Curtin Malaysia moves to enhance environmental sustainability
MIRI: Curtin University Malaysia has embarked on a new environmental programme at its campus, as part of its commitment towards worldwide campaign on environmental sustainability.
The target is energy-saving consumption of down to 20 per cent – or a reduction of roughly 720,000kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) being released into the atmosphere.
According to Curtin Malaysia chief operating officer Kingsley Francis Charles, the programme includes a comprehensive energy audit on the campus’ active and passive systems – done in April – as well as initiatives to improve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
He said the energy audit was carried out under the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) Audit Conditional Grant (EACG), and administered by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia (SEDA).
“We were very pleased to have been given the grant, which is one of KeTTHA’s initiatives under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) to promote the importance of conducting energy audits to enhance energy efficiency and environmental conservation,” said Charles, adding that Curtin Malaysia was the first recipient of the EACG in Sarawak and engaged Cofreth (M) Sdn. Bhd – an energy services company (ESCO) – to conduct energy audit and come up with viable energy solutions for the university.
According to Charles, among the recommendations for greater efficiency are the adoption of technologies to improve energy efficiency like variable speed drives for air-conditioning systems, retrofitting of LED lighting, use of motion sensors and energy monitoring systems.
“This could result in savings in energy consumption of down to 20 per cent, or roughly 720,000kg reduction in CO2 release.
“The flipside of such initiatives, however, would be the considerable investment. Still, this can be regarded as a worthwhile investment in longterm environmental sustainability. They can also be implemented in stages to control costs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Curtin Malaysia pro vice-chancellor, president and chief executive Prof Jim Mienczakowski remarked: “The protection of the environment is the greatest challenge of our generation. It is a challenge in which we, as an educational and business entity, and also as individuals, have a part to play to ensure better environmental outcomes, as well as systematic reduction of the campus’ environmental footprint.”