Pioneer signatories from Singapore in Construction Declares

Singapore, although somewhat protected by its equatorial location and its ‘City in a Garden’ policies, has been experiencing the twin crises of climate breakdown and loss of biodiversity with increasing periods of drought and higher temperatures. The Climate Emergency is the most serious issue of our time, where buildings and construction play a major part, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions while also having a significant impact on our natural habitats.

Construction Declares is both a public declaration of the planet’s environmental crises and a commitment to take positive action in response to climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse. Singapore is the first Asian country to join Construction Declares with both architects and structural engineers as founding signatories. The declaration statements can be found on Singapore Structural Engineers Declare and Singapore Architects Declare. 

The founding members of the Singapore petition include: 

• Architects: CSYA, DP Architects, Forum Architects, Guz Architects, HASSELL, SCDA and WOHA
• Structural engineers: Arup, DP Engineers, RSP, Web Structures and WSP

The Climate Declaration is a call to action for everyone working in construction and the built environment to meet the needs of our societies without breaching Earth’s ecological boundaries. This will demand a paradigm shift in behaviour. If we are to reduce and eventually reverse the environmental damage we are causing, we will need to reimagine our buildings, cities and infrastructures as indivisible components of a larger, constantly regenerating and self-sustaining system.

Such a transformation cannot happen without a wide-ranging declaration of intent, followed by committed action, international cooperation and open-source knowledge sharing. A united declaration will support more effective lobbying of policymakers and governments to show leadership and commit resources. The next few years will be decisive in shaping our collective future — now is the moment to act.

Architects Declare

• Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, as well as the urgent need for action amongst our clients and supply chains.
• Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices and a higher funding priority to support this.
• Establish climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as a key measure of our industry’s success.
• Share knowledge and research to that end on an open-source basis.
• Evaluate all new projects against the aspiration to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
• Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon-efficient alternative to demolition and new-build whenever there is a viable choice.
• Promote life-cycle studies, carbon-footprint assessment and post-occupancy evaluation, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.
• Adopt more regenerative design principles in our studios, with the aim of designing architecture and urbanism that goes beyond the standard of net zero carbon in use.
• Collaborate with engineers, contractors and clients to further reduce construction waste.
• Accelerate the shift to low-embodied carbon materials in all our work.
• Minimise wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail.

For more information on Construction Declares, please visit https://www.constructiondeclares.com/

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