Singapore emerges as the greenest country in Asia-Pacific: Arcadis

SINGAPORE ranks 10th globally in the inaugural Sustainable Cities Index from Arcadis, a global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm, faring lower than other Asia-Pacific cities such as Hong Kong and Seoul. However, it proves to be greenest in the region, being the only country in Asia-Pacific to emerge in the top 10 of the Planet sub-index.

The Sustainable Cities Index was conducted by the Center for Economics and Business Research and explores social (People), environmental (Planet) and economic (Profit) demands to develop an indicative ranking of 50 of the world's leading cities.

The Planet sub-index looks at city energy consumption and renewable energy share, recycling rates, greenhouse gas emissions, natural catastrophe risk, drinking water, sanitation and air pollution.

Globally, Singapore ranked seventh for the Planet sub-index, 16th for the People sub-index and eighth for the Profit sub-index.

In the overall global ranking, Frankfurt emerged first, followed by London and Copenhagen.

Eugene Seah, Arcadis' city executive director for Singapore, said: "To achieve Singapore's vision of a sustainable city, a number of strategic initiatives are already in place. These include plans to build two new underground lines, extending four existing MRT lines and building a new terminal and runway at Changi Airport.

"New technologies will play an important role to drive greater level productivity and sustainability in the future. This will help to build a better Singapore and to further improve the quality of life."

In the 2015 report, Singapore ranked lower than Seoul (seventh) and Hong Kong (eighth) largely due to lower scores for indicators like work-life balance, having expensive property prices, low use of renewable energy and a high cost of doing business, Arcadis said.