In 2008, for the first time in history, the global urban population outnumbered the rural population. By 2050, it is expected that two-thirds of the world population will be living in urban areas. Recognizing the importance of addressing sustainable development from an urban perspective, the United Nations included a stand-alone goal on cities and urban development in the 2030 Agenda - Sustainable Development Goal 11, "make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable".
This guide offers resources on initiatives and research promoting the sustainable development of cities. It also lists some of the current indices that measure the sustainability of cities in order to give an idea of what constitutes a sustainable city.
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Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) The CLC's mission is to distil, create and share knowledge on liveable and sustainable cities. Its research focuses on two key questions: How Singapore has transformed in the last five decade; and how this knowledge can be leveraged to address current and future challenges for Singapore and other cities. |
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Resilient and Inclusive Cities Lab Supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation, the Resilient and Inclusive Cities Lab at Nanyang Technological University aims to increase the evidence base on the role of natural infrastructure for urban resilience and climate adaptation in Asia-Pacific, and inform policy and practice to create more resilient and inclusive cities. |
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The Singapore Green Plan 2030, or the Green Plan, is a whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development. |
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Singapore Green Building Council Advocates green building design, practices and technologies and drives environmental sustainability in Singapore's building and construction industry through public education and industry promotion, providing a dedicated certification body for green building-related products and services, creating international collaboration, as well as sharing industry knowledge and research data on sustainable buildings. |
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An employee engagement training programme that supports organisations in Singapore to reduce their carbon impact, improve their overall sustainability and employee well-being through behaviour change. |
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Beating the Heat: A Sustainable Cooling Handbook for Cities This guide published by the United Nations Environment Programme provides 80 supporting case studies and examples to demonstrate how cities can achieve sustainable urban cooling. Singapore's Marina Bay district cooling system as well as the country's public sector leadership in building energy efficiency and sustainable procurement are featured.
https://www.unep.org/resources/report/beating-heat-sustainable-cooling-handbook-cities |
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Developing a Sustainable Air Hub in Singapore Recommends 15 initiatives that the Singapore air hub could embark on as tangible pathways to decarbonise the aviation sector across the key domains of airport, airline and air traffic management. It also identifies the following enablers crucial for successful implementation: policy and regulation; industry development; infrastructure planning; and workforce transformation. https://asianaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/developing-a-sustainable-air-hub-in-singapore.pdf |
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Maritime Singapore Decarbonisation Blueprint: Working Towards 2050
Charts long-term strategies to build a sustainable Maritime Singapore. The blueprint outlines seven areas which the Maritime and Port Authority if Singapore (MPA) will focus on to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry: port terminals; domestic harbour craft; future marine fuels, bunkering standards and infrastructure; Singapore Registry of Ships; efforts at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and other international platforms; research & development and talent; and carbon awareness, carbon accounting and green financing.
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Punggol: From Farmland to Smart Eco-Town This book chronicles the transformation of Punggol from farmland to Singapore's first eco-town. It also describes the various frameworks introduced to guide its development as a sustainable waterfront town. https://www.clc.gov.sg/docs/default-source/urban-systems-studies/uss-punggol.pdf |
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Going Green from the Inside Out: Accelerating Green Building Adoption in Singapore This report presents and analyses the findings of a survey by Schneider Electric involving 500 business leaders across 340 Large Corporates/ MNCs and 160 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, as well as findings from a qualitative study conducted with members of the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) on the state and perceptions of green buildings in Singapore. |
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Singapore Green Building Masterplan 2021 (Updated in July 2022) This masterplan serves as a roadmap for buildings in Singapore to venture further in their journey to decarbonise. It sets out three key targets of “80-80-80 in 2030”: (i) 80% of buildings by Gross Floor Area to be green by 2030, (ii) 80% of new developments to be Super Low Energy (SLE) buildings from 2030, and (iii) 80% improvement in energy efficiency (compared to 2005 baseline levels) for best-in-class buildings by 2030. |
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Urban Nature Based Solutions: Cities Leading the Way 2021 This document aims to raise awareness of urban nature-based solutions by showcasing 8 existing and successfully implemented programs in urban and peri-urban contexts. Singapore's Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Kallang River Restoration are among the case studies presented.
https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/exe_wwf_a4_template_sbn_final2.pdf
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ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) The ASCN is a collaborative platform where 26 cities from the ASEAN countries work towards the common goal of smart and sustainable urban development. Case studies of the 26 pilot cities featured in the ASEAN Smart City Planning Guidebook are available here. The ASCN aims to facilitate cooperation on smart cities development, catalyse bankable projects with the private sector, and secure funding and support from ASEAN’s external partners. https://asean.org/our-communities/asean-smart-cities-network/ |
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Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities (CSAC) The CSAC at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) College of Design and Engineering acts as a research nexus that draws together the complementary strengths of researchers within NUS to collaborate on inter-disciplinary solutions for sustainable cities. It also serves as a platform to develop urban planning and design solutions as well as building technological innovations for high density environments that will be applicable to many cities in Asia and other developing countries. |
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Startup My City: Smart and Sustainable Cities in Asia A research programme from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which examines sustainable and smart city initiatives in 20 cities across ASEAN and Asia-Pacific. |
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The New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities Focused on developing tools to promote well-being and health through smarter economic development, safer and more sustainable housing, transport and energy systems, and enhanced urban design. |
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UN ESCAP Sustainable Urban Development Gateway A gateway to resources on sustainable cities that was developed by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. The e-learning courses and materials are designed to support countries and cities in tackling various urban challenges and explore policy pathways towards a sustainable urban future. |
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A network of nearly 100 cities collaborating on climate action. The website contains resources such as case studies, research, analysis, and implementation guides. |
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The Center for Sustainable Cities at IE University in Spain carries out applied research on topics such as urban logistics, sustainability habits of citizens, local producers or circular economy. https://www.ie.edu/school-architecture-design/center-for-sustainable-cities/research/ |
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Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative Aims to advance sustainable urbanization amongst Commonwealth countries. Contains a data platform, as well as Good Practice Platform, in order to inform on innovative and collaborative work undertaken. |
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Global Observatory of Healthy and Sustainable Cities Provides comparable spatial and policy indicators of healthy and sustainable urban design and planning for cities across the globe. https://www.healthysustainablecities.org/
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Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC) GPSC is a partnership and knowledge platform that seeks to develop solutions for sustainable urban growth. The website contains publications on topics such as integrated urban planning, solid waste management, spatial data and analytics, low-carbon and climate smart urbanization, as well as transit-oriented development.
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ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability Active in over 125 countries, ICLEI is a global network of more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. The website has an e-Library containing case studies, podcasts, publications and webinars from ICLEI’s experts and partners. |
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Presents latest news on urban innovation, technology and solutions to promote the development and exchange of sustainable strategies, unique products and services. https://www.thesmartcityjournal.com/en/
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Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative Promotes sustainable mobility by supporting projects all around the world. |
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This platform gathers eight city related networks and programmes across the fields of education, culture, sciences, communication and information, reflecting the transversal approach of UNESCO’s work on and for cities towards the local implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals. |
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WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities The World Resource Institute’s (WRI) program that works to create accessible, equitable, healthy and resilient urban areas for people, businesses and the environment to thrive. |
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The Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index 2022 Ranks 100 of the world’s cities based on 51 metrics, across 26 indicator themes, arrayed under the three pillars of sustainability: planet, people, and profit. Singapore is ranked 35th overall. https://www.arcadis.com/en/knowledge-hub/perspectives/global/sustainable-cities-index |
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Asia Pacific Sustainable City Ranking Developed by CBRE, the Asia Pacific Sustainable City Ranking measures current and future environmental resilience and its impact on commercial real estate across 28 cities in the region. The environmental factors used to evaluate the cities include greenhouse gas emission reduction, physical climate risk, water stress, air pollution, renewable energy use, green bond issuance, and green office building adoption. https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/asia-pacific-sustainable-city-ranking-dec-2022 |
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Corporate Knights Sustainable Cities Index Ranks 70 global cities on air quality, emissions, renewable energy and other sustainability measures. Singapore is ranked 48th. https://www.corporateknights.com/rankings/sustainable-cities-rankings/2023-sustainable-cities-index/ |
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Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI)
The GSCI measures competitiveness of 180 countries based on the following six sustainable competitiveness pillars: Natural capital; resource efficiency; social capital; intellectual capital; economic sustainability and governance performance. Singapore, ranked number 40, is strong in Intellectual Capital but low on Natural Capital. https://solability.com/the-global-sustainable-competitiveness-index/the-index
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An index published annually by the business school of the University of Navarra (IESE) that ranks 183 cities worldwide on a range of key dimensions linked to sustainability and quality of life for inhabitants. Singapore is ranked 7th. https://citiesinmotion.iese.edu/indicecim/index.eng.html?lang=en |
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Net Zero Readiness Spotlight: Cities Evaluates the status and progress of 50 cities (including Singapore) in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by assessing mitigation, adaptation, equitable climate action and city readiness to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It further assesses the cities’ readiness to leverage technology, climate finance, innovative partnerships and the circular economy, whilst striving to ensure equity and effective climate governance. https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/sg/pdf/2022/11/net-zero-readiness-spotlight-cities.pdf |
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Resonance Consultancy 2020 World’s Greenest Cities Index
Based on an analysis of the 50 most visited cities in the world, this index identifies the ten greenest large cities using the following nine criteria: the percentage of public green spaces, the percentage of total energy needs from renewable energy, the percentage of the population who use public transportation to go to work, the level of air pollution, per capita water consumption, walkability, availability of city-wide recycling, availability of city-wide composting as well as the number of farmer’s markets. https://www.worldsbestcities.com/news/2020/04/22/the-worlds-greenest-cities/ |
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Schroders European Sustainable Cities Index Ranks 59 European cities based on 13 equally weighted environmental policies. These cover areas such as renewable energy consumption targets, cleaner public transport, public electric vehicle charging stations, single use plastics, air quality, climate plans, carbon neutrality targets and waste policy. |