The Green Journey

Group IT’s BSG’s progress

Posted by JLow on Sep 8, 2010

Just a quick update on further activities and momentum of our MH Green Office initiative.

Group IT’s Business Solution Group (BSG) has shared their progress with us, complete with photos to show for!

They now have their own-volunteered bins for their waste collection.

Thanks guys for joining in with your efforts. Looking good!

Shouldn’t you be thinking green by default already?

Posted by JLow on Aug 18, 2010

At the end of this article on green prison (yes even prisons are going green), there is a comment by a reader suggesting that “Environmental consideration should be given to every new structure so that awards for ecological excellence should no longer be necessary. Improvement of existing built stock should be more of an issue.”

And rightly so.

Thinking and going green should already be inculcated into our mindset and lifestyle. It should not be something that is deemed “extra effort”, that then warrants some form of recognition or award. This is of course textbook HR/people management. But isn’t climate change life-related? That the result of our (in)action will be enjoyed/suffered/to be inherited by our kids?

How would you encourage your workforce to adopt green office practises? Should internal procedures and policies start to reflect this corporate direction? Should HR start playing a role in bringing about “forced” behavioural change, by way of adherence to policies (or not), KPI’s of activities?

We could go the Chinese government way and cut power to those who are not abiding! (“China province cuts power to 500 factories“) But that would make us very unpopular!

~~~ Update ~~~

But then again, there are still efforts that really do require recognition and award: “Achievement: Leading government and industry to deliver a quieter, cleaner and more energy-efficient aviation system.“- found here: 2010 Finalist—Science and Environment Medal

Sustainability and us

Posted by JLow on Jul 29, 2010

Last week, Khazanah had invited a number of local GLC’s to their workshop on “Corporate Sustainability: Moving towards low carbon growth”. This is a Silverbook workshop by them; the 6th one already in fact.

A quick background into what the Silverbook is; I am sure you can recognise what some of these are on:

Two of the principles from the Silverbook states:

GLCs should proactively contribute to society in ways that create
value for their shareholders and other key stakeholders

GLCs should actively manage their contributions to society in the
most efficient and effective manner in line with industry norms
and best practices as well as the relevant regulatory framework

Broken down, and also coupled with our Prime Minister’s pledge to reduce our carbon emission intensity by 40%, this translates to the core area of environmental protection and policies. Therefore the topic of sustainability comes under this.

So what is sustainability?

Whilst the topic of sustainability is both wide and also evolving, I would like to attempt to define it for our use.

Source, and more elaborative explanations, at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

“Sustainability is the capacity to endure”

In our context, it means that given our lifestyle of:

• consumption (of food, fuel, manufacturing);
• waste (trash, inefficiencies/leakages);
• development (deforestation, mining (BP?), more cars on the roads);

we will eventually BOTH continue to harm the environment as well as deplete our limited resources.

An interesting note is that there is existing data indicating that Malaysia is already quickly becoming one of the bigger polluters per capita in the world. But what is more interesting is that, whilst China is also one of the highest polluters per capita, they have more programs and projects to mitigate these negative impacts than we do.

Sustainability advocates:

• smarter use of existing resources;
• improve upon efficient use of them;
• find alternative means (new technology, biofuels, low emission, alternative sources of energy, alternative means of transport, etc);
• limit the damage to these sources (toxins in natural water, poisons in soil, logging of our “lungs”, increasing amount of trash/landfill).

Already there are financial institutions that are looking into responsible investments into projects/schemes that go toward this philosophy.

At the government level, the Ministry for Energy, Green Technology and Water has already started looking into public policies that bring about environment-friendly initiatives; with the launch of Greentech : 1 Identity and the resulting working committees and task forces.

As an airline, with fuel being the biggest cost component (and thus all efforts have been invested in bringing this cost component as low as possible) the other areas we can focus efforts on are our utility use (water and electricity), to a large extent the non-airplane assets (ground vehicles), procedures (flight management, turn-around times, taxiing).

On a personal level, and either toward the (or any) company or toward our environment, we can also practise these similar philosophies. As you know, already there are supermarkets with their No Plastic Saturdays, some who charge for the use of plastic bags, shopping centres that have recycling bins to segregate waste. Not only will reducing waste and being efficient save you money, your children will see this as the normal learned lifestyle that will only become their natural habit as adults later on in life.

Even if you don’t subscribe to climate change or sustainability, you have to agree with what you have read about limited resources- even in our own backyard: That even for Malaysia, we will become a net oil importer in the not too distant future.

Walking the talk

Posted by JLow on Jul 13, 2010

Now that the workshop is out of the way, everyone should be underway with their plans on setting up their own teams, looking into greening their own offices.

We too have started our own efforts at CSSHE department.

As you can see, we have started collecting the individual bins from the staff, and have also “volunteered” some help to put together these 3 bins, ready for waste (paper) collection. All they need now are proper labeling or stenciling.

How are your activities and efforts going?

Clever use of plastic bottle

Posted by JLow on Jul 2, 2010

I was circulated this chain-mail.

As such, I cannot properly credit the originator, or genius, who thought to cleverly “re-use” plastic bottles.

This chain-mail was written in Chinese. But I think you can figure this out by the photos.

You can use the “body” of the bottle as a cheap pot for small plants or flowers, or your kids’ water container when they are painting

Logan Airport- wind and solar

Posted by JLow on Jun 13, 2010

Continuing the IVLP series, another highlight for me was the visit to Boston’s Logan Airport- particularly, their experiments with wind and solar energy for the airport’s use.

On the way there in the bus I did note these fans…

After the introductory presentations and meetings with the Massport officials on airport management, we were treated to a guided tour of their airport and the new terminal and facilities.

One of the highlights of the tour was their eagerness to experiment with alternative sources of electricity.

It was noted that they had also tried to harness wind energy for electricity, but somehow had stalled it whilst concentrating on harnessing that of solar. The joke was that those 6 fans from the above photo, had (only) managed to power a few PC’s!

And so with their focus on solar, this was what they had done, and done successfully insofar as achieving the power levels desired.

They call these the “solar trees”, and rightly so.

On the top deck of their multi-storey carpark, were these solar trees, all 3 rows of them, spanning the whole length of the building.

In our tropical Malaysia with year-round sunny days, with the right investments and attitudes towards conservation and alternative energy I believe this is an example that we ought to follow, for all types of buildings and administration. And I don’t mean small panels for token’s sake. To really harness solar energy for real use in buildings, dedicated budgets and physical space must be allocated for real returns- not just enough for powering a few PC’s!

If serious considerations are given, I believe we too can emulate such an initiative and set examples for other locals to follow.

Our support for The Green Wave

Posted by JLow on Apr 30, 2010

Look to the right sidebar- you would have noticed the Green Wave “badge”.

So what is The Green Wave?

The Green Wave is a global biodiversity campaign to educate children and youth about biodiversity. It leads up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. Each year, The Green Wave will contribute to worldwide celebrations of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). It also supports other national, international and global tree planting initiatives such as the UNEP-led Billion Tree Campaign.

In participating schools, students plant a locally important tree species in or near their schoolyard. Ideally, the tree species would also be locally indigenous. Where possible, the tree should be planted on 22 May – IDB. In some countries, it may be too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry or too something else to plant on 22 May. If such conditions apply in your country, you should plant in another month but still hold a special ceremony on 22 May.

On 22 May, students around the world will count down to 10:00 local time, when they will water their tree in their respective schoolyards, thereby creating a figurative “green wave” starting in the far east and traveling west around the world.

Throughout the day, students can upload photos and text summaries on The Green Wave website to share their tree-planting story with other children and youth from around the world. The interactive map will be launched at 20:10 local time, thereby creating a second “green wave”.

Click through the badge to find out more!