By Dr. Nor Farahwahidah Abdul Rahman
JOHOR BAHRU, 28 January 2018 – The 5th Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) 2017 jointly organized by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor (JPNJ), sponsored by SWM Environment Sdn Bhd has been successfully conducted throughout the year of 2017.
A total of 346 primary schools involving about 34,000 Year 6 students in Johor had participated in IMELC 2017.
The purpose of the ceremony is to handover the cheques and prizes to the winners sponsored by SWM Environment Sdn Bhd.
The organizing team visited six winner schools on 23th until 24th of January 2017 to handover the cheques and prizes.
The ceremony is led by Manager of Corporate Communications, SWM Environment Sdn Bhd, Melissa Ananthraj accompanied by Head of Environment, IRDA, Boyd Dionysius, Deputy Head of Academic Management Sector, JPNJ, Haji Shahilon Abd Halim and Senior Lecturer, UTM, Dr. Nor Farahwahidah Abdul Rahman.
IMELC aims to create awareness of Low Carbon Society (LCS) among students, teachers and their families in achieving the target of carbon reduction for Iskandar Malaysia by year 2025 as outlined in the Low Carbon Society Blueprint for Iskandar Malaysia 2025, which was endorsed by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the 18th session of Conference of Parties (COP 18) in 2012.
The cheque handover ceremony took place at SJK(C) Kuo Kuang , SJK(C) Masai, SK Kempas, SK Nong Chik, SJK(T) Permas Jaya and SJK(C) Tampoi. These schools won the final presentation of IMELC 2017 which was previously held on 7th November 2017 at Dewan Seminar JPNJ. Below is the result of the competition and the prizes:
Final Presentation:
First place: SJK(C) Kuo Kuang (RM10,000 cash prize)
Second place: SJK(C) Masai (RM8,000 cash prize)
Third place: SK Kempas (RM5,000 cash prize)
Recycling Module:
First place: SK Nong Chik (18,949.5kg collected; RM2,000 cash prize)
Second place: SJK(C) Kuo Kuang (11,024kg collected; RM1,500 cash prize)
Third place: SJK(C) Masai (8,765kg collected: RM1,000 cash prize)
Water and Electricity Saving Module:
First place: SJK(T) Permas Jaya (RM1,200 cash prize)
Second place: SK Kempas (RM800 cash prize)
Third place: SJK(C) Tampoi (RM500 cash prize)
SJK(C) Kuo Kuang bagged a total of RM11,500 cash prize in total. All the schools also received a 3R cage from SWM Environment Sdn. Bhd.
From the data collection and analysis by UTM, a total of 510,126.29kgCO2 is reduced by the participating schools. A total of RM15,543.96 electricity bills and RM30,860.56 water bills were saved and RM27,281.33 was collected from recycling module. If the pattern is replicated to all 346 schools for a year, a total of 2,215,733.55kgCO2 can be reduced and RM21,975,339.90 can be saved and earned. As more awareness on LCS is instilled in the school teachers and students, more LCS related projects are carried out by primary schools as the by-product of IMELC. IMELC 2018 will continue to be expanded to 403 schools.