SAF's Assessment and Promotion of Sustainability in Its Operations and Training
Ministry of DefenceSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang’s inquiry into how the SAF promotes sustainability and whether it tracks its use of single-use items. Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen stated that the SAF is committed to the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and has ceased providing bottled water for routine meetings. Additional measures include charging for plastic bags at eMarts, phasing out single-use items in canteens, and recycling electronic waste, oil, and scrap metals. The SAF also consults an external advisory panel and encourages ground-up sustainability initiatives through unit challenges to reduce its waste and emissions footprint. Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen concluded that progress in these efforts will be tracked whenever it is feasible and practical to do so.
Transcript
37 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Defence (a) how does the SAF assess and promote sustainability in its operations and training, especially in reducing the use of single-use items; (b) whether the SAF tracks its use of single-use items; and (c) if not, whether the SAF will start tracking its use of such items.
Dr Ng Eng Hen: As announced, MINDEF and the SAF are committed to meet the national targets set under the Singapore Green Plan 2030, without compromising SAF’s operational effectiveness. Apart from developing and implementing these centrally driven plans, SAF has also launched a sustainability challenge amongst units to encourage ground-up ownership and initiatives in sustainability efforts.
On single-use items, SAF is guided by our national protocols which take into account that almost all of our waste is incinerated and stored locally. Nonetheless, to inculcate good habits, SAF has largely stopped the use of bottled water for routine meetings. Single-use items will also no longer be used by canteen vendors under new contracts starting January 2022. To discourage the single use of plastic bags, SAF eMarts have also started charging for plastic bags. Besides reducing the use of single-use items, SAF also makes effort to recycle our used items. For example, SAF has established waste disposal contracts that recycles electronic waste, waste oil, chemicals and scrap metals.
MINDEF and SAF will continue to consult our External Advisory Panel for Environmental Sustainability and ground advocates on ways to reduce our emissions and waste footprint. Where feasible and practical, we will track our progress.