Making it Easy.
Talking about sustainability in Singapore, may I generally broadly categorise the school of thoughts into two. The first being the camp of ‘too little too late’, and the latter being ‘better late than never’.
For the past few years, apart from driving corporate sustainability practices at work, I have also been leading my own volunteer group to promote upcycling for environmental sustainability at grassroot events island wide. Thus meeting a fair share of ‘representatives’ from both camps.
In Singapore, there are some good top down initiatives including the Singapore Sustainability Blueprint, roadmap for zero waste, and most recently, the $10 billion commitment to combat climate change. Yet at the very ground level, we are still grappling with problems like throwing a used beverage cup into the plastic recycling bin rendering the rest of the plastics unrecyclable due to contamination.
Sustainability unlike what many believes — that it is a big thing too much for layman to handle… Yes it is a big thing, but never too big for everyone to contribute towards it. When we leave these to the big guys (think government, top corporations), how and how much do we expect them to bring about the positive impacts. Then again why should our future be governed by a top few?
So, what is sustainability? Is it really just about too little too late, or act now because it is better late than never?
Just sharing a short story: one of Singaporean’s common activities is to visit the Hawker Centre (food centre) for a refreshing cup of sugarcane juice which usually goes for about S$1.50 (~£0.86). However, recently the price has been adjusted upwards to become S$1.80, and then, S$2, all in a fortnight. It even prompted the mainstream news team to investigate its cause. Turns out, there was a regional shortage of sugarcanes due to the unexpectedly high rainfall which destroyed the sugarcanes and as such, pushed the cost up drastically. Personally, my usual sugarcane juice hawker even commented at one of my visits that he might stop selling the popular drink altogether if the shortage persists and further undercut his margins.
This likely consequence of climate change is just one of the everyday lessons in sustainability for us. By the time we bear the brunt of impact brought about by the ‘un-sustainable’ behaviour that we have been indulging in in our lifetime, it could truly be a case of too little too late.
How are we to still ensure that we leave this place a better one than better, for our next generation? Sustainability in a way is about interdependence, and at one point I have thought that by doing good, leading by example, is leadership. Boy was I wrong, it is interdependent, I cannot do all these alone!
So with a renewed faith, I decided to do more and learn more by beginning my new journey at CISL where I realised leadership is more than leading by example, but really, how can we make it easy for people to do the right thing? Leadership is not just about doing well in our job and responsibilities, but also to ENABLE. Enable others to do equally well, enable others to do the right thing easily, enable others to follow.
My priorities are clear :) To make it easy for people at work to take up more sustainable practices.
