Star Bamboo Singapore

The new BCA Gallery was officially launched last Friday, and Star Bamboo is honoured to be part of the exhibition.

As reported in Straits Times newspaper last Saturday, the new gallery is a showcase of the development of Singapore’s built environment:

I had a brief tour of the gallery a month back when it was still under construction. I haven’t had a chance to visit it since its official launch, I’ll take a couple of photos the next time I go.

The Gallery is sub-divided into three zones and the most interesting one is definitely the one with the latest eco-friendly building technologies.

Star Bamboo’s eco-friendly bamboo flooring is one of the exhibits there, do check it out the next time you’re there!

For more information on BCA gallery, check out their web site.

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What better way to start the year than to be featured in a interior design magazine? It certainly gets the ball rolling for the next 12 months.

Square Rooms is one of the more established interior magazines in Singapore. We’re pleased to have the chance to contribute to their feature article “Eco-chic choices that won’t cost the earth”.

This year, going eco-friendly will be the in-thing for home owners. But many people are unsure of how to take the plunge.

Check out the latest issue of Square Rooms for accessible advice on how to adopt a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

Our bamboo flooring is under the first section “Get floored”.

I love puns.

Don’t be mistaken - the photo shows samples of our bamboo flooring.

Our standard planks are much longer at about 1m, and can go up to 1.8m.

Some of the nice things they said:

“Bamboo flooring is also scratch resistant and very hard wearing, providing excellent protection from staining by spills or chemicals.”

“… using bamboo is kinder to the environment and in the long run, can be kinder on your pocket too.”

“Star Bamboo offers 100% eco-friendly bamboo flooring that gives you the natural beauty of hardwood flooring, the durability and practicality of laminates, and prices that won’t burn a hole in your pocket.”

For the full article, get Square Rooms from a news stand near you!

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The Straits Times newspaper today quoted Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar citing Singapore as a shining example of balancing business and environmental interests.

Singapore has the “world’s busiest port yet the seawaters here are home to 32% of the world’s corals“.

Hmm, I never realised that our little island has a third of the world’s coral reefs.

On closer reading, the figure actually refered to the number of species. That’s still pretty impressive, as we apparently have more coral species than the Great Barrier Reef.

Great Barrier Reef. Not Singapore.

But numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The visibility in Singapore waters is appalling due to heavy sea traffic and land reclamation works. There was once I went scuba-diving at Pulau Hantu (”Ghost Island’), a small island to the south of mainland Singapore.

It was like diving in mud, I couldn’t see beyond 10cm.

I could only catch a glimpse of the corals if I press my face right next to them and keep completely still. Any movement will kick up the silt on the bed.

The few corals I could find look shrunken, pale, and nothing like the colourful and vibrant structures you see in diving magazines.

There were hardly any marine life around either. A lone clownfish was the find of the day.

–

About 14 years ago, four of the Southern islands were filled up and combined into Jurong Island which houses a huge petrochemical complex today.

I was involved in the reef rescue operation at one of the islands, Pulau Ayer Chawan, and still have the t-shirt to prove it.

A team of volunteer divers forcibly plucked up the coral reefs and brought them up in baskets. My job was simply to haul them onto the boat.

The plan was to transplant the corals at Sentosa island.

Corals are hugely sensitive organisms. As you can imagine, not many survived the traumatic experience.

Those that did last till today have another problem to contend with. Sentosa Island is now being redeveloped into a casino and theme park.

I don’t know what will happen to the corals now, but you can be sure that in Singapore, economic interests will always trump all others.

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Singaporeans have a love-hate relationship with our taxis.

Private car ownership in Singapore is a hugely expensive proposition while our public trains and buses are frequently overcrowded.

So taxis plug the gap in the middle nicely.

On the other hand, we can never seem to get a taxi when we most need them, e.g. during peak hours, rainy days, in the city area, in isolated locations.

There were numerous grouses and complaints by passengers.

So to “better match demand to supply”, the dominant taxi company ComfortDelgro has decided to revise (by that, I mean raise) their fare.

Here’s a summary of fare adjustments:

(Full press release available on ComfortDelgro web site)

No customer is happy about price increases, but I don’t think raising fares and surcharges is going to solve the problem faced by passengers (Mr Brown puts it most eloquently here).

I am fortunate enough to have my own car. But my main grouse is:

Why does it have to be so confusing?

For example, just for “evening prime period”, there are three different timings:

• Peak period premium - Mon-Sat, 5:00pm-8:00pm
• Booking fee - Mon-Fri, 5:00pm-11:00pm
• City area surcharge - Mon-Sat, 5:00pm-midnight

There are also up to four different surcharges in addition to your basic taxi fare (five if you include ERP road tolls).

No wonder you’d need a calculator just to work out how much you have to pay for a taxi ride.

(You can view the full YouTube video here. I was the first viewer!)

The average passenger would simply grumble under his breath and give up.

Complicated pricing structures only serve to confuse the customer and mask the exact costs.

Some companies, especially mobile telecoms companies and petrol stations, use them to make comparisons more difficult.

So at Star Bamboo, we charge one flat rate for your bamboo flooring depending on the size area. No hidden costs, no unpleasant surprises.

I think you’ll agree that makes for a much more pleasant experience.

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The Singapore newspapers announced a $70 million plan by Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to build “a nature retreat in Mandai, away from the hustle and bustle of the city”.

It will be 30-hectare big, about the size of 42 football fields.

Upon closer reading of the report on ChannelNewsAsia, I realised that the $70 million is the total budget, which also includes rejuvenation of the Night Safari and Mandai Zoo.

So the amount towards the new nature retreat will actually be less than that.

The two key highlights are

i) “a luxurious topical (sic) spa retreat,”, and

ii) “an exotic river-themed development, where visitors can learn about freshwater habitat.”

Nothing new then.

Do we really need another spa in Singapore? And I don’t even realise there’re any rivers in Mandai.

I was also most amused by this statement: “The government believes that if done well, visitors to Mandai can forget that they are actually only minutes away from the city centre.”

Firstly, in Singapore, there are high-rise concrete buildings no matter where you turn.

Secondly, Mandai isn’t exactly near the city centre.

I’m hoping that the government will rethink their plans, and simply preserve whatever little nature we have left.

Sources: Today Online, Straits Times (subscription required)

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The big day is fast approaching, and there has been a lot of comments and discussions about Live Earth.

Not everyone supports the concert. The Today newspaper helpfully published letters from both sides of the debate.

Tan Chee Sean questions:

Beamed across eight cities, this concert will be watched by more than 2 billion people. At the same time, millions of television sets will be turned on for up to 24 hours, so viewers can watch their favourite artistes. Ironically, wouldn’t this contribute to even more global warming?

In an attention grabbing-ly titled letter, Eugene Tay (pdf link) asks us to:

Give up hope. Because when hope dies, action begins.

What he actually meant was that saving the environment starts with personal action and responsibility. We shouldn’t hang on to the wishful thinking that someone else will do the job for us.

The blogosphere is buzzing too. Below are just some of the varied responses from Singaporeans I came across:

Scott Thong is more annoyed at MediaCorp’s Live Earth “We are not exaggerating” advertising campaign than the event itself. I haven’t seen the TV advertisements myself, but hey Scott, don’t mistake the messenger for the message.

Ordie helpfully points out that Mediacorp is encouraging Singaporeans to wear green to show how much we love hugging trees. Not very imaginative but definitely easy enough.

Sharp-eyed Liang Cai noted that the language one gets on the Live Earth official web site when clicking on the Singapore flag is… Malay. Well yes, it is our national language but not many of the non-Malays here actually speak it. One of the little ironies of Singapore.

No matter your personal sentiments about it, Live Earth is indeed going ahead. So why not make the most of it and see how we can use this unique opportunity to raise awareness about climate change?

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Shopping for a new refrigerator or air-conditioner will be much easier come 1 Jan 2008. That is when compulsory energy labelling laws kick in. This was an extension of 6 months to the original deadline of 30 June 2007.

Energy labelling rules benefit both the retailer and consumer. An energy-efficient air-conditioner can save over $500 per year in electricity cost compared to an inefficient one. The higher upfront cost can be recouped in less than 2 years.

So why have retailers and manufacturers been slow to get their act together? After all, voluntary energy labelling regulations have been in place since April 2002. After more than 4 years, over 80% of the products in the market are still unlabelled.

Could it be the cost of registration and certification, at around $100 per product model? However, NEA has waived this cost till 30 June 2008.

More likely is the fact that most of the products sold in Singapore would simply score poorly, especially the cheaper models imported from China. Given this market reality, voluntary registration would never take off.

Singapore has already lagged badly behind other countries:

• The U.S. introduced its mandatory labelling program in 1979.
• The energy labelling programme in Australia started in 1985.
• EU in 1992

Manufacturers and retailers in other countries have successfully adapted to compulsory labelling more than 20 years ago, and the results have been hugely encouraging.

Better late than never.

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Update (26/6/07): The Today reporter said she only reported the estimated figure of 2.5m (which was prominently featured in the headlines), as provided by NWDCD, and advised me to contact them for clarification. I have emailed them and will update here if they reply.

I saw this headline in the Singapore papers today: “North West CDC initiates move to recycle 2.5m bottles yearly.”

That’s great news. For a population of 4.5 million people, 2.5 million plastic water bottles is a substantial quantity.

Until I read the article and realised that this plastic waste is created by North West CDC (NWCDC) itself.

OK, some background information for our overseas readers: A CDC is a government organisation which organises community-building programmes for Singapore residents. CDCs are divided according to geographical regions, and there are five in all.

NWCDC formed a Brisk Walking Club (BWC) five years ago to encourage regular walking as a form of exercise. BWC is not a single club, but an umbrella of over 100 separate clubs and 28,000 members. A typical walk is 2.4km long with warm-up exercises at the start.

Singaporeans love freebies. So there are various enticements to get us to participate, such as a complimentary breakfast at the end of the walk.

And a free bottle of water.

Hmm, there are 2 things I don’t get:

First mystery is why go to this trouble of recycling plastic waste that could have been avoided in the first place.

Simply encourage participants to bring their own water bottles. Or they could provide re-usable water bottles, similar to our recent campaign for plastic carrier bags.

What is also puzzling is how the figure of 2.5 million bottles is derived:

Liang Eng Hwa, MP, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, said: “In the case of North West CDC Brisk Walking Club, we have monthly walks. “

28,000 bottles per participant x 12 walks a year = 336,000 bottles per year

Can anybody enlighten me?

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I love cars.

So do 4.5 million other Singaporeans.

The problem is that there is limited land in Singapore. So there are various measures in place to limit the number of cars on the road, such as the COE car ownership quota system and high car taxes.

The road tax is calculated based on the engine capacity of the vehicle, and designed to encourage small cars especially 1600cc and below.

I don’t quite agree with this but at least it makes sense: small-engined cars are, as a rule of thumb, more fuel-efficient than those fitted with thumping V8 powerplants.

Singapore is a city-state, so we spend most of our time in start-stop traffic. This is exactly the scenario that hybrid cars are designed for.

Hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid, have a conventional petrol and an electric motor. At low speeds, they are powered solely by the electric motor. The petrol engine only kicks in at higher speeds, making them eminently ideal for urban driving.

So why is Singapore discouraging the ownership of hybrid cars?

Read the rest of this entry »

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The big news last weekend in Singapore was the announcement by S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister of State for Trade and Industry that the F1 carnival is finally coming to our shores.

F1 is the most un-green sport today. Today’s Straits Times newspaper carried an article with some fascinating nuggets of information to show just how polluting it is:

• Each F1 car burns up to a litre of fuel and releases 1,500g of carbon dioxide per km, which contributes to an estimated 10 tonnes of CO2 per race weekend.
• The mooted night race format requires an estimated 500 energy-sapping high-intensity light poles.
• F1 car engines are loud enough to be heard literally half way across Singapore, or shatter glass windows of nearby buildings.

Coincidentally, S Iswaran was also the Guest-of-Honour at the prize-awarding ceremony for the Eco Products International Fair (EPIF) 2006 where Star Bamboo won the Silver Medal for our bamboo flooring:

The EPIF and F1 are at opposite ends of the eco-friendliness scale, but there is one common link.

From the outset, the Singapore government has cited commercial reasons for courting F1: tourism receipts, branding of Singapore as a cosmopolitan and glamourous city to 500 million television viewers, and jobs creation.

That is why the Singapore government has committed itself to spending up to S$90m per year for the F1 race. If green businesses were ever to enjoy this level of support, we would have to demonstrate the same kind of ROI.

After all, it’s just business.

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