Sustainability Tours

Our tour begins at the western end of our campus, at the foodcourt on the ground floor of the School of Economics and School of Computing and Information Systems building. Here, tenants and patrons can segregate and dispose of their food waste into the food segregation bins and food digester at the foodcourt. The biodigester can process most pre- and post-consumer food waste, converting it into grey water that can be safely discharged down the drain, and reducing energy required for waste disposal and treatment. 6 more biodigesters can be found across our campus. See if you can spot them as you take this tour!

Food is responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet in Singapore, where over 90% of our food supply is imported, more than 2,000 tonnes of food is wasted every day. On campus, apart from treating food waste, Project Midori, a student-led community service group, also conducts regular campaigns to promote sustainable food habits and reduce food wastage at source.

Singapore is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world with global warming expected to exacerbate water security challenges as rainfall patterns become more unpredicatable, and extreme rainfall events and droughts occur more frequently. Sited within a flood-prone urban area, our campus is even more vulnerable to flash floods that can occur as a result of torrential downpours.

A rainwater harvesting system with 2 large underground tanks was constructed at Campus Green to collect stormwater runoff and prevent flash floods. In recent years this system has also been adapted to enable the water to be used for watering the beautiful greenery you see on campus. Condensate from air-conditioning systems is also collected and reused for landscape irrigation.

Did you know that more than 400 native butterfly species have been recorded in Singapore but more than a third are thought to be locally extinct now? Butterflies are one of the most vulnerable organism groups to climate and environmental changes. The Cities Biodiversity Index includes the change in the number of (living) native butterfly species as a key indicator of urban biodiversity.

You can spot butterfly host and nectar plants in pockets around the grounds of the Li Ka Shing Library building. These were planted as part of the 4km Butterfly Trail @ Orchard, meandering between the Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park. The trail features some 50 of the more common butterfly species that are found in Singapore. If you're lucky, you might spot Singapore's national butterfly, the Common Rose butterfly, here! You can also sign up to the NParks Butterfly Watch, a citizen science programme for those who enjoy butterfly watching.

Feeling the heat? Singapore, like the rest of the world, has been experiencing rising temperatures, more frequent heatwaves and extreme heat due to climate change. As a tropical city, Singapore is further impacted by the Urban Heat Island effect which is more pronounced in Singapore's city centre where our campus is located.

Large parts of the Li Ka Shing Library building are shaded by lush vertical gardens, which can also be found on the facades of other buildings on campus. These green walls are a prominent design feature of our campus, helping to reduce the urban heat island effect and energy demand for interior space cooling as they provide cover shading and contribute to lower ambient temperatures. Beyond the green walls, our campus was also designed to have buildings which are porous at the ground level, and criss-crossed by breezeways and overhanging facades to maximise thermal comfort.

SMU Connexion is the first net zero building in the city centre, contributing to Singapore's drive to decarbonise the building sector, which is responsible for more than one-third of Singapore's total electricity consumption. This iconic building pushed the boundaries of environmental design and has won numerous awards for its innovative design and use of cutting-edge construction technologies.

Sited on a triangular plot at the foot of the Fort Canning Hill, SMU Connexion is the first building in Singapore to use a hybrid Steel-Cross Laminated Timber floor system and the first Mass Engineered Timber building in the city centre. The extensive use of sustainably sourced timber instead of concrete or steel for the building structure, combined with other passive and active design strategies as well as rooftop solar generation, have resulted in a building with much lower lifetime carbon emissions compared to traditional buildings.

Designed to support the SMU-X pedagogy which focuses on experiential learning through real-world projects, SMU Connexion is also home to the Greenhouse, the hub of SMU's innovation and entrepreneurship community.

Singapore aims to convert all public and private transport to electric vehicles and will phase out sales of internal combustion engine cars by 2030. To encourage our community to switch to electric cars and contribute to the electrification of transportation in Singapore, we have installed electric vehicle charging points at the carpark at Yong Pung How School of Law building and at the Administration building. All the charging stations are charged by on-site solar power and do not draw energy from the grid.

Even so, we continue to advocate for climate conscious travel, encouraging our communiity to commute to campus by public transport or cycling, and to commute within campus by walking or cycling. Bicycle parking spaces can also be found on the grounds of every building on campus.

Singapore is one of the most solar-dense cities in the world, with solar panels found on rooftops, open fields, vacant lands and even reservoirs. Even so, SMU boasts the largest solar farm in Singapore's city centre, generating approximately 10-11% of our energy needs, and contributing to Singapore's solar energy targets in the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

Home to 2 schools, 4 research centres and a research lab, including the SMU Urban Institute, the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing, and the Lien Centre for Social Innovation, the School of Social Sciences and College of Integrative Studies building is a Green Mark Super Low Energy building and has the highest concentration of photovoltaic panels across our campus - 420 on its rooftop. Like SMU Connexion, the building also boasts green features such as Enhanced Passive Displacement Cooling, LED lighting and smart control, and converged power system.