Article as below:
www.mbipv.net.my/news1/2008/September/AS2414%20Pusat%20Tenaga.pdf
www.ptm.org.my
With the world’s supply of fossil fuels increasingly depleted, the price of energy rising and at the same time the world are taking steps to weather the global warming, the greenbuilding movement has rapidly matured over the past few years.
There is a rating system called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for high performance buildings. As Malaysia moves toward a developed country in 2020, the energy requirement will be very intensive. Expert said that the commercial and residential buildings in Malaysia account for about 13% of total energy consumption and 48% of the electricity consumption. Hence there is a need to apply energy efficient strategies in reducing the building’s energy consumption.
As a good example, TNB built a Zero Energy Building (ZEO) which carries the primary objective- minimize the use of energy and efficient utilization of energy source. The cost of building construction was higher 10-15% than the conventional design but significantly low operating costs will more than offset this.
Due to our depleting oil field, this is vital for the government to construct or encourage more energy efficient buildings in the future. From Internet, I found that the KL Securities Commission headquarters was the winner of ASEAN Energy Awards for Energy Efficiency Building and KLIA was the runner-up in 2004. These buildings are shining example of Malaysian high-tech and energy efficient building success. I am proud to say that the country is moving towards a correct and bright direction in the future if continuing pushing this concept into their any mega project.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
E-waste in China
Article as below:
For years, the environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle the world’s junked electronics. People in the world refer it to “e-waste”. As the heartland of “e-waste”, China having a serious environmental problem due to the disposal of electronic wastes from all over the world.
This ugly business is driven by pure economics. The developed countries have a strict environmental regulations had make them paid much and they are trying to reduce the cost of disposal. China is one of their best options. It’s ten times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn some money. They are melting the wires to recover the copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. They smash the picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing the lead dust to air.
Experts said that about 90 percent of e-waste end up in dumps that observe no environmental standards, where shredders, open fires, acid baths and broilers are used to recover gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals while spewing toxic fumes and runoff into the sky and river. They estimated about 70 percent of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.
As noted by UNEP (2005):
“Every year, 20 to 50 million tones of electrical and electronic equipment waste( “ e-waste”) are generated world wide, wich could bring serious risks to human health and the environment. While 4 million PCs are discarded per year in China alone.”
The rapidly growing “e-waste” stream must be solved together by the governments, not just strengthen the regulations. They must seek the cooperation of NGO like greenpeace to overcome this problem.
This ugly business is driven by pure economics. The developed countries have a strict environmental regulations had make them paid much and they are trying to reduce the cost of disposal. China is one of their best options. It’s ten times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn some money. They are melting the wires to recover the copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. They smash the picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing the lead dust to air.
Experts said that about 90 percent of e-waste end up in dumps that observe no environmental standards, where shredders, open fires, acid baths and broilers are used to recover gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals while spewing toxic fumes and runoff into the sky and river. They estimated about 70 percent of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.
As noted by UNEP (2005):
“Every year, 20 to 50 million tones of electrical and electronic equipment waste( “ e-waste”) are generated world wide, wich could bring serious risks to human health and the environment. While 4 million PCs are discarded per year in China alone.”
The rapidly growing “e-waste” stream must be solved together by the governments, not just strengthen the regulations. They must seek the cooperation of NGO like greenpeace to overcome this problem.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Nokia-recycle your old phone and get a tree named after you
Article:
As we all know, a lot of staffs can be recycled other than just being dumped, such as aluminums tin, glass bottle, plastic bottle, paper. These mentioned things are typical recyclable items. How about our daily use cellphone? Although between 65% and 85% of a cellphone can be recycled, recovery rates remain dismal due to poor awareness among the people. This fact is confirmed by cellphone manufacturer giant, Nokia. According to a market survey, a cell phone life span is about average 2.5 years. Thus we can imagine there will be a significant amount of used cellphone being dumped into the wasteland without going through a proper recycle process. This is considered one of the E-waste which causing damage to our environment.
According to Nokia, if each of the three billion handphone users globally recycle one phone each, we can save 240000 tonnes of raw material from being mined, produced and distributed. The amount of greenhouse gases saved would be equivalent to that of removing four million cars from the road. To compliance the concept of sustainable development and to commit the society and environment responsibility as part of the corporate culture, Nokia has set up Kiosks in public places in Malaysia for the consumers to drop off their old or unused handphones for recycling. To reward those who do so, Nokia will plant a tree in their name at Sebangau National Park in central Kalimantan. The collected handphones will be sent to two recyclers, one in Penang and another in Singapore. Recoverable materials include plastics and metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, chromium, lead and nickel.
In this program, Nokia has pledged to plant 100000 trees in Sebangau under the NEWTrees Initiative, a collaboration with WWF Indonesia and Equinox Publishing. The consumers will be informed the exact coordinates of the particular “named” planted tree and instructions on how to view the tree via Google Earth.
As a conclusion, Nokia had show a good example to the world how a corporate tradeoff between their business and the conservation of the environment. By launching this program, Nokia can educate the consumers about recycling and protection of the rainforest. Consumers also can be satisfied due to commitment to the forest conservation and play a role in the environment champion campaign. Thus, the branding of Nokia can be enhanced too. This is really a brilliant idea. What I have to say is “Bravo, Nokia!” Keep it up.
According to Nokia, if each of the three billion handphone users globally recycle one phone each, we can save 240000 tonnes of raw material from being mined, produced and distributed. The amount of greenhouse gases saved would be equivalent to that of removing four million cars from the road. To compliance the concept of sustainable development and to commit the society and environment responsibility as part of the corporate culture, Nokia has set up Kiosks in public places in Malaysia for the consumers to drop off their old or unused handphones for recycling. To reward those who do so, Nokia will plant a tree in their name at Sebangau National Park in central Kalimantan. The collected handphones will be sent to two recyclers, one in Penang and another in Singapore. Recoverable materials include plastics and metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, chromium, lead and nickel.
In this program, Nokia has pledged to plant 100000 trees in Sebangau under the NEWTrees Initiative, a collaboration with WWF Indonesia and Equinox Publishing. The consumers will be informed the exact coordinates of the particular “named” planted tree and instructions on how to view the tree via Google Earth.
As a conclusion, Nokia had show a good example to the world how a corporate tradeoff between their business and the conservation of the environment. By launching this program, Nokia can educate the consumers about recycling and protection of the rainforest. Consumers also can be satisfied due to commitment to the forest conservation and play a role in the environment champion campaign. Thus, the branding of Nokia can be enhanced too. This is really a brilliant idea. What I have to say is “Bravo, Nokia!” Keep it up.
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