FOR just RM100, one can plant a tree to make a difference in offsetting 20.3kg of carbon emission per annum.
Hence, the call of the Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP) to all planners and communities to do their part in its Pledge and Plant a Tree Programme on Nov 8, which is World Town Planning Day.
Do your part: Norliza showing the registration form for the Pledge and Plant A Tree Programme. The event is co-organised with the Sepang Municipal Council and the site selected for planting the trees is in Cyberjaya.
According to MIP president Norliza Hashim, tree-planting is one way of making lifestyle changes in the wake of climate change that has become a real issue.
“Cities are between one and two degrees hotter than villages, as the buildings, cars and road surfaces all generate heat,” Norliza said during an interview at the MIP office in Petaling Jaya recently.
“In the case of planning and urbanisation, which relates to our scope of work, people don’t usually see the impact of lack of planning until many years later.
“One challenge faced in planning today is that 75% of Malaysia will become urbanised by 2020.”
She said while it was all about maximisation of land previously, it was now the optimisation of development, which is what sustainability is about.
“MIP promotes the two key terms — sustainability and liveability — which makes a liveable city.
“We started our Sustainable Neighbourhood Index in 2002 to measure how sustainable neighbourhoods are throughout the lifecycle of the community.
“The Green Building Index is only about the building design and what makes it green; at the end of the day, it is the people with their green practices who matter,” Norliza said.
She added that while a particular building could be declared green, the construction procedures might not be so, citing as an example, if earth removed from the site was dumped elsewhere that was not within a certain radius of the site.
The Plant a Tree programme was started last year and MIP is targeting 500 trees to be planted this year.
She said Putrajaya used to be an urban heat island, whereby more area than needed was opened for development, but the heat was gradually decreasing now with 40% of the area comprising parks and water bodies.
“Hopefully, the trees, when they mature, will bring the temperature down even more,” she said.
On what liveability entailed, she said following a roundtable conference with the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and the community last year, she found out that people were only asking for reasonable rights to live in a comfortable and secure environment.
“For example, a barrier-free, universal design for facilities and walkways for both the disabled and able-bodied, which has been successfully implemented in Singapore but has not taken off in Malaysia.
No comments:
Post a Comment