Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said cultural change to promote sustainable development needs to start from the young.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Mr Khaw said to get this going, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) launched its inaugural BCA Greenovate Challenge.
It is to get secondary school students to think of green building solutions and applying them in their schools.
Marsiling Secondary School came in first among the 14 schools which took part.
One practical action was to adopt solar leasing, whereby photovoltaic panels were rented to harness the sun’s energy.
The energy harvested was then used to offset part of the electricity needs of the school.
Another winning factor for Marsiling Secondary was their innovative way of harvesting rainwater.
The students joined 10 one-cubic-metre recycled plastic containers with PVC pipes to create a water storage area. The school can harvest 1,371 cubic metres of rainwater per year for gardening and washing of toilets. The school has decided to increase the capacity of the system.
Mr Khaw said BCA plans to adapt the Greenovate Challenge into an annual programme.
He also said next month, BCA will be hosting the International Green Building Conference, as part of the Singapore Green Building Week.
More than 10,000 local and international participants from over 30 countries are expected at the conference.
