He was only seven years old when he arrived in Singapore with his parents in 1940, shortly before World War II started.

Six decades on, Mr John Kirkham, 76, chairman of Kaer - his own energy-solutions company - still remembers the horrible bombing endured by Singapore shortly before it became Syonan-to.

Engineer John Kirkham Sr, Mr Kirkham's father, brought his family to Singapore because he had been commissioned by Hume Industries, an Australian company, to build a bottling factory for the aerated water business group, Fraser & Neave.

The elder Kirkham also built the old Kirkham family home at 10 Wilby Road, reportedly the first private residence here with a segregated, sealed living area with air-conditioning and double-brick walls to insulate the house from heat.

He left Hume Industries and started his own property-development company in 1949. Mr Kirkham Sr's innovative and functional approach to structural design laid the foundation of his son's interest in internal environments.

"My father taught me to be practical, to not look back at the past and always for new ideas," said the former Asia-Pacific president of Carrier Corp, the manufacturer and distributor of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems.

In 1954, armed with only secondary-school education, Mr Kirkham started his career distributing Carrier air-conditioners in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei.

"I have a degree from the school of hard knocks," said the silver-haired Mr Kirkham. Over the years, he introduced the idea of air-conditioning for cars, marine vessels and open refrigerated display cases used in supermarkets.

In 1959, the three members of the Kirkham family decided to become Singapore citizens. "The question was not so much 'Why?', but 'Why not?' said Mr Kirkham. "We did not have the most pleasant time in Singapore, but we were happy here." His wife, Michelle, 64, who is from South Africa, also acquired citizenship after they married in 1965.

Singapore is an ideal place for an air-conditioning business as the weather provides no relief from the humidity throughout the year, said Mr Kirkham.

"Minister Mentor (Lee Kuan Yew) said on numerous occasions that air-conditioning is one of the most important things to happen in Singapore and I'm proud to have been there at the beginning and to still be here now," he said.

Mr Kirkham has since gone a step further to help clients set up "climatically perfect buildings" in which there are no cold drafts, no need for sweaters, and where humidity is kept at 53 per cent.

His company, Kaer, designs ventilation systems that are so energy-efficient that they are unnoticeable - what Mr Kirkham calls "a lot of nothing".

Four buildings that Kaer helped to outfit - Jurong Data Centre, Keppel Bay Tower, SingTel Kim Chuan Telecommunications Complex 2 and the Woh Hup Building - have won the Building and Construction Authority's Green Mark Award.

Kaer's role in a building, he explains, is to get engineers, technicians and the architect to work together to create an energy-saving and liveable area.

"I believe Singapore can be 80 per cent green by 2030," he said. With teamwork, each individual will not need to put in much effort to achieve that vision, he added.

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