UMS discusses issues, solution on renewable energy and campus sustainability in Japan

KOTA KINABALU: National Institute of Technology, Fukushima College (Japan) in collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Malaysia) under the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy with Adamson University (Philippines) organised the 6th Regional Conference on Campus Sustainability 2019 with the theme of Renewable Energy and Campus Sustainability.

The conference was officiated by Osamu Yamashita, the President of National Institute of Technology, Fukushima College in Kwaki recently.

Yamashita congratulated the organizing team and collaborators for consistently organising this academic discourse in the topic of Campus and Sustainability since 2014, pushing the idea of sustainability at a regional platform, where this year's theme focuses on renewable energy and campus sustainability.

He also mentioned that the conference featured many ideas and case studies that others can learn and emulate, while all the current and past case studies are documented as proceedings and available on the conference website for free.

One of the unique features of this conference was the working groups where participants had the opportunity to build their conceptual capacity in pursuing their sustainability ventures at their own institutions.

This year, there were 60 participants from 10 universities, colleges and institutions from Japan, Malaysia, and Philippines with 28 working papers and five posters presented.

There were three distinguished keynote speakers for this year's conference. The first one was Takayuki Nakamura, Acting President of Higashi Nippon International University and Vice Chair of CAS-Net JAPAN with the topic of Fukushima and Campus Sustainability.

The second keynote speaker was Assoc Prof Engr Erison C. Roque, chairperson of the Chemical Engineering Department of Adamson University, Philippines where he discussed the Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Technologies.

The third keynote speaker was Assoc Prof Dr Awangku Hassanal Bahar Pengiran Bagul from Universiti Malaysia Sabah and presented the lessons learned from Campus Sustainability from idea to reality.

Also in attendance were Fr Marcelo V. Manimtim, CM, the President for Adamson University, Philippines and Assoc Prof Dr Takao Ozasa of Hokkaido University and also the Vice Executive Director of CAS-Net JAPAN.

The conference ended with the signing of Fukushima Declaration by three collaborators in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals that are linked to Campus Sustainability.

The conference chairman, Prof Mari Ishihara, thanked everyone for their support for the conference and encouraged more academicians and researchers from the Asia region to participate in next year's conference in Manila, which will be hosted by Adamson University.