Greening
your Home
“Home, where the heart is”
What is Sustainability?
“Development that meets the needs
CONTENTS of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to
What is Sustainability? ................................. 1
Why Sustainability? ................................. 2
meet their own needs.”
Our Actions ................................. 3
Definition of sustainability from the Brundtland Commission
Our Homes ................................. 4
Living room ................................. 5-6
Bathroom ................................. 7-9
Kitchen ................................. 10 Resources from Earth
Home Energy Consumption ................................. 11
Smarter Energy Use ................................. 12
How to Save ................................. 13-14
Money Saved from Water Use ................................. 15
Smarter Water Use ................................. 16
Seven Good Water Saving Habits ................................. 17
Sustainable Gardening ................................. 18
Extras ................................. 19
Rec
uce
Sustainability Around Us ................................. 20
ycl
Red
Be Smart ................................. 21
Vote with your $$$ ................................. 22
e
Lets Reduce What We Use! ................................. 23
Acknowledgements ................................. 24
Reuse
1
Cover image taken from: http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10320p.nsf/w/GalleryWallpapers?OpenDocument
Why Sustainability? Our Actions
1 3
We are over extracting from We are degrading
the Earth’s crust the ecosystems causing
imbalances
Our society is
As a society, we still
2 4
producing more
have inequalities
and more materials
and no unification on
leading to excessive
sustainability issues
waste
How can we ensure our children’s world will
sustain them when they grow up?
2 3
Our Homes Living room
Steps You Can Take
pDo you know that
leaving the switches
on still use electricity
even if your
appliances are off?
pRemember to
switch off and
Hi I am the Green Genie
and I want to help make the
unplug!
world more sustainable for
all our children. But I can’t pRecycle your old
do it alone, let’s all make this
happen together. TV sets and other
appliances
Bedroom photo: Luigi Diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Garden photo: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Kitchen photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
4 Bathroom photo: Federico Stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 5
Living room photo: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Living room Bathroom
Steps You Can Take
Here are some tips for you
pUse a power monitoring to cut costs on your PUB
device to measure moment bills and also help to save
to moment usage of your
electricity the environment at the
same time…
Small Acts, Big Savings
Look out for the water-
efficiency label
Steps You Can Take
Rating Water Efficiency
pBuy environmentally-friendly furniture
and appliances O Zero Tick
Good
Very Good
Picture of power monitoring device taken from: www.watthackers.com Excellent
Picture of eco-friendly sofa taken from: www.furniturehomedesign.com
6 7
Bathroom Bathroom
Steps You Can Take
Water from the washing machine
can be recycled for:
• Hand-washing items
Pictures taken from: www.pub.gov.sg
• Flushing your toilets
Water Efficient Homes Program (WEH)
PUB officers visit households in Singapore to install free-of-
charge water saving devices such as thimbles and cistern
water saving bags.
Do You Know? For request of free water saving kit, please e-mail:
PUBone@singnet.com.sg or call:1800-2846600
• 80% of the water used in a
washing machine is wasted
• Eco-Friendly washing machines Do You Know?
have a water saving indicator
and an energy saving mode A running tap can fill up
to 2.15 liters water bottles
every minute.
Helping you save up to 20% on
energy used.
8 9
Kitchen Home Energy Consumption
Households account for close to a fifth of the
electricity consumed in Singapore.
Steps You Can
Take
Do not overload
the fridge with
too many items
10 11
Smarter energy use How to save
Steps You Can Take Steps You Can Take
Adjust your air-conditioner’s
pYou can save about
temperature to 25°C
$555 a year if you choose
Clean the air-conditioner’s air filters to use a fan instead of the
regularly air-conditioner!!
Steps You Can Take
Switch off all electronic devices when
not in use, especially at night
Steps You Can
Take
pUse Energy
Saving Light
Bulbs, you can
save $15 a year!
12 13
how to Save Money saved from
No of Ticks 1-tick 4-tick water use
Purchase $1,590 $2,180
Price Average water usage and cost per month
Lifespan $10,690 $5,470
Energy Cost
Water Usage Rate Amount
Total Life $12,280 $7,650
Cycle Cost
services ($) ($)
Water 38.5 Cu M 1.17 45.04
Overall cost
savings of up to
38%
After Smarter Use, you will save around 20%
Usage Rate Amount % Total
from 1st ($) Saving saving/ Water Usage Rate Amount Monthly Yearly
July with year services ($) ($) savings savings
2010 smarter ($) ($)
use
Water 30.8 Cu M 1.17 36.03 8.99 107.86
723 $0.2413 174.46 30% $628.1
KWh
Conclusion Each family can save on average $107.86 per year
Buy appliances that show you
the 4 ticks!!!
14 15
Smarter Water Use Seven Good Water
Saving Habits
Monitor your Take shorter Close the tap
water bills showers when not needed
Steps You Can Take
Only wash when
Reuse water after washing you have a full load
your food by:
Watering your plants (this
water contains calcium and
minerals) Reuse water Repair leaks Half flush
whenever promptly
possible
16 Illustrations taken from: www.pub.gov.sg 17
Sustainable gardening Extras
Steps You Can Take
Grow your own vegetables
Steps You Can Take
Water your plants from
collected rainwater or
water used to wash your
food
How would you treat your family
with the money you can save?
Steps You Can Take
Grow local plants that are
accustomed to our climate
18 19
Be smart
Steps You Can Take
pBuy organic and seasonal
food
pConsume less meat in
your diet
Sustainability Around Us
Transport Saving!
Try to carpool or take public
transport
This produces less carbon
emissions per person.
Organic food: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
SMRT train photo: Wikimedia Commons - Copyright Calvin Teo
Background image: Graur Codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
20 SMRT bus photo: Wikimedia Commons - Copyright © 2008 mailer_diablo 21
Background photo: Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Vote with your $$$ Let’s Reduce What We Use!
There are 24 organizations working to
secure a better deal for producers. They
set international Fairtrade standards
and support Fairtrade producers.
Buying Fairtrade products contributes to
sustainable development.
For more information, go to:
http://www.fairtrade.net/about_us.html
Equal distribution of wealth
Farmer's produce Retailers
Fairtrade Logo and photos taken from www.fairtrade.net
VillageXchange logo taken from: www.villageexchangeinternational.org
22 Starbucks logo taken from: www.starbucks.com 23
Ben & Jerry logo taken from: www.benjerry.com
acknowledgments
This Greening Your Home guide has been created by students
from Republic Polytechnic as their Final Year Project.
1. Kho Hock Meng (Team Leader)
2. Leong Lin Yi Caleb
3. Jasper Lim Jin Lock
4. Wang JingNa
First and foremost, we would like to thank our trainers for
guiding us into completing this Guide. Without them, this Guide
would never have been created.
Abdul Rahim (Director) and Irene Millar (Director) from
EcoLeadership Pte Ltd.
www.EcoLeadershipTraining.com
Eco Leadership provides training and consultancy programmes, speaker
engagements and auditing services that support organizations in
Ongoing support during the project was provided by Bhavani their journey towards sustainability. Contact us for a complimentary
Prakash (Founder/Editor) of Eco Walk the Talk. consultation on how we can help your organization optimize business
www.ecowalkthetalk.com operations through employing sustainability measures as a strategic
management tool.
We would like to also express our gratitude to our Final Year
Project (FYP) Supervisor, Derek Ang for his patience into aiding
us completing this incredible toolkit on Sustainability.
This production and distribution of this Guide has been
sponsored by Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies.
The Guide is based on scientific research by The Natural Step,
a non-profit organization recognized as the world leaders in www.EcoLeadershipTraining.com info@EcoLeadershipTraining.com
Strategic Sustainable Development. Eco Leadership Pte Ltd, 1 Kaki Bukit Road 1, #02-47 Enterprise One, Singapore 415934
Office number: +65 65200410
http://thenaturalstep.org/ Company Registration Number 200603312G
24
For your namecard
ECO Leadership © 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or otherwise transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without
written permission from the publisher.
