4 June, JOHOR BAHRU – Since 2008, S P Setia has begun commemorating World Environment Day (WED) in order to heighten public awareness towards major environmental issues, especially among the younger generation. This year, the country’s leading property developer celebrated WED together with a group of selected young children from its Setia Foundation adopted schools.
“This year, we are collaborating with Ecocentric Transitions, focusing on a mission to inculcate and promote the value of caring for the environment through the #BeatPlasticPollution campaign. By educating these young students, we hope they will be more aware of the current environmental issues and learn practical steps to overcome them, especially in beating plastic pollution, as the compounded effects of the global consumption of plastic has unfortunately become synonymous to our daily life,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Wan Zahid Mohd Noordin, Chairman of S P Setia and S P Setia Foundation during the event held at Setia Tropika Convention Center.
The event was made more memorable with the attendance of Dato’ CJ Khor, President & CEO of S P Setia and Datuk Wong Tuck Wai, Deputy President & COO of S P Setia as well as a total of 80 students from SK Kota Dalam, SK Felda Bukit Permai, SJKC See Long and SJK(T) Ladang Kulai Besar, which are the four adopted schools under the S P Setia Foundation’s Setia Caring Schools Programme (SCSP).
“This time around we have five interesting segregated stations for students to embark on aptly called Refuse, Repurpose, Reconnect, Recycle and Recognize,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Wan Zahid. “We aim to raise awareness of planetary health as we believe we need to expose young students to alternative solutions and behaviours that discourage plastic consumption,” he added.
At the Refuse station, the children were greeted with a colourful and informative exhibition followed by a group discussion on disposables and their accumulative effects on health and the environment. Many were amazed to explore the availability of post disposability innovation such as edible straws and biodegradable utensils.
The Repurpose station got the children involved in a fun-filled activity of modifying used t-shirts to reusable bags in three easy steps whereas the Reconnect station gave the children a chance to play an environmental education game called EcoPic as a team. While improving their vocabulary, the children were also made to understand how their daily actions could impact the planet and how certain actions are connected via the cause and effect theory. All those who took part were presented with metal straws for participating in the game.
The fourth station aptly called Recycle got the young children racing to collect and placing recyclable items into separate categories. Treated as a familiarization process for them to set up a recycling project in their respective schools, students were given stickers for the recycling bins in school project. At the Recognize station, students were introduced to ecosystem pollution mapping as well as a briefing on how micro plastics, chemicals and air-borne particles move across the ecosystem and its effects on communities on a larger scale.
At the WED event this year, the students were also seen taking pictures with the Eco Eco mascot who made a special appearance. It was indeed a fruitful day well spent and the students were definitely more aware of environmental issues through this initiative by S P Setia.
“We will continue to engage more activities with young children in the future as they need to be made aware of the environmental issues that the world is facing and learn that everyone can play their part in their own small way in caring for our planet,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Wan Zahid. “At S P Setia, we view this initiative seriously as it is not only meaningful, but also impacts young minds who will be the leaders of the future,” he added.