ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY DEMOLITION

ANDY YAP 38 COO, Senviron Ventures

It has been 15 years since Andy left his career in New York to return to Malaysia and join his family’s demolition business, and it’s still a move he never regretted as it had led to his active involvement in the country’s sustainability movement. His journey began when, on one of the sites in his early days on the job, he noticed that the 35-storey building the workers were demolishing still had good-quality items and materials intact that were being demolished along and sent to landfills despite their good conditions.

Recognising that this had to change, he began getting in touch with social enterprises, inviting them to salvage materials from his demolition sites. Upon seeing how this decision helped change the lives of others, such as the orang asli community who used the materials to build homes, and the orphanages and animal shelters who used them for renovation or extension works, Andy decided to continue the good work. “From then onwards, I decided that one the SOPs that I wanted to implement for all our demolition sites is, as soon as we get site possession, we go in and we identify what materials could be salvaged and reused and upcycled.”

One of his upcoming sustainability-related projects involves something out-of-the-ordinary: decommissioned trains. “This is the first batch of STAR LRT trains that were commissioned in Malaysia in the 1990s, right before the Commonwealth Games. Because the parts were turning obsolete and the government had to sell, I decided to acquire them,” he shares, adding that he dismissed his initial plan of cutting the 163 carriages and selling them as scrap metals when he realised there is another, better option – convert the trains into hotels and F&B hub. Another project, similarly in the discussion stage, he is working on is the construction of a boutique eco-resort that will implement green technology and zero-waste policy.