ACHIEVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN STUDENT HOUSING : A CASE-STUDY OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

Climate change has risen to global prominence since the 1980s. It is now common knowledge that energy efficiency is essential to mitigation of climate change’s negative effects on the Earth’s ecological systems and livelihood of the human society. This study is an attempt at examining energy efficiency in a localized context. Given the rapid advent of green movement all over the world, in Singapore, there have been remarkable developments in the field of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency recently, exemplified by the Green Mark scheme for the construction industry. However, most of these efforts are focused at the commercial and industrial building sectors. The residential sector is due more attention, on account of its remarkable energy consumption. A particular segment of that sector is institutions’ housing facilities. This dissertation, which is inspired by the National University of Singapore’s current efforts to mitigate climate change, investigates some of the issues hindering energy conservation efforts in the student accommodation facilities at the institution. Escalating hostel fees and wasteful behaviors are signs of inefficient energy use at these housing facilities, which poses a pressing issue to the University administrators. Findings are presented in this dissertation based on interviews with three officials who are in charge of student accommodation, and a survey conducted on residents of on-campus housing facilities on measures to improve ongoing efforts of energy efficiency. This dissertation also proposes a tested alternative hostel policy that would positively affect energy use in student housing facilities. Concrete conclusions reached here are that educational efforts alone are not effective in improving conservation, and that the existing fixed-rate fee policy used for the University’s residences is less conducive to energy conservation than an electricity-based hostel fee policy that essentially imposes a consumption limit.