Green Campus is helping companies to systemize their energy efficiency drive, as the desire to be sustainable grows with the demand for energy.
The centre is a collaboration between global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Singapore’s Economic Development Board and the National Environment Agency.
More than 50 companies have taken courses on energy efficiency at the Green Campus since it opened its doors on Jurong Island nine months ago.
Green Campus uses a kerosene distillation plant to train staff across a range of core operations.
McKinsey provides trainers and expertise to the Green Campus.
It noted that 90 per cent of attempts to improve energy efficiency would typically fail after four years.
Dr Mads Duehrkop Lauritzen, the managing partner in Southeast Asian operations practice of McKinsey, said: “Essentially, it is having one common goal, mindset, culture (on energy efficiency) across the entire company. Many companies that failed - they don’t have this. They have what I call islands of projects all over the company and that won’t lead to one single culture.”
For Swiss building materials maker Holcim, standardising the measurement of energy use has helped reduce its energy expenditure by US$200 million at its operations in ASEAN and South Asia.
“We believed that by having a recognized, fair, and equitable, and transparent measurement system, the credibility of such a measurement system is improved,” said Aidan Lynam, the area manager of South Asia in Holcim.
“This would avoid arguments over how we measure - people most believed in the measurement system and take its credibility off the table as a discussion point.”
Under the master plan for Jurong Island, there are also plans to look at how to harness cold energy from liquified natural gas and utilize waste heat for desalination.
