PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOALS
Have direct involvement in, or input into, national government or regional non-government organisations, SDG policy development - including identifying problems and challenges, developing policies and strategies, modelling likely futures with and without interventions, monitoring and reporting on interventions, and enabling adaptive management
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1. | As a part of the strategy to achieve the goals, UNIMAS has direct involvement with the government policy development, including identifying problems and challenges, developing policies and strategies, modelling likely futures with and without interventions, monitoring and reporting on interventions, and enabling adaptive management. | |||||||||||||
2. 3. 4. 5. | On 29 August 2024, the ISuRE UNIMAS team met with the Ministry of International Trade, Industry, and Investment (MINTRED) Sarawak to strengthen collaboration on sustainability initiatives. Discussions centered on implementing ESG principles and developing an Industrial Cluster in Sarawak to drive green economic growth and support decarbonization. The meeting also explored partnerships for hosting the 11th International Conference on Low Carbon Asia (ICLCA) 2025 in Kuching. The visit marked a key step toward advancing low-carbon solutions and a more sustainable future for Sarawak. On 15 July 2024, ISuRE UNIMAS welcomed YB Datuk Sebastian Ting, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts I, in a visit aligned with Sarawak’s sustainability agenda under PCDS 2030 and the SDGs. The discussion highlighted efforts to strengthen environmental initiatives, including the upcoming “Way Forward for Sustainable Sarawak” townhall in Bintulu, emphasizing the role of youth, government, businesses, and communities. ISuRE expressed appreciation for the Deputy Minister’s support and shared commitment to advancing sustainability in Sarawak. On 24 June in Kuching, the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) reaffirmed its support for Sarawak’s hydrogen industry through the development of a Hydrogen Industry Cloud Profile. MPC Sarawak Director, Dr. Mazlina Shafi’i, stated that the profile will help establish a comprehensive regulatory framework to drive growth across the hydrogen value chain by ensuring transparent governance and efficient investment. The initiative is developed in collaboration with ISuRE and UNIMAS, with the goal of strengthening hydrogen governance, boosting domestic and foreign investment, and improving Malaysia’s rankings in global competitiveness, particularly in energy infrastructure and renewable energy. A courtesy visit was held between the delegations of Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) to discuss the DBKU Low-Carbon City Master Plan for 2025–2030. The DBKU delegation was led by the Mayor of Kuching North, Tuan Haji Hilmy Haji Othman, while UNIMAS was represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs & Alumni, Prof. Ir. Ts. Dr. Al-Khalid Haji Othman, along with ISuRE Director Prof. Ts. Dr. Shanti Faridah Salleh and UNIMAS Holdings CEO Dr. Abang Ekhsan Abang Othman. Key federal representatives from PLANMalaysia, NRES, PETRA, and SEDA Malaysia were also in attendance, emphasizing strong multi-agency collaboration toward advancing a low-carbon future for Kuching. | |||||||||||||
PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS
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USC plays a role as a driver of the university's overall sustainability agenda in line with the global sustainable development goals (Sustainable Development Goals). The Center will ensure that every community program offered to communities in the surrounding area continues to have an impact even with minimal cost applied. Initiatives from the Vice Chancellor will be continued and strengthened with sustainable programs in line with the direction of UNIMAS 2021-2025. Synergistic relationships with local communities, agencies and industry through such community programs will continue to be intensified. In 2021 under the UNEP program, UNIMAS was selected as a pilot campus along with several other campuses in the world to implement the UNEP Little Book of Green Nudges. This is an active step and UNIMAS 'determination to become a Green campus.
UNIVERSITY SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
- Registrar
- Director of Development Office
- Director of the Chancellery Office and International Relations
- Senior Director of the Center for Research, Innovation and Enterprise
- Director of the Center for Academic Development and Management
- Deputy Registrar of Student Services Center
- Director of the Center for Practical Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
- Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology Resources
- Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Director of the University Sustainability Center
- Deputy Director of the University Sustainability Center
- Secretariat: University Sustainability Center
- UNIMAS Strategic Plan
- United Nation SDG Plan 2030
- 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP)
- Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025
- Malaysia Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025
- Malaysia’s Roadmap Towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030
- MOE SULAM Playbook
- University Board of Directors
- Executive Committee
- Standing Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Research and Innovation
- To plan and formulate a holistic plan for the enforcement of UNIMAS towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
- Coordinate the strategy and management process of university sustainability initiatives in 4 domains namely community, research, curriculum and institutional management;
- Review and recommend policies that determine the key policies and guidelines for the UNIMAS sustainability plan;
- Monitor the university's achievements towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030; and
- Prepare periodic reports on the implementation of the UNIMAS sustainability plan for the purpose of reporting to THE University Impact Ranking and any relevant sustainability body.
MALAYSIA SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS NETWORK (MYSUN)
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Consistent with global aspirations regarding sustainability, the Malaysian government has understood the importance of keeping sustainable development goals in mind, in particular the need to promote good energy and environmental practices. One of the keys to achieving this is through education, and by instilling these values in all levels of the educational system. For this reason the Ministry of Education of Malaysia has led a global education effort to strengthen attitudes, values and actions which are compatible with sustainable development. Notwithstanding this, there is a clear lack of coordination and awareness in HEI campuses regarding sustainability and energy efficiency. It is therefore pressing to support the development of sustainability in HEI campuses in Malaysia, and even more so to do it through a national platform, in order to ensure that more concerted activities will have a better impact at both local and national levels.
- To strengthen the human capacities in university campuses’ sustainability and energy efficiency in Malaysia;
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To develop a platform to promote and support a culture of sustainable HEI campuses in the Malaysian higher education system through the establishment of the MYSUN Network and the delivery of a pilot MOOC on sustainability in HEI campuses.
UNEP Little Book of Green Nudges
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UNIMAS SUSTAINABILITY MASTER PLAN 2030
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At the 21st UNIMAS Strategy and Quality Committee Meeting (JSKU) 02/2021 on 21 July 2021, the top management of the University has agreed to create the UNIMAS 2030 Sustainability Master Plan. The formation of the UNIMAS 2030 Sustainability Master Plan is proposed by outlining the processes and elements key requirements for planning related to the implementation and reporting of university sustainability initiatives. The main reference for the UNIMAS 2030 Sustainability Master Plan is based on the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals and Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking where it states that sustainability aspects are divided into four (4) parts namely research, stewardship, outreach and teaching.
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UNIMAS Strategic Plan 2021 - 2025;
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UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD for 2030);
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Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is an international organization that provides guidance and sustainability reporting standards;
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UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education;
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UNESCO’s The Little Book of Green Nudges;
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Malaysia’s Roadmap towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030; and
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Green Technology Master Plan Malaysia 2017-2030.
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Review, design and develop a Master Plan UNIMAS Sustainability 2030;
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Propose policies and governance related to sustainability initiatives;
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Implement, monitor, improve and documenting the impact and results of sustainability initiatives; and
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Propose UNIMAS Sustainability Self Reporting System (USSRS) (with real-time updates, convenience dashboards and car applications).
Link:
Campus Sustainability and University Impact
MYSUN Report - Replication Seminar on Sustainable Development
MYSUN Report - Roundtable Discussion
MYSUN ToT1 Report - “Supporting Campus Sustainability at Institutional Level”
MYSUN ToT2 Report - “SDGs At The University – Concepts, Behaviour, Research & Education”
MYSUN ToT3 Report - “Towards Green Campus Operations: How to Create a Sustainable Campus ”
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Located on the Island of Borneo, Sarawak is blessed as a home to a diverse range of marine life, including the iconic Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).
These magnificent creatures are a vital part of Sarawak’s coastal ecosystem and are known for their significant role in maintaining the health of coral reefs and seagrass beds of the state’s surrounding waters.
In Sarawak, these migratory animals are primarily found nesting on remote sandy beaches, where they lay their eggs in large nests dug in the sand.
Known as natal homing, the female sea turtle makes the long trip back to her natal beach to lay her eggs.
Under the custodianship of Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), several such sites are declared as Totally Protected Areas (TPA) to reduce human contact with these animals, thus boosting their population size.
A research team from UNIMAS and SFC has collaborated on a project to develop a tagless/markerless re-identification prototype for female Green sea turtles.
Instead of using plastic/metal tags, the team explored the use of a downward-facing camera that captures images of the nesting individuals.
Similar to human fingerprints, individual animals can be identified via biometric markings.
For green sea turtles, the unique scute patterns on their carapace can be used to distinguish individuals. This human-less approach reduces stress on the Green sea turtles since there is no need for a mark-recapture process nor artificial tagging.
Since Chelonia mydas is a long-lived and migratory animal, the carapace undergoes physical changes due to ageing and external factors.
Khalif Amir Zakry and Syahiran Soria, two MSc students (by research) from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT), were tasked to design and develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods that specifically address these issues.
Syahiran trained a custom deep learning model that performs automated Region-of-Interest (ROI) cropping of the carapace from still images.
Also using Deep learning, Khalif integrated the trained model with attention mechanism to direct the deep network “where to look” for the most stable salient features over time.
The models were trained on an image dataset collected at Talang-Satang island over the period of two years.
Both students have had their research articles accepted in SCOPUS-indexed journals awaiting publication.
Although there is still much work to be done to improve the working prototype, the team is pleased to have made a contribution toward the preservation of these magnificent creatures and their fragile ecosystems.
Future work will involve extending the duration of the data collection period and rigorously validating the proposed methods against a much larger dataset.
If you are interested to know more about this research work, please contact Dr Irwandi Hipiny at the following email address: mhihipni@unimas.my.
This article is related with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 14) – Life Below Water
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