Oral Reply to Parliamentary Question on Singapore Green Labelling Scheme

Oral Reply to Parliamentary Question on Singapore Green Labelling Scheme by Mr Baey Yam Keng, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment

Ms Ng Ling Ling: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what have been the changes in the number of products certified under the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme in the past three years; and (b) what will the Ministry do to promote more companies to have more green-labelled products.

Answer:

1 The Singapore Green Labelling Scheme (SGLS) is administered by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC). We understand that, to date, SEC has certified over 4,300 products from more than 800 companies.

2 SEC’s SGLS is one of several green labelling schemes in Singapore. Others include the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s Mandatory Energy Labelling Scheme (MELS), PUB’s Mandatory Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (WELS), the Singapore Food Agency (SFA)’s Farm-To-Table (FTT) Recognition Programme and the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC)’s Singapore Green Building Product (SGBP) certification scheme.

3 As a major buyer of goods and services, the public sector plays a role in encouraging companies to provide greener products and services. Under the GreenGov.SG initiative, the public sector has introduced green procurement requirements for nine categories of goods and services, some of which involves the use of green labels. For example, electrical appliances should meet the specified tick-rating under NEA’s MELS, relevant building products are to be accredited with SEC’s SGLS or SGBC’s SGBP certification scheme, and white printing paper is to be accredited with SEC’s Enhanced SGLS. Food and Beverage establishments that are accredited by SFA’s FTT Recognition Programme can also earn evaluation points when bidding for public sector catering contracts.

4 The public sector regularly reviews and updates its green procurement policies. This includes incorporating reputable green standards, certification schemes or labels where applicable. We will also work with the industry and relevant non-government organisations to gradually expand the goods and services covered under the public sector’s green procurement policies. We hope that this will spur companies to produce, develop or supply more green products and services.