SIEMENS

Returning to Singapore from a trip abroad in the 1960s, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew developed a novel idea. He decided that his small island nation needed to set itself apart from the cold gray cities in the rest of the world. His simple recipe for prosperity and development was “Plant trees.” Today, some 40 years later, the former developing nation has become an international trade and financial center. Some five million people are crowded into this humid metropolis, which occupies an area smaller than that of Hamburg. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, sustainability is a major reason why this Asian tiger has become so successful. Green areas in the city have increased by 50 percent since 1986, for example, even as the population grew by 70 percent. This is one of the things that distinguish Singapore from nearly all other major cities around the world. “Our limited space makes it vital for us to be different,” says Andrew Tan, CEO of Singapore’s National Environment Agency. “Having a wellfunctioning city with a clean environment gives us a valuable competitive advantage.“

Unlike other large Asian cities, Singapore has developed into a true garden. Exotic plants dominate the canyons between Singapore’s skyscrapers, and the city’s boulevards are lined with trees. Just a few kilometers away is a lush rain forest that contains more tree species than the entire North American continent.

The government plans to increase Singapore’s green spaces by an additional 900 hectares between now and 2020, and it has come up with a solution to the problem of a lack of space on the ground. “We’ve launched a program that supports the planting of green areas on building rooftops,” says Richard Hoo, Group Director, Strategic Planning, at Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. “We want to plant 50 hectares of greenery on buildings by 2030, including green areas on rooftops, facades, and terraces.“ These “skyrise gardens” are meant to serve as natural air conditioners. Depending on how much is planted, the result could reduce ambient temperatures by as much as four degrees Celsius.

But this garden city also needs lots of water. In view of this Singapore is laced with a 7,000- kilometer network of drains and canals that transport water from its tropical rains to 15 huge reservoirs, which store and treat it — and serve as communal recreation areas. The latest project, Marina Barrage, is a reservoir, a flood barrier, and a recreational attraction. In addition to harvesting rain and importing water, the city relies on two other sources: high-grade reclaimed water, called NEWater, and desalinated water, which is still an energy-intensive source. “It’s crucial for us to develop processes that produce the same amount of purified drinking water that we have now, but utilize less energy,” says Yap Kheng Guan, Director of Singapore’s water agency.

This will require systems like those developed by Siemens Water Technologies in Singapore. In 2002 the company installed a new membrane filter system at the Kranji water treatment facility in the northern part of the island. This facility now converts 80,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day into clean water, most of which is used by the country’s semiconductor industry (see article “Singapore – Paradigm for a High-Tech Future”, Pictures of the Future 1/2006). What’s more, Siemens is now poised to launch another groundbreaking technology that is sure to attract a lot of attention. In October 2010 the company will begin operating a pilot facility that can desalinate 50 cubic meters of seawater in a highly efficient manner using electrical fields. The process uses 50 percent less energy than the best conventional technologies (see article “Singapore: Pooling Resources”, Pictures of the Future 2/2008). And scientists in the company’s labs in Singapore are already preparing their next innovation. “We’re working on a new wastewater treatment technology that requires much less electricity than conventional techniques,” says Dr. Rüdiger Knauf from Siemens Water Technologies. “In this process, carbon from the wastewater is bonded to microorganisms that are later converted to biogas.” The gas can then be used to generate electricity. “So in the end, we expect to derive the same amount of energy from the process that is put into it,” Knauf adds.

Green Test Bed. The development of green technologies is as much an opportunity as it is a necessity for Singapore. The government anticipates that the cleantech sector will create turnover of roughly €1.6 billion by 2015 and will also create 18,000 jobs. “We want to become a global hub for the development and production of green technologies,” says Manohar Khiatani, CEO of JTC Corporation, which is responsible for developing industrial sites in Singapore. In order to give cleantech companies an appropriate setting and offer them a test bed for their innovations, JTC is building Singapore’s first “green” business park, in which buildings will be linked by trellises covered with plants to lower temperatures throughout the entire complex.

“Environmental sustainability will be the natural direction businesses will take in order to move forward,” says Khiatani. “Our Clean- Tech Park will be emblematic of that.” Singapore expects its green revolution to lead not only to economic success but also to new ideas for balancing high population growth with sustainability and limited space — for example, with the “living laboratory” strategy (see interview with Dr. Swan Gin “Lead Market for Sustainability”). This strategy allows international companies to use the city as a test bed for developing sustainable technologies that can be made ready for market. Such companies can also apply for government support. The government then takes over projects whose innovations offer a solution to Singapore’s pressing issues, as was the case with Siemens and its water treatment technologies.

Singapore is pursuing a similar approach in the energy supply sector. The country currently obtains 80 percent of its electricity from gas power plants. To reduce its dependence on gas, it plans to improve efficiency and promote renewable energy sources such as solar power. A smart electricity grid with some 5,000 smart electricity meters is now to serve as a test field. “We want to examine how an increasing amount of solar energy can be integrated into the grid and how a smart grid can help consumers optimize their electricity use,” says Lawrence Wong, CEO of Singapore’s Energy Market Authority. “Along with the smart grid, the government is also test-bedding electric cars and rolling out a network of charging stations to serve the initial batch of electric cars expected in the coming year. Both projects will prepare us for the future,” he adds.

Sustainable Economics. The future of major metropolitan areas is also the focus of the “City of the Future” center of urban development expertise operated by Siemens in Singapore. Here decision-makers from around the world can check out solutions for cities and learn how to manage urban growth more sustainably. “We’ve developed an interactive game that allows visitors to manage a virtual city,” says the center’s director, Klaus Heidinger. Here, four players take on responsibility for a city over a simulated period of 50 years. “You lose very quickly if you don’t play as a team,” he says. Losing means risking bankruptcy for your virtual city — something that can happen very fast. If, for example, the player responsible for infrastructure builds too many roads, the level of environmental pollution will automatically increase and the quality of life index will fall. If one of the other team members fails to counteract this development quickly by building green power plants that offset the higher emission levels, for example, the simulated city will collapse and go bankrupt. Even some real-life mayors would have problems with the game, according to Heidinger, especially if they aren’t able to make some fast decisions. Yet another Siemens application developed at the center will help with such quick decision-making: “City Cockpit” is a software solution that enables decision- makers to view up-to-the-minute city data on their PCs. Such data can include everything from particulate levels to tax revenue. “This software makes it possible to nail down practically every problem in a city in just two minutes,” says Heidinger. Singaporeans know how to address rapid growth and make fast decisions to prepare their city for the future. But they also like to slow down at least once a year when Singapore’s Prime Minister traditionally plants a tree somewhere in the metropolis — just as the nation’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, did for the first time some 40 years ago.