The use of the Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) 2021 website, which has been developed with sponsorship from UNDP Malaysia Accelerator Lab, will increase understanding among 100,000 primary school students across Johor on low carbon living when the competition begins today.
The IMELC programme has been implemented for the past 8 years starting with 23 schools and has now grown to involve 906 schools throughout the state of Johor.
Starting this year, the implementation of IMELC has been adjusted to the new norm by adopting the use of digital platforms that enable wider access and participation from students, teachers and parents throughout Johor.
Even the www.imelc.my website which has the concept of interactive learning and the injection of gamification elements is able to attract students to understand the need to cultivate a low carbon lifestyle dynamically. Through this specially designed website, the system of counting marks and uploading IMELC reports from teachers can be implemented more easily, thus enabling the determination of winners to be done more efficiently.
“Therefore, on this day which is also the 15th anniversary of Iskandar Malaysia, I, together with my strategic partners and support, are very pleased to launch the Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) 2021 programme.”
Prof. Datuk Ts. Dr Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is confident that the five challenges of a low carbon society in www.imelc.my provided by the UTM research team will be a platform for the prosperity of the community. The five challenges are a review of lifestyle, water and electricity consumption, vehicle use and 3R practices. Hopefully, the IMELC consortium comprising government agencies, non-governmental agencies, companies and schools can step up efforts to combat Climate Action and ensure a more sustainable life for future generations.
The continuity and successful implementation of the IMELC 2021 programme is the result of the cooperation of strategic partners, namely IRDA, Johor State Education Department (JPNJ), UTM and SWM Environment Sdn Bhd. This year, the IMELC programme was also supported by the Green Technology Applications for Low Carbon Cities (GTALCC) project managed by SEDA Malaysia, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Malaysia and the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education and Sustainable Development, United Nations University.
Meanwhile, Ho De Leong, Chief Executive Officer of SWM Environment, described the IMELC programme as a platform to achieve the strategy and aspirations of the National Hygiene Policy and the National Low Carbon City Master Plan, thus able to move efforts to achieve the target of 40% national recycling rate by 2025.
“In line with the implementation of the digital platform in IMELC this time, the use of the KITARecycle application developed by SWM Environment with the provision of reward points and detailed records for each recycling activity is very timely. The move will be able to avoid the risk of a pandemic and in turn, make it easier for the schools involved to monitor and earn reward points that can be redeemed for cash through online transfers,” he explained.
The IMELC 2021 competition will run from August to December 2021.
