A legacy of innovation: Shaping a sustainable future in Singapore

Hear from Naida Suprapto about how we’re harnessing a century of innovation and excellence to drive sustainable outcomes in Singapore and beyond.

Our journey in Singapore dates back to 1902 when Sir William Henry Preece conducted a feasibility study for electric lighting. This legacy was carried forward by Arthur Henry Preece who helped design the first major electric power station in Singapore, St James Power Station, in 1923. Since then, we have been involved in city-defining and global scale infrastructure projects including the Marina East Coast Expressway, Changi Jewel, North-South Corridor and 25% of the Mass Rapid Transit system including the Thomson-East Coast Line. 

This heritage has inspired our team to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation and excellence, leveraging our global expertise to deliver sustainable and impactful solutions for our clients and the community. Singapore also serves as a hub for our East and Southeast Asia operations covering all infrastructure markets, supporting energy, transport, water, buildings, environmental, programme management, and sustainability projects across the region and globally including leading the UK funded Global Future Cities Programme across six countries in Asia and supporting the UK’s high speed rail programme.

Driving clean energy solutions

Supporting the region’s journey to net zero is at the core of everything we do. We know that clean energy is critical in this transition and we are pleased to be advancing clean energy solutions across East and Southeast Asia through a multitude of groundbreaking initiatives.  

In Singapore, aligned with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, we are supporting our clients on cross-border projects that connect Singapore with neighbouring Southeast Asian countries through the ASEAN Power Grid. Under the UK-SG Green Economy Framework funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), we have developed a model to assess the energy impacts of these cross-border interconnector projects. 

Our collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) is a testament to our commitment to sustainability. This initiative is designed to expedite the retirement of coal-fired power plants and transition to renewable energy sources in countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. 

We are also pioneering first-of-its-kind giga-watt scale hybrid solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, as well as floating solar projects throughout Asia. These projects are setting new benchmarks in the renewable energy market globally. Our efforts are not only driving the transition to clean energy but also fostering regional cooperation and sustainable development.

Singapore's North-South Corridor

Singapore Marina Coastal Expressway

Optimising infrastructure design is critical in the path to net zero

Sustainable optimisation and value engineering remains at the forefront of our approach. For example, on the ongoing North South Corridor projects, we have driven optimisation of construction material by considering the quantum of steel superstructure, effective construction sequence planning and reusability of temporary structures, reduction of ground improvement works and duration, and reduction of machinery use with reduced pile caps. These have yielded savings of approximately 182 tonnes of carbon.   

Since 2021, we have worked collaboratively with several Singapore-based developers with assets spread across multiple markets globally to assess their baseline emissions and to create decarbonisation roadmaps for all their asset typologies across their global markets. To date, this collaboration has created bespoke roadmaps covering approximately 2,600 assets with an average target of reducing around three quarters of absolute emissions by 2030. This engagement continues as we deep dive on individual assets, focusing on reducing both operational and embodied carbon emissions.

The importance of climate resilience

We approach all our projects with a climate lens, aiming to build decarbonisation, energy efficiency and climate resilience into our work for clients.  

Increased rainfall intensity is resulting in rainfall-induced slope failures in Singapore. Designing slope stabilisation is crucial to ensuring infrastructure is resilient to these impacts in future. Our geotechnics team  have contributed to the BCA-Industry Joint Working Committee in the development of BCA framework for Risk-Based Slope Designs that incorporates climate change in the design of slope stabilisation.  

Effective coastal protection and well-planned reclamation projects can reduce vulnerability to sea-level rise and extreme weather events. Our geotechnical specialists have provided solutions for many reclamation projects in Singapore and across the region, including on the Marina Coastal Expressway and Tuas Mega Port and Hong Kong International Airport third runway. By developing solutions that are not only economical, but also practical and environmentally friendly, we’re helping enhance climate resilience for those communities most effected. Across East and Southeast Asia, we’re working on large-scale infrastructure projects to assess their current readiness to meet the challenges of climate change. A good example is an exercise we have just completed in Indonesia where we were engaged by a developer in Jakarta to assess their infrastructure readiness for a 1200-hectare development. Based on our assessment of their existing infrastructure and engagement with the stakeholders and communities, we created a roadmap to improve the energy, water, and waste management in stages. The aim was to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 where 100% of the infrastructure should be fully powered by renewable energy and provide resiliency on energy and water supply for the development. 

As a key infrastructure partner for the Green Cities and Infrastructure Programme funded by the UK FCDO, we are providing technical expertise to deliver sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries including the development of efficient public transport to reduce road congestion in Surabaya, Indonesia. 

We also know that energy efficiency is key. An example is our work on the Building Construction Authority (BCA) Academy, a leading institution for training, learning and research. On this project, we focussed on active design strategies that included 100% passive displacement ventilation (PDV), LED+ and ambient task lighting. Natural ventilation was also considered to reduce the use of energy intensive air-conditioning. We leveraged off energy management strategies and advanced building management systems to monitor usage and user behaviour, whilst renewable energy was harnessed through solar panels. These initiatives enable the building to operate at a very low energy demand. This has led to the project achieving Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy and Zero Energy Building certification. 

These are just a few examples of how we are working with our clients to make an impact in Singapore. We are thrilled to be using our skills and experience to bring sustainable and innovative outcomes to the community.