Category: EA

For my last engagement, I interviewed The Green Collective which is helpful because it’s from a business standpoint, which will be beneficial as my first engagement was from a school point of view, and my second was from an NGO’s perspective. The Green Collective consists of over 40 different sustainable business owners. It is an impact-driven collective and they mentioned that they use 17 SDGs as a blueprint and starting point of how they run their businesses. They said all of these business owners interact and collaborate with one another. I also asked for their opinion on whether the Singapore government should be more strict to businesses and companies that are not engaging in eco-friendly practices and are harming the environment. They agreed and feel the government should be enforcing stricter policies on companies that are not engaging in more sustainable practices of consumption and production.

From my interview with Zero Waste SG, I was able to get the perspective of an NGO and learn how they are contributing to making Singapore more sustainable. From the interview, I learned that Zero Waste SG as an NGO is involved in many different projects and they get involved in helping Singapore work towards the goal of being more sustainable with their consumption and production. They do that by hosting many talks and workshops to give people learning opportunities and also even host physical activities such as beach cleanups. It was also interesting to be able to hear the opinion from someone who works in an environmental NGO and ask them whether Singapore needs to do more work systematically in order to be more sustainable and protect the environment, which she agreed with stating more government policies should be made, and they should be strict on it. So it was definitely helpful to hear the perspective from an NGO and someone who is very familiar with this topic.

My first engagement was an interview with Claire Psillides, who is the Head of Environmental Sustainability in UWCSEA East Campus. This interview turned out to be really helpful to me as I had the interview before the summer break started, and Ms. Psillides was very helpful as she gave me ideas on who I could contact and interview. She also told me about many different resources I could read and look into to be more familiar with my political issue and even gather information from it to use in my report. An example that she gave is Green Is The New Black. After she had given me contacts, I then started to ask her the questions I had prepared. From the interview, I was able to receive so much valuable information about how Singapore is working towards being more sustainable, but also what the Singaporean government needs to work on which according to Ms. Psillides is systematic change.

My political issue is, To what extent is Singapore working towards SDG 12 “sustainable consumption and production”? I chose to do this political issue because it is a topic I am interested in as I care for the environment and try to preserve the environment in any way possible. I developed this interest since a young age, always being connected with the environment around me. In school, I am currently a part of Zero WES (Waste Eventing Services) which monitors the school’s activities to minimize the amount of waste being produced, and in the boarding house, I participate in beach cleanups. So I decided that I would like to go deeper into this topic I am interested in and to look at it through Singapore as a whole. I would be able to look into the issue in more depth, and I would be able to talk with some experts regarding my political issue. I will be able to learn about how Singapore will combat many different environmental problems and what methods they currently are using and what plans they have for the future.