Research Shows Singapore’s Net Zero Economy Can Boost Jobs and Businesses

Majority of local businesses believe that technology will play an important role in helping Singapore realise its net zero targets by 2050

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today released new research, which found that 85 percent of managers in Singapore recognise the importance of technology in achieving a net zero target by 2050, with 43 per cent noting that the role of technology would be ‘very important’. 

The Trail to Net Zero for Singapore report, which surveyed over 1,000 managers from small, medium and large businesses in Singapore, reveals business sentiments towards the country’s net zero targets, and highlights how cloud technology can help to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. 

Key findings:

• Cloud migration enables businesses to deliver energy savings and cost efficiencies:  With Singapore’s data centre capacity estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent between 2022 and 2030, businesses can significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by taking steps such as moving to the cloud. A recent study found that cloud migration will enable businesses to achieve energy savings of 79 per cent. If cloud operators rely on 100 per cent renewable power, Singapore businesses will likely be able to reduce carbon emissions by 19.3 million metric tonnes between 2022-2030, equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 4 million passenger cars in Singapore. This in turn results in US$4 billion (approximately S$5.6 billion) in cost savings.

• Businesses show strong support for Singapore’s net zero target: Eight in ten (81 per cent) respondents say they support Singapore’s net zero target by 2050. The level of support is even higher (88 per cent) among larger businesses with more than 100 employees. According to the Salesforce report, 83 per cent of managers also support the Government’s initiative to provide subsidies and incentives to businesses for the development of renewable energy technologies.
• Transition to net zero creates jobs: Managers are three times more likely to think that achieving a net zero economy by 2050 in Singapore will result in more jobs than less jobs (39 percent compared to 13 percent).
• Businesses are more conscious of emissions across their value chain: Six in ten (61 per cent) managers surveyed said they are more likely to purchase products or services from supplying businesses with a net zero target.
• Addressing climate change requires multi-stakeholder collaboration: Respondents agree that both the Government (54 per cent) and businesses in their industry (66 per cent) can continue to do more to tackle climate change. 

The report provides a number of policy recommendations to help accelerate Singapore’s trail to net zero. They include:

• Developing cutting-edge climate technology
• Increasing investment in cloud
• Addressing sustainability skills gap
• Using Environment AI
• Enhance international collaboration
• Adopting a shared digital platform to track emissions

Commentaries on the report:

Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN said: “Technology can play a transformative role in climate action. This includes digital platforms and dashboards to help businesses drive better accountability, cloud computing adoption to drive lower carbon emissions, use of environmental AI and other cutting-edge climate innovations. The addition of Sustainability to our core values at Salesforce this year signals our serious commitment to addressing the impact of climate change in our business, with suppliers and stakeholders.”

Jared Ragland, Senior Director, Policy — APAC at BSA | The Software Alliance said: “BSA and our members are fully committed to contributing to the fight against climate change and are attuned to the responsibility that global companies have to advance sustainability while supporting communities in their efforts to do the same. Digital transformation is enabling businesses in all sectors to do everything from reducing energy and water use to reducing the climate impact of the buildings they fill. This Salesforce report shows how important digital tools are toward achieving sustainability goals, in Singapore and around the world.”

Lim Boon Pin, Co-Chair of SGTech’s Sustainability Committee said: “The increasing migration to cloud is a major contributing factor to Singapore being home to the highest digital traffic in the Asia Pacific. SGTech supports the shift to cloud and is active in championing dialogue between local data centre players and the government to strive towards decarbonisation of data centres within our shores. As we transit into a greener economy, we need our businesses to embrace the challenges, identify opportunities that come with them and create products and services that solve them.”

Salesforce has achieved net zero emissions across its value chain and 100% renewable energy for its global operations. It has also built Net Zero Cloud – a sustainability management solution to help organisations go net zero by tracking current emissions, forecasting emission patterns, and enabling decision making.