Most of the disasters cited were of the kind expected to become more severe and frequent due to climate change – damage and life loss associated with flooding, storm surges and high winds. Flooding rivers alone are expected to affect 380 million people globally, most of them in Asia.

Developing countries in this area of the world, by many measures, are at a crossroads. Together, they are home to a majority of the world’s poor. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), more than 600 million still have no access to electricity and nearly two billion still use highly polluting firewood and charcoal to cook food and heat homes.

At the same time, these countries are growing fast – and we’re not just talking population. Myanmar, which we profile on page 54, has seen its GDP grow 6 per cent to 10 per cent annually since 2000. That range of growth, shared over the past decade by economic titans such as China and India, is expected to continue as Myanmar opens up its economy to the world.

Such growth has its consequences. For one, it has created an insatiable appetite for energy, demand for which is growing faster than GDP. By 2035, developing Asia is projected to account for 56 per cent of worldwide primary energy use. That’s up from 34 per cent in 2010, according to ADB. Where that energy comes from – renewables, nuclear or fossil fuels – has huge implications for the climate and global sustainability.

The impact on public health also cannot be overstated. The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, recently dedicated an entire issue to what it called a health “time bomb” ready to go off in China. Rising standards of living have also driven an increase in obesity and substance abuse. This, along with environmental pollution caused by a fossil-fuel dependent energy system, has boosted rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Such chronic diseases, according to an editorial in the journal, “are now China’s number one health threat.”

Change is happening. Geothermal is being developed in Indonesia. Growth in coal use in China is starting to fall. India has embraced solar. Myanmar is working to put more social and environmental safeguards in place. And island nations like the Maldives, which we spotlight on page 54, are pursuing aggressive adaptation strategies. But is it enough? Is it happening fast enough?

Clearly, when it comes to sustainability performance, some countries in the region are doing better than others. Perhaps not surprisingly, Singapore ranks at the top of the list. This is according to Corporate Knights’ first Sustainable Asia Scorecard, which ranks all countries in Asia (as defined by the United Nations Statistics Division) across 25 sustainability indicators.

These indicators cover a lot of ground – from each country’s natural, human and social capital to health, quality of life, education and gender equality.

[highcharts chart=’4264′ performer=’ALL’ measurement=’Total’ order_field=’Total’ order=’DESC’]

To download an Excel sheet of the data used to calculate this year’s ranking, click here.

Of the 50 countries assessed, it is no surprise that the Top 5 (and six of the Top 10) are considered by the International Monetary Fund to be “advanced” economies – Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Israel, in that order, with Cypress coming in ninth.

The rest would be considered “developing” or “emerging” economies. Of these, Malaysia ranked highest (sixth place) followed directly by Turkey and Thailand. China just squeezed ahead of Indonesia to take 10th spot.

Looking at all the data, Corporate Knights walked away with the following observations:

• Hong Kong scored highest on energy and greenhouse-gas emissions productivity, while Singapore got top marks for water productivity. Being among the most resource-deprived countries in Asia, the need for them to embrace efficiency of resource use makes sense as a matter of survival.
• In places like South Korea, we saw a direct correlation between rates of education enrolment and number of patents per unit of labour. Generally, the higher the education rates, the more patents produced per capita.
• More advanced Asia economies tend to have a greater inequality gap.
• There is generally a direct relationship between higher GHG productivity and life expectancy.
• The Philippines, which at 14.6 per cent has the highest percentage of non-hydro renewable power in its mix, scored second best on the air pollution indicator

Perhaps our most surprising observation is that there is no obvious relationship between urban air pollution and life expectancy. Deaths are probably caused by a host of other environmental, social and demographic factors.

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The Transboundary Haze Pollution Bill will also make it possible for individuals and businesses to sue companies operating outside the country for the physical and financial suffering that they endured from the air pollution.

The bill is a response to the disturbingly rapid destruction of Indonesia’s tropical forests. While companies are burning trees to make way for the palm oil industry, neighbouring Singapore is stuck under a thick haze, which culminated in the worst day of air pollution on record last year.

“We have sent a message to all companies that if you harm the environment and damage the health of our people, we will find ways to hold you accountable for that,” said Vivian Balakrishnan, environment minister for Singapore, who is behind the bill.

In an interview with Corporate Knights, Balakrishnan said the bill addresses a predicament that all cities face: “You can try to be the cleanest, greenest place in the world, but your neighbours have to have similar standards.”

While he acknowledged the bill is only effective to the extent that all countries in the region collaborate on surveying companies’ actions and holding them accountable, Balakrishnan said the government is steadfast in its commitment to defending its air quality.

It’s an example of leadership that put Singapore at the top of Corporate Knights’ Sustainable Asia Scorecard.

Singapore scored top marks for the way it conducts its economic activity in light of the rising costs of water resources, which is notable in a country where water has long been an existential issue.

Singapore started to focus on water as a key growth sector in 2006 to end its reliance on imports from Malaysia. It has since committed $470 million to promote research and development in the water sector and now generates half of its water supply internally thanks to purification and desalination projects.

The country also led the ranking on our natural resource depletion indicator, which looks at the extent to which consumption of resources is sustainable at current economic activity levels.

This is quite an achievement, considering Singapore is almost completely devoid of resources. “We have no oil, no gas. We import our water, everything we eat, the clothes we wear, everything we consume,” said Balakrishnan. This has created a culture where there is no room for waste.

The country also beat out its opponents on human development indicators, such as justice, regulatory quality, gender equality and transparency, as well as on account balance, which measures the extent to which the country can fund continued economic activity.

Balakrishnan attributed Singapore’s successful greening to three things. While its lack of space and resources seem to be stacked against it, the country is at an advantage because it is simply too small to tolerate pollution from the dumping of toxic materials, he said.

Second, the government understood early on that a densely populated city-state made out of concrete would have a negative psychological impact on its citizens. For the sake of everyone’s mental health, the government worked with homeowners to build a garden city that would soften the experience of living in close quarters.

Finally, the country’s complete lack of subsidies for food, water, electricity and energy means that citizens have a monetary incentive to think twice about how they use resources.

While some residents may be willing to pay the extra price to live in a sustainable city, it is worth noting that Singapore has the second-largest gap between the rich and the poor out of the Top 10 countries ranked, second only to Hong Kong. This means the garden city-state has a long way to go in terms of giving its citizens fair access to its limited resources.

But in Balakrishnan’s view, there is synergy between a healthy environment and a strong economy. Future economies will depend on ideas, and the most sustainable cities will attract the most talented residents. He said cities that have the technology and knowledge to deal with the future challenges of climate change, such as increased global epidemics and scarce resources, will have an advantage in the global market. 

He pointed to Singaporean water companies as an example of an industry that is turning this challenge into a global opportunity. Based on their track record at home, these homegrown companies can now say to the world: “Take a look at what we have done. You know we can deliver.” 

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