Officer at City Developments Limited (CDL)

Known as one of the pioneers in the sustainability movement in Singapore, Esther has been leading the climate change movement for more than two decades now. As the chief sustainability officer (CSO) of CDL, one of the largest real estate companies in Singapore with residential, commercial and hospitality assets globally, the avid advocate often attends both local and international conferences, working to expand awareness of green construction and sustainability principles.

Joy Gai

Programmes Head for World Green Building Council’s Asia Pacific Region and founder of Joy of Sustainability (JOS)

As part of the World Green Building Council, Joy works on delivering projects that would help drive the uptake of net zero carbon buildings across the globe. The former engineer is also a passionate sustainability teacher and certified life coach. In practising positive psychology, she believes that sustainability starts from a sustainable mindset.

There’s this misconception that climate change is the responsibility of the government as well as corporate companies, and that we, as ordinary folk, can’t do much to help as our impact doesn’t make much of a difference. How true is this?

Esther An (EA): Research shows that people spend 90 per cent of their time indoors, and at the end of the day, as developers, we build for people. Green building doesn’t simply mean infrastructure, but you can also look at using your roofs or garden spaces to build green – for example, by growing a vertical garden.

And when we talk about how accessible sustainability is to individuals, people might say that they’re not with the regulators or with large businesses, and therefore cannot drive change. We have to move away from that thinking.

This is one of the reasons why we started the Singapore Sustainability Academy. We want to pull people together, bring knowledge together, and network together to build a stronger green building, net zero building community, and also come up with best practices in terms of sustainability.

We’ve also established two networks, the Women4Green and Youth4Climate networks, as we feel that apart from policymakers and businesses, individuals can drive change too. Women make up half of the global population – there is no stronger voice and presence to drive change and sustainable living.

Joy Gai (JG): At an individual level, every single decision can be a sustainability-oriented decision. What kind of products are you using? What kind of materials are you buying? Are you going to turn on the air-conditioning or the lights, or even bring your own personal water bottle? These are all the decisions you’re making.

For example, I’ve recently picked up a habit where I deliberately close the shopping mall doors if I see them open. This prevents the air-conditioning from leaking out. It’s a small gesture, but it could have a very big impact on the energy bill of the building. It’s just all about making a conscious change.

I have two kids, an 11-year-old and a 9-year-old. Both of them are very conscious of climate change and even at home, they’re actually observing if we are wasting water and if we turn on the lights unnecessarily. They’re monitoring these because they know that they own the planet. They are the next generation. They want the resources to be available at that time.

Even at a young age, sustainability is already accessible to them. That’s a very empowering thing to see.

And on the topic of the future generation, when do you both think we will get past this state of climate emergency?

EA: Nobody can really tell the future. I recently joined an Antarctica climate expedition with 120 ambassadors from 220 countries, and all of us were given two time capsules: We had to write two letters, one to our children to be opened by 2050, and the other to be opened by 2099, at the end of the century. Of course, when we wrote the letters, we were all emotional – I might not be around when they open the letters!

But by 2050, hopefully the leading economy should have achieved net zero by then, and I hope the world is cleaner, greener and healthier. And at the end of the century, well, that is anybody’s guess. Nobody knows the future, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t do anything. You have to do something.

JG: This question melts my heart. We definitely want to be optimistic about the future, because by being optimistic, we then have the power to change it. If we are able to have this kind of positive mindset, we are able to shape the future according to what we envision.

PHOTOGRAPHY NUR ATHIRAH ANISSA
ART DIRECTION ADELINE ENG
MAKEUP BENEDICT CHOO, USING NARS
HAIR AUNG APICHAI, USING KEVIN MURPHY