" Coming to OES was a refreshing experience and felt like home away from home. It is really wonderful to know, that there are people in NUS who are monitoring and recognizing the sustainability efforts of students and staffs. The whole staff of OES were committed to sustainability and made me realize that the efforts to reduce climate change could be succeeded only if the younger generation took part in it.

The most memorable thing was my first day eco-bike ride around the campus to check the recycling bins. I would say that I have learned what are the difficulties encountered to change the behaviour of public to achieve sustainability. Around a year experience in OES has helped me to gain few friendships and contacts which proved to be very useful for my future career. But there’s one more thing I like to share with the future interns, you have embarked a right choice. "

" Working at OES has been a fantastic experience for me. After 1 year as an engineering undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, coming here has been a huge breath of fresh air. I have been able to work with brilliant colleagues and have fun every day. Knowing that you are making a positive difference in the world really motivates me to do this kind of thing, and I feel that even in the short time I was here; I still made a difference in reducing to the environmental impact of NUS. By promoting energy and water conservation as well as proper waste management to students and staff alike, I have learnt not only about the subject itself but also the running of a large institution like NUS and trying to keep it sustainable.

My co-workers have been fantastic; from taking us great trip to the best zoo in the world and the only really rural and natural place in Singapore, all the way to giving us the afternoon off so that we could prepare for a bus ride to Malaysia. Being in Singapore and doing all the things I have done would not have been the same without the friendliness and understanding that they exhibit.

Overall, I’ve had an amazing time and I think what I have done will certainly aid me in the future. The only downside is that I might never work in such a good place again! "

" I came to NUS from Copenhagen University in June 2011 as an IARU sustainability fellow after finishing my first year of sociology. During my 5 week stay I’ve worked with several different sustainability projects. As a quite big and well known learning institution, NUS has taken on a lot of responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint. Dedicated staff and an interesting variety of projects has made my stay here very instructive and informing.

In November 2010 I occupied a related student position at the Green Campus Office at Copenhagen University. Therefore working in Singapore and seeing the similarities and differences has been fascinating, and besides the obvious climate differences I’ve seen a distinction in the ways to approach the sustainability issues. I do believe exchange of knowledge is one of several important steps towards a more sustainable future.

Overall, I’ve had an amazing time in this diverse country. The co-workers are fun and welcoming, I’ve made great friends with lots of exchange students, got to travel a bit and Singapore is truly an awesome city. "

" Working in OES for the past 2 months has broaden my perspectives on environmental sustainability – working towards a environmental friendly environment is not an individual effort. OES has demonstrated to me that no matter how small you are, as long as you are willing to do your part, it will definitely make our earth more environmental sustainable.

Overall, it has been a fun and fruitful learning experience for me. The things that I have learned here will definitely aid me in future."

" Working in OES has definitely brought a whole new perspective on environmental sustainability to me. The working environment is vibrant and dynamic, where most colleagues are very enthusiastic when it comes to any environmental issues. They have shown me the importance of recycling, reusing and reducing of waste.

Overall, it was a very good learning experience while working in OES where there were several chances for me to interact with various types of people. This experience will definitely aid me in my future endeavours. "

" 'In June 2010, having just finished my first year of studying engineering in Cambridge, I came to OES as an IARU Sustainability fellow. I would like to be involved in some form of sustainable development in the future and so found it very interesting to experience how OES is encouraging green behaviour on campus. In my time here, I primarily worked on the project 'Identifying building efficiency gaps on Kent Ridge Campus' and helped develop an eco-office action plan.

The eco-office action plan involved thinking of steps that offices and individuals and offices can take to reduce energy, water and paper use and improve recycling rates and indoor air quality. I had to consider ways to reduce the cooling load of a building which made a change from the UK where the emphasis is very much on how to keep the cold out, not in!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at OES and have learnt a lot about how a university can become more sustainable. Through my research I have come across numerous ways in which we can improve energy efficiency and work towards a sustainable future. Being in Singapore I have been able to approach the problem from a different angle as energy is used to keep heat out rather than in. It is important to remember but easy to forget that different climates require different technology."

" I came to NUS from Oxford University in September 2009 as an IARU Sustainability Fellow. Over the course of the six weeks I have worked on a diverse range of projects, including auditing buildings to assess how to optimise air-con settings, writing talks, logging data on airflow characteristics in labs, and contributing to OES’ Sustainable Buildings Guide – a comprehensive guide on how to sustainably manage new and existing buildings.

From a learning perspective, the internship has been an invaluable experience. I have been given a taste of just how complex a task reducing NUS’ environmental impact is. Working in the office has allowed me to get a sense of what the big challenges are in NUS’ situation, and the best way to approach them; I intend to apply this knowledge on my return to the UK. Equally important, the internship has strengthened my resolve to pursue a career in helping to address environmental problems. Even over just six weeks I felt that, however small my contribution, I was able to contribute to some of the valuable work that OES does.

Finally I have thoroughly enjoyed myself in Singapore. The combination of a unique and fun office environment and the excitement of the city has made for a fantastic trip. I hope to retain the contacts and friends I made here, and to bring back some of the insights gained. The IARU Sustainability Internship is a very good program. It does important work in developing the participating students, and I think the experience of undertaking environmental work in places very different from where we are from allows us to develop a broader sense of the climate change problem which is essential if we are to effectively tackle it. "

" I’m a graduate student form the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. My key interest scientifically as personally is the relation between humans and climate/environment. To come to Singapore and the NUS have been a great opportunity and experience. It has been most interesting to work on sustainability from a different context than the one I know from Denmark.

I have already worked a lot with the topics that relate to adaptation to global climate change, currently I’m writing my master thesis on adaptation to climate change among rural people in south Bangladesh. However, I feel very lucky to get the option to work on progress and problem solving on the “other side” of responding to global climate change – mitigation. Reducing green house gas emission is essential for a global sustainable future. And NUS have a great potential to play a lead role in this development.

Working for sustainability is in my eyes the most interesting, challenging and most needed question at present time. I the IARU program is relevant in this progress and I have been happy to contribute to this effort.

I have learned so many new things about sustainable buildings techniques and management, which indeed matters if NUS wants to meet its own targets and become a world leader in sustainability. I have worked on a guidebook for sustainable buildings at NUS. I have assessed how the existing buildings can be more energy efficient and how new buildings should be built in the most sustainable way.

The project was very interesting and contents options to be creative, innovative and productive as well as applying sound knowledge on climate and human interflow. In Denmark I am as well engaged in creating green behaviour among students and I think my learning experience form NUS will be a great contribution to this work. I have the ambition to take some of these initiatives and new ideas about energy saving and sustainability back to the University of Copenhagen, as well as to apply them in a broader Danish context – especially towards the COP15 in December.

I have been very happy to get this opportunity to learn and learn from NUS and OES. I believe that to solve the challengers related to global climate change, global experience and cooperation is most needed and the internship at OES at the National University for Singapore is a little contribution on this path for a sustainable global future. "

" Working at OES has opened up my mind to the efforts that some people put in saving the Environment. I have learnt a great deal of Environmental facts and small actions that I can adopt to reduce my carbon Footprint. Many of my questions and misconceptions of the Environment have been cleared up also by the professional people in the Office. Researching about Green Technology has opened my eyes to the new direction that businesses in the world are moving towards. Even though what I will read in my further studies has little to do with the Environment, I am glad I have come out a more environmentally friendly person. "

" I am an Environmental Engineering student in NUS and interned at OES during the June holidays in 2009, working on a project about the feasibility of green transport in campus. Throughout the internship, I cycled around campus to gather data by taking pictures, measuring path widths and estimating gradients.

While the feasibility is still being explored, it is great fun working in OES with like-minded and environmentally conscious colleagues. Their passion in promoting environmental sustainability shows in the multitude of projects that OES is heading. There were also opportunities to work with international students from the IARU program and interns from other faculties. These interactions were a chance of meeting new people who are equally keen in playing a part in the green movement today.

Overall, I thank everyone in OES for such a fruitful and wonderful experience. "

" My 3 months here in OES was a memorable and wonderful experience. The staff here are all very supportive and friendly, and are even willing to support any new environmental initiatives that I have proposed. I felt honored that as a NUS undergraduate, I am able to contribute to long term initiatives that make NUS practices more sustainable, such as revamping the recycling system. It was an opportunity that not everyone will have and my work here definitely opened my eyes to look for potential to make a change in my future workplace. At the end of my internship, I felt more empowered to make a difference, and hopefully, this office will be able to inspire more young interns like me to eventually become effective advocates for climate change in the future. "