Meeting of Minds

The great things about being in Singapore and in this line of work, is the opportunity to meet and work with great people, who have a commitment to all things green, sustainable, ecologically and environmentally friendly. The new year continues in that vein, not only because I’ve been in the company of Dr Martin Blake, Chairman of Carbon Zero Solutions, for the best part of the past fortnight, but largely through meetings with many more great thinkers and doers.

It was a pleasure to attend the launch of the Eco Food Court, initiated by the Singapore Environment Council and meet (again) Isabella Loh and Howard Shaw, as well as  the guest of honour, the Minister of State, with responsibility of Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor.  Building Energy Efficiency supremo from the UK, David Strong, was also in Singapore, conducting a series of workshops for the National Environment Agency and Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore for Energy Managers.

Then there was the international sustainability guru himself, John Elkington – the main who coined the term “triple bottom line” – speaking at a seminar organised by Thomas Thomas and the Singapore Compact. More on all that in future issues. Without wanting to offend by omission many others we met and enjoyed the company of, I will only touch on one other – George Hatzimihalis, MD of the Hatlar Group, visiting from Melbourne, Australia, who is already doing some amazing work in Asia in water and waste management and energy efficiency. If great minds think alike, we all have a lot more work to do!

Ken Hickson