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RAS holds its first Happy Toilet Seminar
A
strong turnout of about 100 committed Happy Toilet owners and other
interested participants came under one roof at the Environment Building
on 21st March. Participating organisations, both from the government and
private of varied industries – food & beverage, hospitality
& tourism, healthcare and others – were provided with firsthand
information about the Happy  Toilet
Programme (HTP). RAS would also like to express its sincere thanks and
appreciation to the Building & Construction Authority (BCA), National
Environment Agency (NEA), PUB, Rentokil Initial and World Toilet College
(WTC) for taking time to share other useful information related to the
restroom environment.
BCA
spoke about the concept of Universal Design and its applications in the
restroom environment while NEA elaborated on the Code of Practice on
Environmental Health (COPEH) on public toilets. PUB updated on water
conservation and allowable flow rate for taps and showers. Rentokil
offered solutions on pest control in toilets followed by WTC offering
solutions on toilet cleaning and maintenance. Before the seminar was
concluded with a Q&A session, RAS conducted its first mass
Eco-Assessor training session for the participants on the steps of
inspecting toilets to meet HTP standards. After this seminar, RAS is
looking forward to more Happy Toilet participation.
[View
Photos]
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RAS partners
with the North West Community Development Council (NW CDC) to roll out a
new school programme
Since
September last year, RAS had been partnering with the NWCDC and
NEA’s North West Regional Office (NWRO) to approach Primary and
Secondary schools in the Northwest district. 16 schools were approached
and recruited for the new school programme - Sustaining Toilets As
Restrooms (STAR) @ North West. Of the 16 participating schools, 9 were
awarded Gold with 2 achieving Silver and remaining 5 meeting the minimum
Bronze certification. A formal launch of the programme was facilitated by
Northland Primary School on 27th January 2011. Mayor of North West
District, Dr Teo Ho Pin graced the event as its Guest-of-Honour and spoke
on the importance of clean restrooms and good restroom etiquette.
 NWCDC
and NWRO have committed its support for a further 10 schools to
participate in this new programme. RAS also reached an agreement with the
South West CDC to endorse its STAR Awards programme for schools within
its district. With the CDC on board, RAS is currently recruiting schools
for assembly programmes and workshops with the aim of achieving similar
success experienced with the STAR @ North West programme. RAS hopes to
see more schools from other districts coming forth to participate in this
new programme.
[View Photos] [More
Details]
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RAS presents
5-star Happy Toilet certification to Kovan 209 Market
and Food Centre
More
toilets in market and food centres are sprucing up to meet our
prestigious 5-star rating and the Kovan 209
Market and Food Centre is one of them. The market and food centre under
the Aljunied Town Council is the 6th  market
and food centre with 5-star Happy Toilet. At its official opening on 22nd
January, Guest-of-Honour Mdm Cynthia Phua, who is also the Chairman of Aljunied
Town Council, witnessed the presentation of various certification to the
market and food centre namely the BCA’s
Green Mark, PUB’s Water Efficient
Building, NEA’s Singapore’s OK and our Happy Toilet
certification.
Before
the Happy Toilet assessment of its toilets, the Aljunied
Town Council had approached us for an on-site consultation on the
criteria of meeting the HTP 5-star rating. The town council was committed
to implement the recommendations proposed to them and the toilets were
eventually certified with a 5-star rating. Currently, all the toilets in
market and food centres certified with a 5-star rating come from the
central and northeast districts. RAS awaits market and food centres from
other districts achieving the 5-star rating.
[View
Photos] [Happy Toilet locations]
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RAS shares its
S.T.A.R. Awards Programme with schools at the Environmental Education Advisor
(EEA) Networking Sessions
 The
Restroom Association Singapore (RAS) was invited to give a talk and set
up a booth at the National Environment Agency’s EEA networking
session on 19th and 26th February 2011. At both venues (Nanyang Girls High and Zhangde
Primary), RAS staff was given the opportunity to address over 200
educators and share with them about its new school education programme as
well as other community initiatives. At the booth, RAS was given the
opportunity to mingle with educators and provide a clearer picture as to
the details of the STAR Awards programme.
The EEA Networking Session is a platform for EEAs
from primary to pre-tertiary level to network, share best practices on
environment education, and find out the new and exciting environment
initiatives that NEA and its partners are rolling out for the year ahead.
After its participation at the EEA Networking Session, RAS has received
calls from 6 schools so far indicating their commitment to start the
programme in their schools and pledging to provide clean restrooms for
their pupils. RAS looks forward to hearing from and working with more EEAs.
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RAS showcases
its Learning Pavilion at ECo Day Out @
South West
After
a tour of the RAS Learning Pavilion showcased during the LOO (Let’s
Observe Ourselves) Carnival & Awards in December, Minister of State
for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Amy Khor,
who was then the Guest-of-Honour, was keen to bring the roving exhibition
to the ECo Day Out 2011 @ South West event. On
23rd January, Dr Amy Khor, who is also the
Mayor of the South West District hosted the event with the Minister of
the Environment and Water Resources Dr Yaacob
Ibrahim gracing the event as its Guest-of-Honour. The RAS Learning
Pavilion with game activities saw strong community participation.
This
annual district environmental event – an annual platform to
celebrate environmental efforts in the district and educate the community
regarding  issues
like energy conservation and the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) –
is well into its sixth year and is organised by the South West CDC, the
NEA South West Regional Office and Hong Kah North Grassroots
Organisations. The event was held at the Hardcourt
next to Blk 372 Bukit Batok
West Ave 5 (Opposite Bukit Gombak MRT Station) and the roving exhibition.
[View
Photos] [More Details]
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