Going Green At Work

There are many ways you can contribute to protect the environment, even while in the work place. These simple methods can help the company save energies and resources:

1. Make it a habit to turn of lights if there are no one is in a room for more than 15 minutes. Use natural sunlight if possible so that there is less need for artificial lights
2. Use energy saving light bulbs which uses less electricity than normal lighting.
3. Switch off computers when not in use or set your computer to sleep mode to save energy while you're away on a short while. 
4. While using the printer or photocopier, make sure to print on both side of the paper to reduce waste. Think before you print, sometimes its not necessary to print it out. 
5. Use recycle bin in the office for papers, cans, ink cartridge and more. You can even sell it for some petty cash. 
6. Bring your own reusable containers whenever you take out lunch to reduce the use of polystyrene boxes. 
7. Bring your own reusable water bottles rather than buying mineral water everyday, not only does it saves you money, it is also better for the environment. RM1 for a bottle of water for 6 days a week would rake up to RM288 per year! 
8. Turn up the air-conditioner to no less than 24 degrees to be more energy efficient.

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Coal Plants Scrapped

The government of Sabah announced that they had killed a plan to build a controversial 300-megawatt coal-fired plant in the tourism-driven eco-paradise. The plant had been proposed to help meet the state's energy shortages, which regularly inflict brownouts on Sabah's 3 million residents. Instead, Sabah will tap its relatively abundant store of natural gas. 

That's not the cutting-edge renewable-energy portfolio environmentalists consider ideal, but it's certainly cleaner than coal. And because the state's vast clean-energy potential is still largely undeveloped, it's the most immediate practical solution to the growing local power needs. Officials anticipate a 7.7% annual increase in demand through 2020. 

Imperfect though the natural-gas solution may be, it marks a huge course change toward clean energy in Malaysia, says Daniel Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley, who directed an energy and environmental-impact study commissioned by a coalition of green groups, which was used widely in the discussions of Sabah's energy options. "It is a turning point that should bring deserved praise and partnerships to Malaysia at the upcoming climate conference in Durban, South Africa," says Kammen, now the chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency at the World Bank. 

This is the third defeat for the proposed coal-fired plant — which would have been Sabah's first such facility — in three years. The first two proposals were shot down by the federal Department of Environment and local opposition. And even though the latest one seemed to be heading in that direction after it failed a detailed environmental-impact assessment in August, anticoal activists nevertheless worried it would eventually be approved because it was slated for federal land and had the backing of the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.


Sabah's chief minister, Musa Aman made the official announcement of the coal-fired plant's cancellation on Wednesday. That move followed a recent National Economic Advisory Council meeting attended by federal and state officials, including Najib and Musa. The decision was made in part, Musa said, because "the government under the Prime Minister's leadership is a government that always listens to the voices and feels the pulse of the people."

Maybe. But after a three-year campaign to get those voices heard, Sabah's environmental activists might beg to differ. Nevertheless, they're reveling in what is an unusual victory. Activism isn't exactly common in Sabah.
"I don't think there had ever been such a movement [in Sabah] over any other issue before," says Cynthia Ong, who heads one of the five environmental organizations that collaborated on the anticoal campaign. "The groundswell of dissent, which started local and became international, was a key piece."
High-profile environmental organizations like 350.org promoted Sabah's anticoal message. Some international media coverage didn't hurt either. Environmentalists don't fear a fourth site being proposed down the road.
"I think coal power is dead for Sabah," Ong says. "We are certainly going to do everything we can to ensure that."

Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2052627,00.html

Green Sabah Says: Although this news isn't new, but I'm still glad that the Sabah State Government had scrapped the coal plants project in Sabah after many disagreements from the Sabahans. This shows that our voices are heard by the government. Hope that Sabah will adapt greener technology for power generation within the states such as wind power, solar power and other alternative sources of energy in order to improve the electricity shortage within the state.

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Toilet Cleanliness Campaign

"Sanitarian is not a dirty word; it is a critical factor in human welfare and sustainable development. We need to put the spotlight on this silent crisis." - Mr. Sha Zukang, Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations

Environmental Action Centre (EAC) is spearheading a campaign to harness the collective commitment by Malaysians and foreign visitors to raise the standard of hygiene and cleanliness of all public toilets in Sabah. A clean toilet is the answer to a gracious society. It speaks volumes of our concern and respect for others and for public property. A dirty public toilet is no different to vandalism and every individual owes a duty to leave the toilet clean for the next user.

EAC will forge a three-pronged cooperation between the public, private and people sectors (3Ps) to generate a greater level of awareness for the need to raise the standard and quality of our public toilets. We will work closely with the Kota Kinabalu City Council, other district Municipal Councils, NGOs, the media, schools and the tourism industry by complementing existing efforts to make changes in the dirty toilet crisis.

Source: http://www.eacsabah.org/toilet_cleanliness.cfm

Green Sabah says: Dirty toilet, is this because of their ignorance, indifference or upbringing? Nobody likes to clean up someone else’s mess and so it makes sense for everyone to clean up after themselves throughout the day to maintain a high standard of hygiene and cleanliness.

 

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Green reminder (^^,)

Do you still remember the Bring Your Own Bag Days Campaign?

Bring Your Own Bag Days Campaign aims to reduce the usage of plastic bags during shopping activities. The 3R (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) concept is being applied in this campaign. It hopes to encourage people to practice a lifestyle of using the reusable shopping bags, non-woven, or eco-bags whenever going shopping.

The campaign started in June 2010 with charging an amount of 20 cents for every request of plastic bags on every Monday then; in January 2011 it was expanded to Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The collection will be utilized for Environmental Education and Public Awareness Programme. 

Source: http://www.eacsabah.org/byob_campaign.cfm

 

Green Sabah says: Bring Your Own Bag Days Campaign had been implemented for more than a year. So, how far did we practice this campaign? Don't forget to bring your green-bags. Love our environment and reduce the usage of plastic bags!

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Southeast Asia Green Model- Sabah

16th November, 2011
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is poised to become a model for Southeast Asian countries in sustainable forest management.

United Nations resident coordinator for Malaysia and United Nations resident representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, Kamal Malhotra said Sabah remained a very important place to demonstrate the concept of sustainable development not only in Malaysia but also within Southeast Asia.

“What is going on here is closely monitored by those who are interested in sustainable development. We will support the government of Sabah in managing its forest through Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).”

He told this to reporters at the launch of the International Conference on Sabah Heart of Borneo Green Economy and Development – Engaging Business for Environment, here, yesterday.

Earlier, in his welcoming remarks, Malhotra said the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) would take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for three days from June 4, next year.

He said the main objectives of the summit were to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development, to assess the progress towards internationally-agreed goals on sustainable development and to address new and emerging challenges.

The summit, which is also referred to as Rio+20 because of the initial landmark conference, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio in 1992, will also focus on the issue of green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Malhotra said a number of critical issues were emerging in the lead-up to the summit based on the discussions so far.

These include the lack of consensus on the meaning of green economy, the importance of the private sector’s role in the transition to a green economy, and the need for the UNCSD or Rio+20 to produce a set of principles to guide the transition to a green economy.

Meanwhile, Kamal said the significance of Sabah’s biodiversity is duly recognised in the Heart of Borneo Initiative.

He stated that managing a multiple-use forest landscape remained a challenge and its success required enormous effort if an optimal balance among competing land usage in terms of social, ecological and economic objectives is to be achieved.

“UNDP is currently developing a project with the Sabah Forestry Department to address this challenge with the objective of institutionalising a multiple-use forest landscape planning and management model,” said Kamal.

“This will bring the management of critical protected areas and connecting landscape under a common management umbrella and the implementation will be sustainably funded by revenues generated within the area,” he added.

Source: http://www.sabahtoday.com/?p=8002 

Green Sabah says: Good job to Sabah for becoming a model among the Southeast Asian countries in Sustainable Forest Management. Hope that the government and the Sabah Forestry Department will continue to work hard to address the deforestation problem and establishing a good forestry management model.

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