Extending Clean and Green Singapore Day Events to More Residents
Ministry of Sustainability and the EnvironmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the expansion and performance measurement of National Environment Agency (NEA) Clean and Green Singapore (CGS) events to promote islandwide sustainable practices. Ms Hany Soh inquired about extending these initiatives and setting specific targets for community-level carbon footprint and energy waste reductions. Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary highlighted that CGS events increased from 400 in 2023 to 1,200 in 2025, reaching over 400,000 participants across various ground-up community activities. He clarified that while NEA aims to shape public attitudes rather than meet absolute participation targets, interest is fostered through mechanisms like the SG Eco Fund and diverse stakeholder partnerships. Finally, he stated that the government would study the feasibility of tracking energy and carbon savings at events to further improve community sustainability capabilities.
Transcript
13 Ms Hany Soh asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment with respect to the projects and events for NEA's Clean and Green Singapore (CGS) Day 2025 (a) whether NEA will consider extending such projects and events islandwide to encourage more Singaporeans to adopt sustainable practices, conserve biodiversity, and foster a more gracious society; and (b) whether NEA intends to set targets and objectives for these projects and events.
The Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): Mr Speaker, Clean and Green Singapore (CGS) is a year-round national environmental sustainability drive. This year, it featured over 1,200 ground-up community events, workshops and activities organised at various locations island-wide, with or by partners, like the Public Hygiene Council and Community Development Councils, culminating in an annual CGS Day celebrating our collective environmental commitment.
Beyond CGS, Singaporeans can also participate in the other campaigns by the National Environment Agency (NEA), such as Clean Tables and Say Yes to Waste Less.
NEA has no plans to set specific targets for the campaigns, but the objectives are to engage and shape public attitudes towards environmental sustainability.
Mr Speaker: Ms Soh.
Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee): I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. I have three supplementary questions in this regard.
First, are the participation rates at the CGS Drive, or the CGS Day, to NEA's satisfaction? How can NEA further cultivate greater interest and involvement of our Singaporeans towards the objectives that we have set in relation to CGS? And finally, whether NEA can consider, as part of the annual celebrations at the CGS Day, to consider setting some targets or begin to start tracking in relation to how much carbon footprint reductions, energy waste efforts reductions we have been doing in the community? On the day itself, we can, then, present and share with fellow Singaporeans the powerfulness of the community coming together to do green and go green.
Dr Janil Puthucheary: Sir, we do, indeed, have data on the participation rates. But CGS is a movement, and it involves a large number of events across Singapore. The number of events have increased, from 400 in 2023 to 1,200 in 2025, involving over 400,000 participants. The number of stakeholders, non-governmental organisations and community groups has also been increasing. So, we do indeed track participation, but it is not so clear what the correct number to target is for any given event. At each event, you may do it one year, you may not do it the next year, depending on the needs.
I think the key thing is that, overall, the awareness of the need for reduce, reuse and recycle, the interest from stakeholders in stepping forward and the participation of the public in these sustainability efforts is what is important – rather than necessarily whether the number of people at any given event increasing every year. In actual fact, the number of people participating in CGS and NEA-related events each year has, indeed, increased. But that is not necessarily the absolute target that we should strive for.
How can NEA cultivate further interest and engagement? Indeed, there are a number of funds. The SG Eco Fund is one of several funding mechanisms and there are partnerships that we are developing with schools, educational institutions, NGOs and the private sector. And all of this is towards the idea of increasing interest and engagement in initiatives that can help us to reduce, reuse, recycle, and improve our sustainability.
The idea of looking at carbon savings and energy savings around each event is an interesting one. It is worth studying. It sometimes takes quite a lot of effort to be able to do so. But actually, that is a skill – a capability – that we will increasingly need, across a variety of organisations, to be able to then improve our carbon footprint and increase our sustainability. So, we will continue to study ideas, such as the one that Ms Hany Soh has suggested.