The Green Light

Renard Siew is making waves in the sustainability sphere, which is a constant work-in-progress, he divulges to Kathlyn D’souza

Renard siew has one of those pleasant faces that would have you smiling back in no time, for no reason. He calls it his ‘smiley’ face—one that would make photographers go, “Maybe we could try a non-smiling one?” To the local media, he is known as the ‘New Age Warrior’, ‘Malaysia’s Green Warrior’ and ‘Mother Earth’s Greatest Ally’. Why? Because he’s heavily involved in sustainability and eco-consciousness, delving into both the engineering and economic aspects of the green movement—addressing the many challenges of developing sustainable communities. He even cites Captain Planet as his all-time favourite superhero. This huge love and commitment to nature stemmed from his childhood years, during when his hometown constantly flooded during the La Nina season, or during when there are really heavy downpours. “As a kid, I frequently asked the people around me what was the cause of these calamities, and all the time I’d just be told that it’s an act of God, and there’s nothing we could do about it,” says Renard. Clearly unsatisfied with that answer, he made it a personal goal to change that. Back then, Renard had first thought that sustainability was mainly a Western concept, and that career options in Asia would be scarce, but he was determined. “Then something truly amazing happened, Ban Ki-moon got elected as the UN SecretaryGeneral; it was great to see that someone from Asia was now the face of ‘Sustainable Development’, and somewhere along those lines, I genuinely believed that I could perhaps, one day, be like him,” he confesses. That ‘perhaps’ could very well be a ‘definitely’, especially as Renard’s work has been garnering a lot honours (too long to list here), but accolades aside, one of his recent highlights was his appointment as Climate Reality Project Leader, and being flown into Pittsburgh to be trained by Al Gore himself, last November. “We also just ran the ‘24 Hours of Reality’ campaign where key stakeholders—political leaders, advocates and citizens affected by extreme weather patterns such as floods, droughts, fires, etc.—had an opportunity to share their experiences on social media. By far, the most exciting campaign ever across the globe,” remarks Renard. Even the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau himself wrote Renard a personal memo after hearing about his work. Renard was also recently in Mumbai to receive an award for the 50 Most Impactful Leaders at the World CSR Congress. International waters aside, his work did not go unnoticed in our own shores. Even the late Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay made a significant donation to the Global Shapers KL, which goes to show that he truly believed in the work and movement itself, thus supported the cause. But it wasn’t easy for Renard, getting to where he is today. What is a rather amazing feat—graduating at 27 with a Phd—turned out to be one of the worst moments in his career. He recalls stepping into a boardroom working on water issues in Malaysia with experts who were easily two or three times older than he was. They turned out to be such a tough crowd. He explains, “I vividly remember stepping into the room, and everyone was certain that I had entered the wrong discussion room, and proceeded to point me in the other direction. Many hard-fought battles there on!”

“I set 10-year goals and there is a theme I adhere to religiously, every year”