Roundtable Discussion

This roundtable discussed how the collaborative efforts by industry, academia and government will promote the adoption of green chemistry technologies which are essential to the achievement of a sustainable society.

Shao yi stands the position of supporting the adoption of green chemistry technologies. As a start-up, Shao yi introduced the concepts of green chemistry as the chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Moreover, he analyzed the advantage of green chemistry, such as energy saving, reduction of the emission of carbon dioxide and environmental friendliness. On top of that, Shao yi introduced the case of the use of crop in the energy structure in Brazil.

Ee ming pointed out that to achieve a sustainable society, human behaviors must comply with the limits of natural resources. He divided the circumstances in Singapore into individual sectors: workplace, entertainment, health care, education, public transportation and HDB policies. He analyzed each sector and pointed out how every one of them make a contribution to the harmony of the society.

In the end, Sean proposed a model to achieve a sustainable society. He hold that the government would convey the emphasis on green chemistry technologies to the university level, so that researches on this subject will actively carried conducted. Afterward, universities will introduce the applications of the researches to industry level to help industries to implement green chemistry technologies. At same time, a feedback system would be established to allow industries and academia to interact with each other rapidly, to help the development of the technologies. Additionally, Sean indicated a few challenges to this model; he reckons that the over-nationalized companies do not have enough freedom on decision making, and also he pointed that the society’s major attention is drawn by the current financial recession thus implementing green chemistry technologies do not seem to have enough priority.

Overall, the roundtable was very active and successful; every member took active participation in the discussion. The ideas of each speaker are very clear and precise. Also The information provided in the discussion was accurate and up-to-date.