Behind the scenes in the global search for sustainability solutions for the built environment – CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge 2022
10 solutions, over 340 submissions from 50 countries!
The three Special Recognition Award Winners - (from left, on screen) Mr Andrew Zhu, CSO Assistant, Sunman Energy; Mr Robert Grajewski, SVP, Enexor BioEnergy and (third from left) Mr Michael Petgrave, Co-founder and CEO CleanAir.ai - with (from left) Guest-of-Honour Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, and Manpower, Singapore; Mr Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO, CapitaLand Investment; Mr Miguel Ko, Chairman, CapitaLand Investment; and Mr Rohit Sipahimalani, Chief Investment Officer and Head, South East Asia, Temasek.The three Special Recognition Award Winners - (from left, on screen) Mr Andrew Zhu, CSO Assistant, Sunman Energy; Mr Robert Grajewski, SVP, Enexor BioEnergy and (third from left) Mr Michael Petgrave, Co-founder and CEO CleanAir.ai - with (from left) Guest-of-Honour Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, and Manpower, Singapore; Mr Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO, CapitaLand Investment; Mr Miguel Ko, Chairman, CapitaLand Investment; and Mr Rohit Sipahimalani, Chief Investment Officer and Head, South East Asia, Temasek.
BY GROUP SUSTAINABILITY, CAPITALAND INVESTMENT
Even as the team is still piloting the CSXC 2021 innovations, the second edition of the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2022 Demo Day has ended, but the journey has just started for the newly minted 10 finalists!
The inaugural CSXC was launched in November 2020 to crowdsource the world for proposals to make buildings more climate-resilient and resource-efficient. CSXC is the first sustainability-focused innovation challenge for the built environment sector by a Singapore real estate company on a global scale.
#ICYMI, here are our three Special Recognition Award Winners and 7 finalists who will be piloting their solutions at selected CapitaLand properties globally:
🏆 High Impact Award: CleanAir.ai (Canada) with its ALVI CleanAir Safety System to provide buildings with HEPA-class air quality
🏆 Most Innovative Award: Enexor BioEnergy (USA) with its renewable energy system that can convert any combination of waste
🏆 Carbon Action Hero Award: Sunman Energy (China) with world’s first glass-free, lightweight and flexible solar panel
🔧 Loh and Sons Paint Co (S) Pte Ltd (Singapore) in partnership with SolCold Ltd: Nanoparticle material using sunlight for active cooling.
🔧 Maini Renewables (India): Efficient micro wind turbine
🔧 Passive Edge Tech (China): Phase-change material for thermal control and storage
🔧 SlideLuvre (South Africa): Smart voltaic louvres
🔧 Ecoflow (Singapore): Air-compression valve to improve water meter accuracy
🔧 Hydroleap (Singapore): Chemical-free system to reduce cooling tower water blowdown
🔧 WI.Plat (South Korea): Intelligent building leak monitoring system
Each finalist will be given S$50,000 to cover the cost of the piloting, while the three Special Recognition Award Winners will be given an additional S$50,000 for the piloting costs.
Almost 12 months in the making – global industry experts backing up the challenge!
Work on CSXC 2022 kick-started in August 2021, and the open call for submissions was launched in December 2021. CSXC 2022 received more than 340 entries from 50 countries far exceeding the inaugural challenge!
Submissions were put through a rigorous selection process to choose 10 outstanding innovations that provided solutions for CSXC 2022’s challenge statements.
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png)
External industry experts helped to review the submissions in the search for outstanding solutions to CSXC 2022’s 7 challenge statements.
In the first round, industry experts from CapitaLand and our partners facilitated the shortlisting process to shortlist the Top 30 innovations. Our partners included Ministry of Sustainability and Environment, Singapore, Building and Construction Authority, Mott Macdonald, NUS Enterprise, Rocky Mountain Institute and The Institution of Engineering – Singapore.
Selection Panellists shared their scores and reviewed each of the technologies to ensure they are fairly assessed.
In the second round, CapitaLand’s Selection Panel spent three gruelling days whittling down the Top 30 submissions to the Top 10 finalists. Only the best of the best made it to the Top 10 finalists who will pitch their solutions on Demo Day to an international panel of judges!
Journey to Demo Day – mentorships in preparation for the Big Day!
The Top 10 finalists were matched with mentors based on their solutions to help them refine their pitch decks and showcase their innovations – allowing them to SHINE on Demo Day! Mentors shared their own industry experience, and even helped the finalists connect their solutions to real world problems.
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png){kind=link}
D Day – Demo Day!
With the COVID-19 restrictions relaxed, we welcomed close to 200 in-person guests and over 1,000 online audiences to witness the crowning of our CSXC 2022 Special Recognition Award Winners and finalists.
_cropped.png.transform/cap-midres/image.png)
Dr Koh Poh Koon (photo on left), Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, and Manpower, Singapore graced the event.
Dr Koh said, “I would like to thank CapitaLand for organising this challenge to encourage innovations in making buildings more climate-resilient and resource-efficient. It is heartening to see industry leaders such as CapitaLand taking the lead and committing to be net zero by 2050, and devoting resources towards innovation to make this a reality. Innovation is key in our net zero pursuit as we continue to push the boundaries of energy efficiency through development, testbedding and deployment of greener technologies and solutions for buildings. We are at an inflection point in the fight against climate change.”
CSXC2022 Chief Judge, Mr Rohit Sipahimalani, Chief Investment Officer & Head, South East Asia, Temasek (photo on right) said, “Finding solutions for a sustainable world is hard and it takes time. For those that are successful given the high barriers to entry, they will gain a large market value. The next decade would be one where sustainability would create social value.”
During the judges’ deliberation, a panel discussion on Transition to Net Zero in the Built Environment moderated by Ms Lynette Leong, Chief Executive Officer, Environment, Social & Governance Funds & Stewardship, CapitaLand Investment, with panellists Mr Frederick Teo, Chief Executive Officer, GenZero as well as Ms Marie Cheong, Founding Partner, Wavemaker Impact discuss the cost of not achieving net zero emissions with the onset of increased carbon tax, not only in Singapore but in many other parts of the world as governments pursue greater climate action
More about Demo Day here.
So what’s next?
The finalists and the CSXC organising team let their hair down in a post CSXC celebratory dinner. The finalists were also brought on a tour to some of the CapitaLand properties in Singapore the next day. Check out the video below to get a glimpse of what went on and hear from some of the finalists on their thoughts!
You might also be interested to find out how the 7 pilots from 2021 are doing. Here’s a quick summary >>