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Greta Thunberg, an activist that was known for her environmental activism not just because of her age, but also her boldness of criticising world leaders for not taking action to address the climate crisis has made many parts of the world march alongside her to support the movement. This symbolic event happened two years ago and one could only wonder if the world has changed since then. If not, was it just a heat of the moment outrage, with the reality being that people are still turning a blind eye to climate change? 

Following from the Friday for Future movement by Thunberg, there have been more environmentally friendly movements encouraging the people to start being environmentally aware by doing small but impactful things such as banning plastic straws, bringing and using reusable containers for food and drinks. 

Have Malaysia and Malaysians tried to be eco-friendly?

Currently, Malaysia is being ranked 132nd in the Global Sustainability Index and 8th in Asia-Pacific for environment-friendliness but do these figures prove that Malaysia is being green at its utmost capability? Economically speaking, Malaysia has always tried to be sustainable and committed to fostering the development of a clean and efficient economy; that is, a “green” economy. Referring to the Malaysia Economic Planning Unit, Eleventh Malaysia Plan, 2016-2020, green growth will be a fundamental shift in how Malaysia sees the role of natural resources and the environment in its socio-economic development, protecting both development gains and biodiversity at the same time. Companies in Malaysia has also been in support of this movement as many industries have started to be more sustainable and eco-friendly. An example would be Sime Darby who initiated Plant-A-Tree Projects as they pledge to plant one tree for every cut and currently there have been more than 1.5 million trees that have been planted under this initiative. 

In support of this movement, a lot of government initiatives have been made and as the government aims to reduce carbon emissions, various incentives have been given to encourage investment in green technology industries and the adoption of green technology by the private sector. One of the major incentives is the creation of Malaysia Green Technology and Climate Change Centre which is designated to be a financing platform for new green projects and it has introduced a scheme called, the Green Technology Financing Scheme (GTFS) aimed to promote investment in types of green technology with the potential to minimise the degradation of the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emission, promote a healthy environment for life, and promote the use of renewable energy and natural resources. 

For the Malaysian society, we could observe a change to a more environmentally aware consumer behaviour which could be linked to nudge theory. This theory proposes that we use the underlying subconscious processes influencing peoples’ decision making to “nudge” individuals in the direction that would be best for their well-being and can potentially help change their environmental behavior. Taking up one of the examples of these nudges, Rutgers University used the effects of the default option to reduce paper consumption and the university changed the default printer setting from “print on one side” to “print on both sides.” As a result, it reduced paper consumption by well over 55 million sheets (4,650 trees) over the first four years of the change, equivalent to a 44% reduction. This simple example shows how the default option can be utilized to nudge individuals toward environmentally beneficial behaviors, such as paper reduction.

One nudge example that could be taken from Malaysia is the existence of the three different-coloured bins for different kinds of trash that made the people subconsciously dispose of their trash according to what the colours resemble. The encouragement of being sustainable and reducing the use of plastics through televised advertisements and social media platforms have made more people become aware of the changes in daily lifestyle that are less damaging to the environment. Recent environmental trend is to avoid buying fast fashion as it is a quick way to load the planet with unnecessary waste and instead, buy used clothing from thrift stores or sustainable fashion that has been introduced by big companies such as H&M and Zara for certain collections. 

A lot can be done to be more friendly towards the earth and environmental awareness is key to a sustainable future for our younger generation and actions must be taken now. As we promote greater environmental awareness, it is important to practice all the eco-friendly changes we made in our life in order to progress towards a greener community with the hope that all of our efforts will prevail.