DAX Exhale: Breathing Sustainability into Innovation
As we get ready to celebrate Earth Day on 22 April, we’ve cut the ribbon and unveiled our latest zero-waste edible garden — DAX Exhale! Located within DBS Asia X (DAX), the DAX Exhale garden is a refreshing extension to an already wildly innovative space. Equipped with an abundance of eco-friendly features and amenities, the garden is also a part of DBS’ larger commitment to sustainability and zero waste.
“I am delighted to officiate the opening of our new edible garden, DAX Exhale, at our One-north office where we reimagine, inspire and create the future of innovation. We wanted to create a space for innovators to relax, connect with the community and the environment, and to have a chance to explore zero waste experiments. The garden is also an effort to tie in with DBS’ wider commitment to sustainability. By reinventing the space, we are giving innovators the room to expand on personal growth and ideas, while giving the existing space new functions and meanings to the innovation community.” Annie Ye, Head of DBS Asia X and Senior Vice President at DBS Innovation Group, said.
Thus, I hope our latest green addition will serve as a common ground for innovators to relax, connect, and revitalise their creativity,” Annie Ye, Head of DBS Asia X and Senior Vice President at DBS Innovation Group, said.
The DAX Exhale garden further contributes to One-north’s “green pockets”, providing DAX inhabitants a chance to mingle with the rest of the innovation community through the open-air community seating areas that serve as rest points for employees and guests.
A Space for Innovators Relax and Reflect
The DAX Exhale garden is an area for our people to gather and collaborate, or to relax and immerse themselves in nature amidst their hectic, fast-paced schedules. As a place of serenity and reflection, the garden allows us to recharge ourselves, reimagine possibilities as we look beyond the horizon, and grow our creativity just as the plants reach towards the sky.
Created with the help of eco-experts from Edible Garden City, the garden is equipped with various eco-friendly features and facilities. These features are aligned with DBS’ sustainability approach, where we look to make decisions while being guided by a sense of purpose. Our edible garden gives employees access to a wide variety of plants and herbs, all of which can be used for cooking, tea-brewing, and other innovative garden-to-table uses. This also creates an inviting green space for people to relax and engage with nature.
Some examples of the garden-to-table delights our colleagues have created include the nonya kuehs made using natural blue dye from the butterfly pea flowers and infused tea with peppermint from our garden.
The garden is also decked with eco-friendly furniture which was chosen with sustainability in mind. The planter boxes are made locally from recycled timber wood which can be composted in the future, and the DAX’s giant building blocks were repurposed to act as the base of the boxes.
The onsite zero-waste composting system can also help food and other waste turn into organic compost, providing natural fertiliser for the plants. The composting system recycles used leaves, used coffee powder, dried leaves, discarded fruit peels and other waste items, creating a garden that aligns with DBS’ zero-waste sustainability mission. Making compost also helps keep waste out of landfills, where they take up space and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
A Common Ground to Bring Us Closer
Besides being an outdoor garden to rest and relax, DAX Exhale is also a communal space where employees get to bond with one another beyond work. Put on your green fingers and power up your eco-conscious journey through various gardening workshops conducted by Edible Garden City’s team of experts.
Educational and interactive workshops planned for the coming months include:
- learning more about the plants and zero waste gardening;
- learning to compost with food waste;
- making cocktails with garnishes from the garden; and
- brewing tea with garden herbs.
We aspire to bring the community closer to create something beautiful in the DAX Exhale garden — be it the plants and herbs that grow under our care, or the great ideas that bloom through the interactions that take place in this common ground. Similarly, we hope the garden will also encourage the community to experiment with sustainable practices and habits.
Experimenting with Sustainability
As one of our focuses in 2021 is to encourage sustainability — inside and outside of DBS, we’ve kickstarted the Sustaintech Xcelerator in January to further promote sustainability in innovation. The 6-month virtual open call allows innovators to present tangible nature-based solutions (NbS) to tackle social and environmental challenges and increase people’s confidence in NbS.
Examples of NbS include protecting and restoring ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and coral reefs. NbS play a vital role in absorbing CO2 emissions and their development is critical for achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals.
Continue to watch this space for more updates on upcoming events or happenings at the DAX.
