Sustainability
Climate mitigation and adaptation today stands at the forefront of pressing concerns that require a concerted response from the global community. More than 140 countries have already made commitments to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and here in Singapore, the Government has set an interim milestone through the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
Yet our agenda extends beyond the physical environment to also address responsible investing, green finance, economic inequality, access to education and healthcare, and various other issues pertaining to wellbeing, social equity and the human condition.
Our data-driven research on sustainability enables the Institute to engage in prevailing dialogues of the day, drive thought leadership and support policymakers through information-based decision making.
Latest research findings
Beyond its primary public health benefits, Singapore’s Wolbachia vector control programme has triggered a significant drop in residential electricity consumption. In their study “Buzzworthy Solutions: Dengue Control and Energy Consumption”, Agarwal, Chen, Fan, Qin and Saxena illustrate how mitigating dengue risk can contribute towards long-term sustainability.
As Cao and Fan discovered in their 2026 paper, “The Illusion of Free Electricity: Household Responses to Solar Panel Program in Singapore”, the mere announcement of the solar project – which carried a three-year lead time before installation – triggered an immediate and significant surge in utility consumption, occurring years before a single panel was operational or any actual cost savings were realised.
Real estate accounts for nearly 40% of carbon emissions worldwide, and commercial buildings have tremendous energy demands that require careful investigation and cogent solutions. Through a collaboration between IREUS and BCA, this study - "Refining energy use benchmarks for commercial properties in Singapore" - therefore focuses on isolating and accurately quantifying the energy consumption of commercial real estate via "pure” energy use intensity (EUI) commercial building benchmarks for 2023.
A summary for a quick overview is available here. Click "Request" below to request for the full report.