In quest for holistic sustainability

“Sustainability does not mean only physical [conservation] or energy saving but also mental and financial care. And [in the end] we hope that would lead to a better life or total well-being of all living things,” Singh Intrachooto, chief adviser of MQDC’s Research and Innovation Sustainability Centre (RISC), told The Nation in an interview.
MQDC, a property-development, investment and facilities-management subsidiary of the DTGO Corporation Limited, last year appointed Singh, a well-known green designer and architect, to head its research centre.
Singh, who is an expert on how to transform garbage or waste into construction materials or furniture, is now associate professor in the department of building innovation, faculty of architecture, at Kasetsart University. The company hopes he will be a good link between academic expertise and the firm’s “sustainnovation”, a concept aimed at balancing practical, emotional and social needs with each new architectural idea.
His responsibility is to develop design and technology solutions that improve and contribute to a more holistic quality of life for all and reduce the impact of human lifestyles on the natural environment.
According to Singh, “sustainnovation” comprises three areas: clean environment, economic growth, and understanding human needs and behaviour.
The most important element is the human aspect, so the company asked him and the research team to study residents’ well-being in terms of their needs, concerns and behaviour, he said.
“When we understand residents we will be able to develop sustainable solutions for healthier ecosystems of all living things [not only human beings but also animals] and to [provide] them with better lives and lead to true sustainability,” the 48-year-old academic said.
Thus RISC will put more focus on quality of life than on how to save energy so as to distinguish MQDC from other property firms.
His team is developing a system under the sustainnovation concept in parallel with the project construction team.
By next year, his team will complete development of a total holistic model of how to build a sustainable residence. 
“In my opinion, the concept of building a sustainable home is how to build a home where you can stay until you die. It’s not that when you are 70, you have to move to a nursing home,” he said. 
Homebuilders need to support “good finance” for their clients too, he said. He suggested that property firms turn profit earned from the clients into their customers’ financial care by building both physically and mentally secured homes.
As time passes their houses will remain in good condition and they will not have to worry about how to find money to repair them, he said. 
MQDC, whose property brands include Magnolias, a developer of premium luxury residences, and the urban “social lifestyle” developer Whizdom, has put emphasis on research for more than 10 years.
Apart from setting up RISC as a research department, the firm also allocates 2 per cent of its revenue each year – several hundred million baht – for the research and CSR (corporate social responsibility) teams.
Currently, there are nine staff at RISC but Singh want to raise that to 30 over the next five to 10 years. 
The team was behind the use of energy-generating pavement that produces power every time it is stepped on at the company’s Whizdom 101 project.
The company will soon introduce energy-recovery ventilation (ERV) to treat incoming outdoor air in its residential and commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems.
The firm will open a new research centre in the heart of Bangkok this year, Singh said. 
He said research conducted by his centre would be open for use by the public and general homeowners and not limited to MQDC’s use.
“A real sustainnovation is an investment to educate all people so that all environmental issues can be solved sustainably. My task is to build a total holistic [system] to benefit the most people,” the academic said.
He hopes the centre will be well respected and the public’s close friend.
“I want the centre to be recognised as a place of the future and sustainnovation, the place where members of the public can come to see us to seek advice.
“I want it to be a centre of creating people’s better well-being and helping others.”