SPEECH BY DR TEO HO PIN
MAYOR OF NORTH WEST DISTRICT
AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF GO GREEN WITH BETTY THE
BUTTERFLY, CLEAN & GREEN SINGAPORE DISTRICT LAUNCH
ON SUNDAY, 09 NOVEMBER 2014, 1500HRS AT
LEVEL 1 ATRIUM, CAUSEWAY POINT
My Parliamentary Colleagues
Ms Ellen Lee Geck Hoon, PBM
Mr Ronnie Tay, CEO of the National Environment Agency,
North West CDC District Councillors,
Corporate Partners,
Grassroots Leaders,
Residents,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,
A very good afternoon to all of you.
Introduction
2 Thank you for joining me today at the Clean & Green
Singapore @ North West Carnival. I am happy to see all of you here today, including our community leaders and residents who have worked hard to make our North West District a clean and sustainable place for everyone.
Green Living @ North West
3 Here in the North West District, North West CDC and NEA place a strong emphasis on advocating greater environmental ownership and active participation in the community. This commitment was made in 2009 through Green Living @ North West, the district’s
10-Year Eco Plan. Under the five pillars of the Eco-Plan, (1) CLEAN
Everyday, (2) Lead Everyone Against Dengue, (3) Fight Climate
Change, (4) Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and (5) Clean Toilets, more than 110 programmes have been rolled out since 2009.
CGS Best Community Achievement Award
4 Our relentless efforts in advocating greater environmental ownership through our various community programmes have not gone unnoticed. I am pleased to share that the North West District was awarded the Best Community Commitment Award at the Clean &
Green Singapore yesterday. This national award is given to us for showing consistency and commitment in our community engagement in attaining environmental and public health outcomes.
ASEAN ESC Award
5 Our cumulative efforts over the past few years have also been recognized regionally. North West District was given the ASEAN
Environmentally Sustainable Cities (ESC) Award this year at the
3rd ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities (ESC) Award ceremony held in Laos last week. This award recognizes ASEAN cities that have been performing well in terms of environmental sustainability and ownership.
6 I would like to take this opportunity to extend our greatest appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to our grassroots leaders, schools, student volunteers, corporations, Town Councils, NEA and all our partners for their continued dedicated efforts and support. These awards belong to all of you. Let us give ourselves a round of applause for the good work done.
Go Green with Betty the Butterfly
7 Today, I am pleased to launch a new district programme,
Go Green with Betty the Butterfly. We hope to inculcate green living values amongst the pre-schoolers.
8 This initiative, which was enhanced after piloting earlier within PCF centres in Woodlands Division, will see some 15,000 pre- schoolers, from PCF centres and private Pre-Schools, learning more about dengue prevention, 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), energy efficiency, personal hygiene, and keeping the environment and toilets clean etc., through a simple, engaging story with activities weaved into it.
9 For a more enriching experience, we will engage and train secondary school students under a ‘Train-the-trainers’ scheme to organise educational activities for the pre-schoolers with support from various community partners. Activities include bin painting, and talks on environmental topics such as dengue prevention and 3Rs.
Sustainable Singapore Blueprint (SSB)
10 The Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015, or SSB in short, was launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday at the launch event of Clean and Green Singapore 2015. SSB 2015 contains environment targets for 2030, and represents everyone’s commitment to create a more liveable and sustainable future for all Singaporeans.
11 One of the main aims as stated in the SSB is to foster an
Active and Gracious Community which takes greater stewardship of its environment. I am confident that initiatives like “Go Green with Betty the Butterfly” will help to fulfil this aim by inspiring our children to go green, and care for our environment. Our children will become the future stewards of our environment, and it will be their mission to continue to make Singapore an exceptional Home, City and
Community.
12 The SSB 2015 also includes many initiatives that are going to be undertaken to help meet those targets. It is our role to help guide our children towards sustainable habits such as reducing, reusing and recycling, and we can all take reference from the SSB 2015 to bring out the green champion in all of us.
Conclusion
13 Yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his CGS main launch speech said that young people should do their bid for the environment, as they have the talent and energy, and the drive and the passion to change the world. This is the future of the young, and this is the home that we all cherish. Let us continue to work together to safeguard the future for our future generations.
Take every action that you can to preserve and nurture it and make every action count. Thank you.