November 12, ISKANDAR MALAYSIA – The Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) 2017 has attracted the participation from 346 schools involving a record 34,000 students around the region in its bid to educate and encourage the students and their families towards a low carbon lifestyle by saving water and electricity as well as managing waste wisely.
“The number of participating schools in this year’s edition of IMELC had increased by fifteen-fold compared with its first edition in 2013. This is good sign that our effort to engage and educate the public about living a low carbon lifestyle in Iskandar Malaysia has captured more interest. We believe that this initiative will continue to support the region in achieving its reduction in low carbon target by 2025,” said Datuk Ismail Ibrahim, Chief Executive, Iskandar Regional Development Authority.
The challenge ended recently, with the top 15 schools with the highest savings in electricity and water usage and collection of recyclable waste, pitched their environment-saving ideas and competed to be crowned the champion for IMELC 2017.
Overall winners for IMELC 2017 plus winners from the water and electricity savings category and the recycling category shared cash prize of RM30,000 for school development activities
and also received a total of 19 set of recycling bins worth more than RM50,000 sponsored by SWM Environment Sdn Bhd (SWM Environment).
“SWM Environment is an integrated waste management and public cleansing service provider in the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia established in line with the National Privatization of Solid Waste Management. SWM Environment is actively working towards empowering the people to use sustainable practices including waste reduction, recycling and reuse of resources,” said Dr Uzir Abdul Malik, Executive Director of SWM Environment.
This year’s edition of the challenge is a collaboration between Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor State Education Department and also SWM Environment Sdn Bhd.
“For IMELC 2017, the total of carbon reduction by the participating schools is 510,126.29kgCO². However, the more important and easier to understand figure is the amount of money saved and earned from this challenge which is RM106,164.09. This shows that in our effort to reduce carbon emission and live a ‘greener’ life, we can actually save or even earn money,” added Datuk Ismail.
In the recycling category, 128 schools collected recyclable waste amounting to 168,509 kg with the total income reported from the recycling amounted to RM59,759.00. For electricity saving category, 131 schools submitted their monthly bills with a total reduction of 32,662.61kWh in usage or RM15,543.96 in savings. For water saving category, 159 schools submitted the monthly bills with a total reduction of 9,219.00m³ in usage or RM30,860.56 in savings.
YBhg Dato’ Dr Mohammad Ezanni bin Mat Salleh, Director of Johor State Environment Department; Prof. Dr. Mohd Hamdan bin Hj Ahmad, Dean, Faculty of Build Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); Haji Shaharudin Bin Sharif, Director of Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor (JPNJ); Dr Uzir Abdul Malik, Executive Director SWM Environment Sdn Bhd and Cik Suhaily Abdul Hamid, Head of Social Development, IRDA were also present at this closing and prize giving ceremony for IMELC 2017 on 7th November 2017.