The Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) today was awarded a grant of US$100,000 from IBM to help build a smarter planet by collaborating with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to seed the catalyst for the advancement of the smarter buildings agenda in Singapore. The grant – known as an IBM Centennial Grant – is part of the company’s Centennial Celebration of Service, dedicated to helping communities work better, as it marks its 100th year anniversary.
In this collaboration titled ‘Project Green Insights,’ SGBC will work with MOE to raise awareness of energy efficiency with schools in Singapore. SGBC will also leverage on IBM’s smarter building expertise and technologies to develop a system that will track power usage, and reduce energy and maintenance costs across 20 selected schools in Singapore.
“The green building movement can only be achieved through close collaboration between government, industry partners and end-users. To this end, Singapore Green Building Council is proud to partner with IBM to bring ‘Project Green Insights’ to our schools. Through this, we hope to educate our next generation on the importance of going green even in our schools,” said Tai Lee Siang, President, Singapore Green Building Council.
“MOE is honoured to be part of this collaboration that will allow the 20 schools selected to set a benchmark for greener and smarter buildings for the education community in Singapore as well as in the region,” said Evelyn Khoo, Director, Finance and Development Division, Ministry of Education. “Through such efforts, we also hope to rally staff, students, parents and visitors of the schools behind a longer-term sustainability effort.”
“As one of the pilot schools for ‘Project Green Insights,’ ITE College East is proud to be able to collaborate with SGBC, IBM and other partners to play an active role in doing more to protect our environment in Singapore,” said Eden Liew, Principal, Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East.
‘Project Green Insights’ seeks to demonstrate the benefits of smarter buildings through elements such as instrumentation through smart metering, interconnectivity through the Internet, and intelligence through energy analytics. Specifically, a network of smart meters will be installed in the selected schools to capture data on energy usage which will be transmitted, using IBM’s cloud-based solution, to the Internet for sharing with all stakeholders. A dashboard of the data captured will provide staff and students a comprehensive view of their energy usage patterns and allow them to identify best practices and make optimal decisions on energy usage.
This collaboration will enable significant reduction in energy use in lighting and air-conditioning on the school premises, as well as carbon emission reduction which is a consequence of energy use reduction. In the course of the project, efforts will be engineered to foster a new culture of sustainability with future generations. Results accomplished through the project will complement and support the government’s efforts to accelerate the greening of Singapore’s buildings by 2030.
In all, IBM is giving eleven new grants totalling nearly US$1 million that support employees’ volunteer activities to build a smarter planet and fund innovative projects in areas such as healthcare, energy, and food safety, helping to build a smarter planet.
“As an industry-led non-profit organisation, it is our relationship with volunteers and corporate entities like IBM that keeps us going,” added Tai. “Our continued relationship with IBM and IBM volunteers has helped us to better service our mission. We are honoured to be a recipient of the IBM Centennial Grant, and we are pleased for this generous contribution that will help us meet our goals.”
“We value the opportunity to give back to the local communities we serve, and are pleased that SGBC is one of eleven organisations around the world that has been selected for this prestigious grant,” said Yap Hwee Hoon, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM Singapore. “In addition to providing the grant, IBMers worldwide, facilitated by IBMers based in Singapore, will assist stakeholders of the schools to sharpen their understanding and appreciation of the project’s objectives, implement IBM’s cloud-based solution and provide mentorship to staff and students on sustainability practices.”
For more information about IBM’s Centennial, please visit http://www.ibm100.com
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