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The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia's Environmental Emergency resources

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O U R H U M A N WO R L D  pleasant as well as more environmentally and economically viable. Sev- eral Japanese cities, including Tokyo, have made good efforts. So, too, has Seoul. But the most striking example is the city-state of Singapore, which has pursued an integrated strategy to meet the challenge of a variety of interrelated issues centered on water and energy. It has established a clear track record that puts it among the global leaders in building a greener and more energy-efficient city. Thanks to an overall focus on sustainability by the nation’s leaders, its urban design, building codes, and transportation policies have all been developed and implemented together, multiplying their impact.3 That Singapore has done this in a mere half-century since indepen- dence, which came at a time when the people of this poor nation struggled to survive, makes its accomplishments even more impressive. The small country’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who devotes a chapter of his memoirs to “Greening Singapore,” faced lengthy resistance to his cleanup campaigns from Singaporeans who were too caught up with daily survival to worry about the environment. Initially, his was an environmental cam- paign based on cleanliness and civic order rather than on environmental sustainability. But as the extended discussion of Singapore will show, it has developed into a comprehensive, scientifically based urban sustainability program that encompasses a range of concerns from tree planting and botanical gardens, to water security and water sports, to deliberately high costs for automobiles, to ever-tighter green building requirements. There are also many new cities that are being built—so-called greenfield projects that give visionary architects and urban planners the luxury of work- ing on a largely unmarked canvas. Although recognizing that the battle for urban sustainability will largely be fought in existing cities, these new cities can serve as laboratories and pacesetters, and they deserve a close look. Buildings are what define a city. They are also responsible for most of a city’s energy consumption. It’s particularly important that Asia’s many new buildings be designed, constructed, and operated more efficiently. China alone is building more than half of all the floor space in the world, and not surprisingly, it also accounts for over half of global cement production. Today’s buildings will last for decades; the more efficiently they are built and operated, the more savings will accrue. Conversely, bad buildings will be a drain on society for many years to come, both costing money and contributing to environmental degradation. Fortunately, the idea of green buildings in Asia has, in the past decade, moved from an esoteric concept to an increasingly mainstream practice.

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