NUS sustainability report
Universities play an important role in building climate resilience and mitigating the effects of environmental degradation. The National University of Singapore (NUS) is committed to this mission and has made meaningful progress in advancing environmental sustainability, in the areas of education, research and innovation, campus operations and leadership. It has published its first comprehensive sustainability report, which tracks the university’s contributions to environmental and climate-related sustainability up to December 2023.
At NUS, sustainability is infused into its undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education curricula to ensure that its graduates and adult learners are imbued with the interdisciplinary skills needed to succeed in the green economy. The university also nurtures budding entrepreneurs through its NUS Overseas College Programme, with some of its graduates having gone on to establish their own sustainability-related start-ups.
With sustainability issues typically being interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary in nature, universities are well-placed to make a difference through research. Not only are they at the forefront of scientific and technological advances, but they also have a whole range of expertise across various domains. The key is to get them to work together – something that NUS has been promoting vigorously.
To ensure that research conducted is applicable to the real world, NUS has been working closely with industry partners as well as local and international agencies and research institutes. The Campus as A Living Lab at NUS initiative was launched so that it could collaborate with industry partners to testbed new technologies on the NUS campus.
As responsible stewards of the environment, the university has developed the Campus Sustainability Roadmap 2030, which outlines its goals for a carbon neutral, cool, and zero waste NUS, in alignment with the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
By sharing new knowledge and insights on sustainability, universities are in a position to advance sustainable development by enabling people, businesses, and governments to make better decisions for the environment. NUS regularly engages with stakeholders outside the university on sustainability issues at both the national and international levels. At the individual level, ground-up initiatives by NUS students, and NUS alumni who have become sustainability leaders in their respective fields, bear testament to the university’s inculcation of sustainability values in its students throughout the years.
Download the NUS Sustainability Report 2023 at bit.ly/nussusrpt2023.