Singapore Business Federation announces Singapore Sustainability Awards 2011 to drive sustainable business practices among Singapore based organizations
NEA CEO Mr Andrew Tan launches the 2011 Awards and announces the inauguration of the 2010 Singapore Sustainability Award Winners commemorative case study handbook
Concurrently SBF launches the series of certified sustainable development professional courses with Temasek Polytechnic and Singapore Environmental Council
Singapore, Wednesday, 6 October 2010 -With climate change and sustainability issues gaining pace among the public and private enterprises, it is now imperative for corporations to take the lead in the green movement. One of the key drivers to encourage enterprises to have sustainable and green practices is the Singapore Sustainability Awards (SSA) 2011. Guest of Honour Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive Officer of the National Environment Agency launched the SSA during the Global Entrepolis@Singapore Opening Reception. The awards, back for the second year running, aim to recognize the sustainable business practices and green solutions of Singapore companies.
The SSA 2011, a Singapore Business Federation (SBF) initiative which covers business, environmental and corporate social sustainability, follows the successful inaugural Singapore Sustainability Awards 2010 where seven Singapore enterprises were honoured for their excellent sustainable business practices.
Like this year, SSA 2011 will consist of two types of awards - Sustainable Business Awards (SBA) (previously known as the Outstanding Sustainability Awards) and Green IT (GIT) Awards. The qualifying period is 6 Oct 2010 to 31 Mar 2011 and the deadline for registration is 31 March 2011. The Sustainable Business Awards was renamed this year from what was known as the Outstanding Sustainability Awards to better reflect its recognition of enterprise sustainability based on triple bottom lines of social, economic and environmental considerations.
To facilitate access to information and registration, a new SSA 2011 awards website
(www.sustainabilityawards.sg) was also launched today. There are plans for the SSA to go regional and international 2011 onwards.
On top of the launch of the SSA 2011, the federation will also have its inaugural 2010 Singapore Sustainability Award Winners commemorative case study handbook which documents the winning companies' formulae of success in attaining outstanding sustainable business practices.
GOH Mr Andrew Tan said in his opening address, "In Singapore's context, strong public-private-people sector collaboration has always been a cornerstone of our success story. To achieve a more liveable and sustainable Singapore, our private, public sector and community leaders have to share a common vision and work together to bring about changes needed in our households, our communities, our businesses, and our country. In this regard, I applaud the efforts of the SBF and various industry partners to promote the understanding and practice of sustainable development amongst the business community."
"I understand that the SBF, together with Singapore Environment Council and Temasek Polytechnic, will launch a series of certified sustainable development professional courses before the end of the year for senior and middle management corporate executives. This initiative will nurture a pool of sustainable development professionals for the challenges and opportunities in the emerging low-carbon economy. This is timely because we now see in many companies the appointment of a Chief Sustainability Officer who works across several functional areas to create a sustainability-centric business model," Mr Tan added.
The Sustainable Business Awards (SBA), presented by SBF with KPMG as the knowledge partner and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, SPRING Singapore and Singapore Environment Council as the strategic partners, aim to recognize the best sustainable business practices and green solutions of Singapore companies that are the leaders of an emerging green economy. The Green IT Awards, presented by SBF with Frost & Sullivan as the Knowledge Partner and IBM, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), IE Singapore and Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) as the Strategic Partners, recognize holistic green IT solutions and companies with successful corporate strategies and excellent execution of Green IT across 3 dimensions - business, environmental and social. As part of the Green IT Awards, SBF is also working with IBM and Frost & Sullivan to roll out a nation-wide Green IT Adoption Index (GIAI) to assess the current state of green IT adoption by corporate Singapore, and in the process identify potential gaps and follow-up actions for companies to address these gaps.
SBF CEO Mr. Teng Theng Dar said, "The success of the inaugural awards and the positive feedback from our partners and participating companies have inspired Singapore Business Federation to move the awards to a higher level. Launching the Singapore Sustainability Awards within GES Summit allows our Singapore companies with the most outstanding sustainable business practices to be recognized and benchmarked against the best from the region and the world in coming years."
Also touching on the similar theme of sustainability earlier today was the GES Sustainable Development CEO Roundtable", running in conjunction with Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2010.
In his welcome remarks, Mr. Victor Tay, Chief Operating Officer of SBF, said "Good environmental performance is more than just a matter of compliance and cost. To survive and thrive, corporate managers must develop mechanisms, which enable them to successfully answer the environmental demand of regulators, stakeholders, employees, suppliers, and customers. Experience from companies suggests that embarking on proactive environmental management strategies enables companies to address environmental challenges and at the same time enhance their business competitiveness."
Also at the seminar was Dorjee Sun, CEO, Carbon Conservation, who spoke on issues related to Environmental Entrepreneurship as well as a group of panelists who shared their insights during the CEO Roundtable Discussion entitled - The Sustainability Payoff - How to achieve strategic goals and improve overall corporate performance through the implementation of sustainability initiatives. The panel was made up of Prof Joachim Luther, CEO, Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore - National University of Singapore; and Mr. Eu Pui Sun, Managing Director, Senoko Energy Supply, with Ms Jessica Cheam, Correspondent, The Straits Times - Money Desk, as moderator.
Please refer to Annex for Supporting Partners for Singapore Sustainability Awards 2011
About IE Singapore
International Enterprise (IE) Singapore is an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry spearheading the development of Singapore's external economic wing.
Our mission is to promote the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises and international trade. With a global network in over 30 locations and our "3C" framework of assistance - Connections, Copmpetency, Capital we offer services to help enterprises export, develop business capabilities, find overseas partners and enter new markets. At the same time, we work to position Singapore as a base for foreign businesses to expand into the region in partnership with Singapore-based companies.
About SPRING Singapore
SPRING Singapore is the enterprise development agency responsible for helping Singapore enterprises grow.
We work with partners to help enterprises in financing, capability and management development, technology and innovation, and accessing new markets. As the national standards and accreditation body, SPRING develops and promotes an internationally-recognised standards and quality assurance infrastructure that builds trust in Singapore enterprises, products and services, thereby enabling their global competitiveness and facilitating global trade.
About Singapore Environment Council
Established in 1995, the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) is an independently managed, non-government organisation that nurtures, facilitates and co-ordinates environmental causes in Singapore. SEC's work is founded on three pillars of action - Firstly, partnership with the people, private and public sectors of Singaporean society, to nurture a culture aligned with sustainable development concepts. Secondly, SEC rewards environmental excellence through awards schemes and product endorsement programmes, such as the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme. Thirdly, the SEC collaborates with partners to develop and implement training and learning programmes to build competencies in environmental sustainability within companies, thus keeping our business leaders ahead of the curve. For more information, please visit: www.sec.org.sg
About ITE
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Singapore, was established as a post-secondary education institution in 1992 under the Ministry of Education. ITE is a principal provider of career and technical education and principal authority in developing national occupational skills certification and standards to enhance Singapore's workforce competitiveness. Under its "One ITE System, Three Colleges" Model of Education, ITE governs three Colleges, comprising ITE College Central, ITE College East and ITE College West. For more information, please visit www.ite.edu.sg
About KPMG in Singapore
KPMG in Singapore is part of a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. The independent member firms of the KPMG network operate in 144 countries and have more than 140,000 professionals worldwide. KPMG's website is located at kpmg.com.sg.
About IBM
For information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com
About Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF)
SiTF is the Singapore infocomm industry trade association. It brings together almost 400 corporate members from MNCs and local companies. SiTF assists its members in business development, market intelligence, overseas trade missions, networking and alliances.
SiTF has nine chapters under its wing - Best Sourcing, Digital Media, Cloud Computing, eGovernment, eLearning, Green IT, Singapore Enterprise, Security & Governance and Wireless. SiTF also owns and manages the Infocomm Singapore Centre (ISC) in Shanghai and has a joint venture with Hangzhou e-Software Park (HZESP) to set up the solution centre in Hangzhou, China, to give local infocomm companies a foothold into the China market.
For more information on SiTF, please visit www.sitf.org.sg.
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