KUCHING: It is crucial to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability to ensure natural resources are properly utilised and integrated with climate adaptation and mitigation plans.
Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) deputy chief scientist and deputy chief advisor Prof Ts Dr Al-Khalid Othman said sustainability played a crucial role in controlling global warming.
“This approach allows the prioritisation of the sustainable use of land and ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihood and jobs concurrently with the preservation of the health of the land and ocean ecosystem,” Al-Khalid said at the ‘Smart and Sustainable City Hackathon 2022’ in conjunction with Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Month 2022, which was held at the Creative Heritage Innovation Centre (CHIC), SMA office here, yesterday.
“Despite that, we are still faced with challenges such as the ‘urban heat island’ effect where heat is trapped among the infrastructures and buildings which increases the consumption of electricity due to the high usage of air-conditioning, poor indoor environments like the lack of ventilation in addition to careless procedures in waste management,” he added.
In addition, the main focus is to bring students from various universities with different education backgrounds, experiences, skill sets, and interests empowering them to participate in a collaborative setting in brainstorming and work together to produce impactful solutions or innovative products relevant to the concept of a low carbon city by embedding the 7R principles of sustainability, namely Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Repair, Regift, Recycle (Upcycle) and Recover.
SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak, meanwhile, said the ‘hackathon’ event and similar programmes aimed at protecting the planet, encourage the current and future generations to invent products that are sustainable, practical and safe to use and be the ‘change makers’ for a brighter and cleaner future.
“This is to ensure that our environment is preserved for current and next generation and it is good to have more organisations in Sarawak to be involved and achieve this goal,” he said.
The event was organised in collaboration with Unimas’ Institute of Sustainable and Renewable Energy (ISuRE).
A total of 45 participants from five different academic institutions, namely Unimas, Institut Latihan Perindustrian, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) ICATS, and Cosmopoint College Kuching took part in the three-day event.
In conjunction with the event, the participants were given the chance to win the awards in six categories, which offer RM3,000 as the grand prize, RM2,000 for the first runner-up, and RM1,000 for second runner-up. The awards include Creative and Innovation, Best Design, and Smart and Sustainable.
