Sustainability

Published on December 2016 | Categories: Documents | Downloads: 55 | Comments: 0 | Views: 412
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steps towards sustainable development

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“Sustainability”is a term often used in many events of the campus including conferences and seminars, as well as the usm vision ie, “Transforming Higher Education for a Sustainable Tomorrow.” Sustainable means to create a better future for the future generation without compromising the benefit of the present. USM has put many effort in sustainable development as we can see in any projects and events including “The white coffin” ,”University in a Garden”, “ A healthy campus”. The white coffin project where polystyrene boxes for food packing has been banned from all canteens as polystyrene boxes are non degradable. Besides, the biogas project is a success as it provides energy by collecting food waste and leftovers from all the canteen in the campus and process and convert it into reusable energy that supply electricity up tp 42 houses at a time.All these events organized is to lead us to our long term goal, to have ‘zero waste’. As a part of USM,what can we do to bring USM closer to its vision and propel it to become a world renowned university? Steps toward a sustainable development start from ourselves. We can start by reducing consumption and waste and recycling unused items. Reduce the amount of rubbish produced everyday by purchasing items wisely and only when necessary, and make sure everything we bought are fully utilized before dumping it. If possible, try to purchase biodegradable products or products that are recycled or second hand to reduce rubbish that goes to the dumpsite. Always bring along a shopping bag or recycle bag to carry stuffs to avoid using plastic bags. In terms of packaging food, although the school has banned polystyrene boxes and replaced it with biodegradable plastic boxes that costs us 20 cents each time we pack our food, why don’t we just bring our own containers and coffee cups to pack up our food and save up our money? Paper are widely used in our campus by students, lecturers and in offices. We can reduce the usage of paper by replacing our books and lecture notes with electronic documents, including the e-learning portal and PDF files that can be stored in laptops and tablets nowadays. This does not only save paper, it also save money spent on books and paper , as well as saving up the trouble to carry the books around campus. Also , papers that are only used on one side can be used as rough papers for rough works and scribbles, or make a handy notepad out of it. More recycle bins should be provided by the school especially in hostels as they are filled with students producing rubbish everyday. With the recycle bins around , students can sort out whatever that can be recycled and simply throw it into the recycle bin. In USM , many hostels have been constantly having leaking water pipes and faulty showers in the bathrooms. While Selangor is carrying out water rationing every two days currently, our clean and unused water in hostels are flowing into the drain. Hence , the hostels’ maintenance systems should be more efficient and any complaints regarding leaky and faulty toilets should be entertained immediately. Beside the hostel management systems, students also play a role in saving water. Simple steps including closing taps tightly and not leaving the tap water running while brushing your teeth or cleaning your face are reminded to students everyday but are being ignored by many. In addition, use washing machines only in full loads, or else just hand wash if its just one or two pieces of clothes. Keep track of your shower time and take quick baths to reduce water wasted. On the other hand, while your out f

your room, going to lectures , or when lecture halls are left unused all lights , fans and specifically air conditioners should be turned off to save electricity. This also helps to keep the water and electric bill low. Every year, thousands of students and lecturers are admitted into our university, which explains why there are so many people driving cars and motorcycles around the school as we can see from the congested traffic every morning and evening. This isn’t doing the environment any good. Buses are provided in school, make full use of it, or we can just walk, it’s a good workout and keeps you healthy. Car pooling is a good idea as well, helps in solving traffic congestion problems and save up on petrol. Campaigns to reduce the vehicles in campus should be carried out such as “No vehicles hour” where all vehicles are not allowed in the campus every week or every month. In a nutshell, all these steps mentioned above are simple and basic steps that can be applied to our daily life for a better environment, eventually to a sustainable university. Unfortunately , many of us are not taking actions and are ignoring these little change that we can make to help the school, and we thought there’s not that we can do to contribute to the sustainable development, but always remember every person and every action counts because the journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step.

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