​Speech by NTU President Professor Subra Suresh at the Opening Ceremony of UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2018

Speech by

Professor Subra Suresh
President, Nanyang Technological University

OPENING CEREMONY OF UNLEASH INNOVATION LAB 2018

Sports Hall, The Wave
20 Nanyang Green, Singapore 637715

Wednesday, 30 May 2018, 4:40pm

Thank you so much. I want to welcome all of you. You come from 106 countries, 24 time zones. And I just flew yesterday morning from New York, which is exactly 12 time zones away. And you know what it feels like when you are remarkably awake. So, thank you. And of course, for somebody who comes from 24 time zones away doesn't have to worry about time zones.

So,

Dr Flemming Besenbacher, Chairman of UNLEASH,

Sustainable Development Goal Champions,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

A warm welcome to all of you on behalf of NTU Singapore to UNLEASH 2018. This event brings together people from all over the world who have the common goal of transforming 1,000 personal insights into hundreds of ideas, to build lasting global networks around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations.

NTU is honoured to host this opening ceremony and it is most apt that the opening is taking place here at, what we call, The Wave, the university's new mega sports hall built using engineered wood from sustainable forests.

Sustainability is our responsibility and it is indeed our priority, perhaps even more so for us in Asia. Asia accounted for half of the world's middle-class of roughly 3 billion people as of 2015. This is expected to grow to two-thirds of the projected global middle-class population of more than 5 billion people by 2030, which is not that far away - 12 years away. The rapidly growing middle class has led to greater demand for goods and services, placing great stress on our resources and on the environment.

Here at NTU we are playing our part in sustainable development. Earlier this year, I announced right in this very hall, that we want to transform NTU into a Smart Campus. Our aim is to harness the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources. Our initiative is aligned with Singapore's own vision of building a Smart Nation and NTU is well-placed to contribute to this national effort. Today, NTU is a giant test bed for the research and development of innovative technologies, a living lab that aims to produce green solutions to meet the sustainability challenges facing the world.

Clearly, we support and promote the principles of Sustainable Development Goals that have been set forth the UN. Firstly, in terms of our physical campus and you are right in the middle of it, there are 57 Green Mark award projects that are being completed, comprising more than 234 buildings on this campus, of which 54 or 95% are Green Mark Platinum certified. That is the equivalent of LEED-certification for those of you coming from colder climates, like Denmark for example, or where I used to live in the Northeastern US. Our goal in a couple of years is to convert the entire campus into a Green Mark Platinum certified campus. And this is not a small campus – 200 hectares or 500 acres. In 2017, we had a reduction of 18 per cent and 24 per cent in water and energy respectively, the intensity per square metre, as well as a 35 per cent decrease in carbon emissions per square metre compared to 2011.

We have adopted water and energy conservation initiatives such as utilising renewable construction products, using energy-efficient architectural designs for buildings and landscapes, installing water harvesting systems, incorporating the unique pre-fabricated pre-finished volumetric construction method (otherwise known as PPVC, also known for those coming from Denmark as "Lego-style" construction method) and investing in energy-efficient smart lighting throughout our campus. NTU has one of Singapore's largest rooftop solar photovoltaic systems on our campus that has contributed in the reduction of some 3,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, saving about $1 million in annual electricity costs. 1 million dollars!

Secondly, we place much emphasis on research, the curriculum and industry partnerships in our sustainability efforts. Mobility solutions that leave behind zero carbon footprint are critical in an eco-friendly Smart Campus. We are therefore test bedding our electric driverless vehicles. So if you're staying on this campus for a few days, there are electric vehicles that are going from, there are also autonomous vehicles that are going from, hostels to lecture halls, you may want to hop on to one of them. We are conducting intensive electromobility research in collaboration with government and industry partners such as Volvo Buses from Sweden, BlueSG in France, which is a subsidiary of Blue Solutions owned by the French Bolloré Group, and Singapore's rail operator SMRT. We also have shared bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters available on our campus. I would like to encourage all of you to try these options while moving around our campus. Drive safely.

Further to that, we offer over 300 undergraduate and graduate courses in the field of sustainability and sustainable development. Students are exposed to environmental issues and global development challenges from their freshman year, during which they take a compulsory module in environmental science, with a focus on Asia. We are committed to educating our younger generation on sustainability because the future belongs to them. We are also equally committed to educating our not-so-young generation about sustainability because they may not be as used to it as some of you are.

With that in mind, I am excited that some 500 UNLEASH SDG Champions will be having their discussions and sessions at our iconic learning hubs, which we call them The Hive and the newly opened building (the Hive is the one that looks like a bee hive) and the newly opened building called The Arc. The SDG Champions will have their sessions in our Smart Classrooms to experience the "flipped classroom" model of learning through which NTU students learn much more proactively. In fact, we have a new medical school on our campus called the LKC Medical School, jointly set up with Imperial College in London. And that medical school has curriculum that uses entirely the "flipped classroom" curriculum. Which is one of the most progressive medical school curricula in the world.

At NTU, we train students to ask the right questions rather than giving them the right answers. There is no "sage on stage" as our professors are now "guides at the side", facilitating discussions and debates. This is the model that I know UNLEASH advocates too with their facilitators.

So in closing, I wish to offer my congratulations to all of you for the passionate commitment that you have shown for Sustainable Development Goals. I wish the organisers, experts, facilitators and especially the participants a wonderful experience during your Innovation Lab segments and I am sure you will learn much from Singapore and from NTU, while we also learn from you, coming from 106 countries. I wish UNLEASH all the best and I look forward to witnessing the great ideas by our participants to one day make a positive impact on our planet. There are two major events this week – one is welcoming you here and day after tomorrow, we'll be welcoming to this campus, Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, who will be spending a couple of hours here on our campus. So these are two important events and I am glad I got to attend both of them.

So thank you very much and welcome.