SMU President Lily Kong Named Impact Leader of the Year at 2025 BT-UOB Sustainability Impact Awards
SMU President Professor Lily Kong has been named Impact Leader of the Year in the Individual category at the 2025 Sustainability Impact Awards, organised by The Business Times and UOB. She is the only recipient from the education sector recognised this year, and one of two named Impact Leaders of the Year.
Key Details
The award honours Professor Kong’s leadership in embedding sustainability across education, research, operations, and community life at SMU. She was recognised at the ceremony alongside SMU alumnus Jeremy Lee, Founder and CEO of SimplyGood, who received the Individual Excellence Award for advancing sustainable household solutions and cutting single-use plastics.
According to Professor Kong’s award citation, her emphasis on sustainable living as SMU President included the establishment of the Singapore Green Finance Centre and the SMU Urban Institute, and her advocacy for mandatory sustainability education at the University.
Since the launch of the SMU Sustainability Blueprint in 2022, the SMU community has achieved significant milestones:
- Entire campus certified Green Mark Platinum, with one Zero Energy building and one Super Low Energy Building
- 40% reduction in Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 compared to the baseline year of 2006
- 37% reduction in waste disposed per person in 2024 compared to the baseline year of 2019
- 45% of undergraduates in AY2024/25 completed at least one credit-bearing sustainability course or its equivalent
- Employees contributed over 1,500 volunteer hours to social and environmental causes in the past academic year
Quotes & Reactions
Guest-of-Honour Minister for National Development Mr Chee Hong Tat reminded the audience of the long-term stakes, saying: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children. If we think about the long-term impact of our actions today and the desire to leave a better future, our perspective will change.”
UOB CEO Mr Wee Ee Cheong said: “Sustainability is about creating long-term value. It’s about making choices today that help both our communities and the environment thrive tomorrow. No one can do it alone — real change happens when governments, businesses and individuals work together.”
In her acceptance speech, Professor Kong saluted colleagues, students, and partners for aligning as “willing winds” to push sustainability forward. “At its best,” she said, “sustainability is an ethic, embedded in a way of life.”
Background & Context
Professor Kong’s commitment to environmental stewardship began early in her career as a young geographer at university, where she was deeply influenced by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. These works shaped her conviction that sustainability education must go beyond technical fixes to embrace values, culture, and an ethic of care.
Even at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she signalled that sustainability was non-negotiable by naming Sustainable Living one of the University’s three strategic priorities. The SMU Sustainability Blueprint was launched in 2022 as the first whole-of-community roadmap for greening the campus, advancing research, and cultivating resilient communities.
This accolade follows SMU’s recognition as Sustainability Institution of the Year at the 2024 International Green Gown Awards. It also builds on initiatives such as SMU’s $150 million sustainability bond which funds green buildings, scholarships, and community programmes.
Research platforms such as the Singapore Green Finance Centre and the SMU Urban Institute are shaping sustainable business practices and liveable cities in Asia. At the recent SMU City Dialogues Vienna, the University launched the Global Alliance on Sustainable Urban Societies with partners including Boston University, London School of Economics, University of Melbourne, and University of Toronto.
What’s Next
Looking ahead, SMU is progressing on significant campus renewal projects that will embed higher green building standards, upgrade systems for real-time monitoring of energy and water use, and adopt sustainable cooling and ventilation designs. Sustainability courses will also be extended into the lifelong learning space, alongside regional training and collaborations.
This focus has been carried forward into SMU2030, ensuring that sustainability remains a defining thread across education, research, operations, and community life at the university.
