From left: Mae Ooi, Sales Director of MAEKO, Chelsea Chee, Founder of MAEKO, Khariza Abd Khalid, Chief Operating Officer of Gamuda Parks, Richard Raj Sebastian, Assistant General Manager of Innovation & Technology, Gamuda Land
Climate change is an international issue, and Gamuda Land has joined the movement. Gamuda Land has on 12th November 2019 stated their sustainable landscape initiative with Gamuda Parks’ Compost-on-wheels, a composting mobile truck, which will enable better food management and lowered carbon footprints for their communities. This initiative will divert the community’s compostables from landfills.
Officiating the launch of Gamuda Parks’ Compost-on-wheels at Menara Gamuda were Khariza Abd Khalid, Chief Operating Officer of Gamuda Parks and Richard Raj Sebastian, Assistant General Manager of Innovation & Technology, Gamuda Land.
A “Greencycle – How to manage your waste like a pro” talk was held during the event, featuring esteemed leaders of the field such as Claire Sancelot, recipient of the 2017 United Nations award, who gave an educational insight on zero waste living; and Chelsea Chee, Founder of MAEKO, a local manufacturer and distributor of food waste composting machines. Also held during the event was a shadow play performance by performing artist Tan Lay Heong who used reusable wastes and recycled items for his show.
Committed Towards Sustainability
Gamuda Land has long been known for their commitment towards sustainability, and their move to introduce Gamuda Parks in 2018 was a welcoming one. Gamuda Parks is a self-driven pioneering initiative that carries a mandate to deliver, implement, manage, maintain and safeguard the well-being of the living environment in all its developments.
Said Khariza, “At Gamuda Land, we are guided by sincerity, committed to act responsibly and motivated by originality where we consciously practice the principle of being ‘mindful’. While Gamuda Parks’ core focus is on biodiversity enhancement, we feel that there is still more we can do for the environment. It spurs us to start looking beyond biodiversity and into other initiatives, one of it being waste management.”
He further added that since its inception, Gamuda Parks has collaborated with panel experts of the field from Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Wetlands International Malaysia and AGV Sustainability, and ESG Services. The team has since progressively delivered on its pledge towards biodiversity conservation through ongoing biodiversity audits and data compilation exercises in several Gamuda Land townships, and the formulation and publication of Gamuda Parks Biodiversity Policy.
The Gamuda Parks Biodiversity Policy covers green (flora maintenance), blue (waterscapes) and brown (material management) elements to encourage biodiversity in all of Gamuda Land developments. They ensure a healthy ecosystem and a range of different species that can be found within an area through careful planning, design, and maintenance of all Gamuda Land developments.
Khariza shared that, “Waste management falls under the brown pillar of Gamuda Parks. Through our studies, it was shocking to learn that over 23,000 tonnes of waste is produced each day in Malaysia and only less than 5% is being recycled. If we continue on this trend, the amount is expected to rise to 30,000 tonnes per day by the year 2020. In other words, we could fill Petronas Twin Towers with rubbish in less than 5 days!” He further added that while Malaysia has held many initiatives to fight climate change, there is still an urgency to stop the source of pollution – domestic waste.
Reduced Carbon Footprint via 6R
Gamuda Parks is uniquely characterised by their desire to build by respecting nature, and their unwavering determination to reduce carbon footprint. They hence conducted much methodical research on waste management and ran several tests in their townships before formally announcing the launch of Compose-on-wheels.
Said Khariza, “Our studies are well referenced with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Malaysia’s Roadmap towards Zero Single Use Plastics. Thereon, we began introducing our 6R initiative - Recycle, Rot, Repurpose, Reduce, Refuse and Reuse - to our workplace and our townships. Part of our sharing includes the right, efficient and clean way of 6R. We also tested the effectiveness of our sharing by installing fabric recycling bins in some of our townships. Last month alone, we collected 1000kg of fabric waste. That assures our direction of tackling waste management by remedying the inherent lack of recycling facilities and building a more discerning community.”
Gamuda Parks is now on full steam ahead to promote its 6R initiatives, with the Compost-on-wheels food waste collection plan and the plan to re-instill awareness towards recycling in all Gamuda Land’s townships.
Mindful Town-Making Principles
In Khariza’s concluding remarks, he stated that, “We are taking progressive steps to tackle the global problem, and it may take decades for us to raise civic consciousness towards the environment. But it does not stop us from doing what we think is right. The lush greenery and sprawling biodiversity that we see in our older townships like Valencia, for instance, are results of steps taken in the past, taking almost 20 years to verify the effectiveness of our town-making principles. Every step taken now will affect the future. If things are done mindfully and correctly from the start, such as the prevention of waste and pollution, we would gain more in the long run.”
Khariza further stated that Malaysia spends almost RM1.6 billion per annum on solid waste collection and public cleansing. He is of the opinion that these monies can be put to better use elsewhere.
Gamuda Parks Compost-on-wheels is now officially adopted in all Gamuda Land’s marketing event and will be moving through all Gamuda Land’s developments. 80% of water can be extracted from the collected food waste for watering plants and the rest of it can be recycled into compost or animal feed. For more information, please visit any Gamuda Land’s sales galleries or log on to https://gamudaland.com.my/gamudaparks/
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(14 November 2019)
