Page 11 - Towards A Sustainable Future 2024

Knots café is a restaurant run by XpressFlower.Com Pte significant and if similar savings were achieved at other
Ltd. The ESI team from ITE College West noted from the similar salons, manufacturers, cafes and laundry businesses
environmental review that the café generated meat offcuts across Singapore, then savings in CO2 emissions and business
while filleting meats, including salmon and beef, contributing operational costs multiply dramatically.
to carbon emissions if thrown away. The team proposed
that offcut meats be reused to prepare side dishes like soup
as food for pets and donated to needy people. Knots café Summary of Environmental Benefits
produces about 240 kg of waste meat annually, equivalent
to 19,623 kg of CO2 emission. The ITE project to repurpose In summary, the second phase of the “Towards a Sustainable
the meat avoids these emissions. Future” project endorsed the findings of the inaugural first
phase of the project, i.e. the ‘Triple Win Formula’ works in all
Another example is the laundry business - Laundry Loft, cases. It is possible, whatever the nature of the SME business
which offers various laundry services. After the environmental is, to improve its operational efficiency by cutting inputs
review, the ESI team from ITE College East identified that and outputs, enhancing process efficiency to cut carbon
laundry dryers got overly hot during the clothes drying emissions, and save the company money.
cycle. The absence of insulation around the dryers led to
a rise in ambient room temperature and forced the air- Furthermore, through student training, the ESI teams were
conditioning system to consume more power to maintain able to work closely and diligently with SME management to
an optimum temperature. The team proposed insulating the gain insights into the operation of an SME business and how
dryers’ exterior surfaces to prevent heat from escaping to the it can increase its environmental performance and improve
surroundings. This can reduce energy consumption by about sustainability through measures to cut carbon emissions.
1935 kW annually, saving 785 kg of CO2 emissions annually. The solutions identified by the ESI teams are designed to be
simple and widely applicable to other similar types of SMEs
All of the examples highlighted above represent not only across Singapore’s economy.
savings in terms of carbon emissions but also cost savings
to the SME in terms of reduced costs relating to power and
water consumption and, in some cases, savings in terms
of waste material disposal. Savings for each business are

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