South East District Launches its Five-Year GreenPlan

The South East GreenPlan was launched by Senior Minister Professor S Jayakumar, together with Mr Matthias Yao, Mayor of South East District, as well as Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim and Mr Seah Kian Peng, MPs for Marine Parade GRC and Advisers to Marine Parade GRC GROs, Mr Andrew Tan, CEO, NEA, and representatives from South East CDC, NParks and PUB at the South East Clean and Green Singapore Carnival at EastPoint Mall on 21 November 2010.

Initiated by the South East Community Development Council (CDC) and the South East Regional Office (SERO), the five-year community-wide environmental action plan aims to mobilise a community movement in going green, promoting environmental awareness and fostering ground-up action in the South East district. The plan is also supported by the National Parks Board (NParks) and PUB the National Water Agency.

South East GreenPlan

In line with the national Sustainable Development Blueprint, the South East GreenPlan encompasses the engagement of four key stakeholder groups in the South East district to adopt resource-efficient practices, keep the environment litter-free and dengue-free, and appreciate green and blue spaces. The four stakeholder groups include Green Homes which encompass individuals and households, Green Schools, Green Grassroots Organisations and Green Organisations in both the private and public sector.

Underpinning the South East GreenPlan is a two-pronged approach: (i) the broad-based approach which engages many stakeholders to each do a small part for the environment and (ii) the in-depth approach which engages interest groups and organisations to go deeper and specialise in their environmental efforts.

Launch of South East GreenPlan by GOH, Mayor, Special Guests and VIPs	A parent going through the GreenPlan with her children

To encourage broad-based participation, the GreenPlan will engage the community in simple programmes such as the Green Homes AWaRE Challenge @ South East, a one-year audit programme on dengue prevention, energy efficiency, water conservation and recycling. Participating households who complete the one-year audit programme will earn energy-saving light bulbs.

In addition, the GreenPlan will encourage and support individuals and organisations to be more ambitious and go further in environmental initiatives that they are interested in. As people adopt greater ownership of the initiatives, they are more likely to sustain them. For instance, the grassroots leaders from the Changi Simei Constituency set up a niche recycling programme in their constituency in 2005. Since then, their popular weekly collection drives have even attracted the participation of residents from other constituencies.

Green Network and Green Community Portal

To enhance and sustain ground-up community initiatives and efforts, a Green Network will be formed. The network aims to encourage like minded individuals and groups to share their experiences and best practices, and to harness each others 'strengths and resources to collaborate on environmental projects.

A green community portal will be set up by April 2011 where partners of the Green Network can communicate and keep in touch with one another more closely. It will feature a network database and keep the partners updated on each others' initiatives, and drum up more support for their events.

South East Clean and Green Singapore Carnival

The GreenPlan was launched at the South East Clean and Green Singapore Carnival, which was jointly organised by NEA and South East CDC. Held over two days at EastPoint Mall, the carnival adopted a fun-filled, interactive approach to reach out to children, parents and the general public.

Key highlights of the carnival include an e-waste collection drive by Dell, a Green Cooking Competition, Recycling Craft by ITE College East, as well as the "Learn N Earn" Competition where participating students created exhibits and game cards to engage members of the public on environmental issues. The total points accumulated by the students earned $5,300 cash for needy children in the South East District.

Can't wait for the Green Cooking Competition teams to dish out their goodies! Yum, yum…	Congratulations to Tanjong Katong Girls' School, the winning school of this year's Learn N Earn Competition.

Notably, the South East Clean and Green Singapore Carnival was also a Green Event, featuring environmentally-friendly practices such as using a simple launch mechanism, printing on recycled paper, sending out e-invites instead of paper invitation cards, setting up of recycling corners and reusing past game stations to create new ones.