Nur Naha Abu Mansor

Sustainability of community engagement – in the hands of stakeholders?

Purpose – The current gap in the field of community engagement is evaluation and measurement of the impacts on the stakeholders, mainly the community being engaged with. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the need to consider the stakeholders perspective and their involvement in a community engagement initiative, or in any social program. The authors begin by debating the most common evaluation techniques used, followed by re-introducing stakeholder evaluation to the field of community engagement. Findings – The evaluation using the stakeholders’ approach will not only create a holistic evaluation process, but will also assist in fostering a sense of ownership of the community engagement program. Originality/value – Community engagement is given much importance nowadays in Malaysia, especially in line with institutes of higher learnings tripartite mission, the third mission being the ability to engage with communities. It is not surprising because ...

Towards low carbon society in Iskandar Malaysia: Implementation and feasibility of community organic waste composting

Rapid population growth and urbanisation have generated large amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) in many cities. Up to 40-60% of Malaysias MSW is reported to be food waste where such waste is highly putrescible and can cause bad odour and public health issue if its disposal is delayed. In this study, the implementation of community composting in a village within Iskandar Malaysia is presented as a case study to showcase effective MSW management and mitigation of GHG emission. The selected village, Felda Taib Andak (FTA), is located within a palm oil plantation and a crude palm oil processing mill. This project showcases a community-composting prototype to compost food and oil palm wastes into high quality compost. The objective of this article is to highlight the economic and environment impacts of a community-based composting project to the key stakeholders in the community, including residents, oil palm plantation owners and palm oil mill operators by comparing three different scenarios, through a life cycle approach, in terms of the greenhouse gas emission and cost benefit analysis. First scenario is the baseline case, where all the domestic waste is sent to landfill site. In the second scenario, a small-scale centralised composting project was implemented. In the third scenario, the data obtained from Scenario 2 was used to do a projection on the GHG emission and costing analysis for a pilot-scale centralised composting plant. The study showed a reduction potential of 71.64% on GHG emission through the diversion of food waste from landfill, compost utilisation and significant revenue from the compost sale in Scenario 3. This thus provided better insight into the feasibility and desirability in implementing a pilot-scale centralised composting plant for a sub-urban community in Malaysia to achieve a low carbon and self-sustainable society, in terms of environment and economic aspects.

Feedstock Amendment for the Production of Quality Compost for Soil Amendment and Heavy Metal Immobilisation

Composting is a waste management technology for recycling organic waste. A compost without detectable of pathogens and heavy metals can act as a soil conditioner or organic fertilizer to promote plant growth. It provides the soil with organic matter and nutrients, improving soil texture and water holding capacity and suppressing plant diseases with the presence of beneficial microorganisms. Many researchers aim to improve the quality of compost at a reduced process cost and composting duration. Preferably the composting process also offers the co-benefits of reduced environmental impact. The quality of the compost is closely related to the feedstock used for the composting. The feedstock ranges from bio-waste, plant-And animal-based agricultural waste and sometimes the organic fraction in the municipal solid waste. This paper reviews a range of feedstock amendment methods including the addition of bulking agent or chemical additive, inoculation with earthworm or microbial inoculants, and the addition of the mature compost, that could influence the composting process and the end product quality. The potential of immobilisation of the heavy metals in the waste material through composting was also discussed.

Return on Investment (ROI) training evaluation in Malaysian SMEs: factors influencing the adoption process

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to emphasize the importance of return on investment (ROI) within training programs in Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, this paper focuses on the determinants that may influence the adoption of ROI in the current training evaluation practice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper highlights the internal and external organizational factors that may influence ROI adoption within the Malaysian context. The internal drivers are identified as management support, while the external drivers are policies and regulation, competitive pressure and customer expectation. Findings – Based on a comprehensive review in the human resource field, the main drivers for ROI adoption are identified as management support, policies and regulations, competitive pressure and customer expectation. Practical implications – On the face of fierce national and international competitions, SMEs need to seriously consider investing in higher-level training evaluation, i.e...

Green IT for competitive advantage: Internal management perspective

This study develops and tests a theoretical model to investigate the role of Green IT internal management within organisations. Specifically, this model explains the antecedents and the outcomes of Green IT Internal Management (GITIM). The hypotheses were tested using survey data from 133 Malaysian IT companies. Using Partial least Square (PLS) of structural equation model, the measurement model is accessed followed by structural model assessment. First, the result shows that GITIM can be constructed as formative second order construct constitutes of sourcing, operation and disposal dimensions. Second, the top management support in environmental issues does not have positive affect on GITIM. Rather, the knowledge stock and IT business experience have positive affect on GITIM. Third, GITIM is confirmed to positively affect competitive advantage; both cost and differentiation advantage. This study suggests that information system resources, which are known to be important for innovation process, also contribute to GITIM and in turn lead to competitive advantage.

Challenges and lessons learnt from a community-based food waste composting project in johor

A series of Low-Carbon Society (LCS) Blueprint has been launched in Iskandar Malaysia (IM) region since 2012. The public must be equipped with fundamental knowledge and skills related to the LCS work conducted collectively through a structured network of like-minded individuals and receive technical support and monitoring from experts and practitioners. This paper presents the lessons learned from a community-based food-waste composting program, a low-carbon action outlined under the IM LCS Blueprint, at Layang-layang, Johor as a case study. Selected volunteers in SC Jaya Sepakat, with the support by Mini Rural Transformation Centre (MRTC) have been trained and were given home composting kits. A centralised composting site was set up where one volunteer has been identified as the key player to manage daily composting operation. Food waste bins were collected and converted into compost through a five-step process at the composting site. A technical advisor from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia transferred the knowledge and technology to the villagers in terms of hands-on training, overall operation, compost quality analysis and post-application study of compost on plants. This study aims to empower the community to implement the food waste composting practices in a sustainable manner that would fulfill the societal and economic needs. The challenges and lessons gained through the 8 months engagement are reported. Post-training and end of project surveys were conducted to assess the performance of the community engagement. The survey concluded that the volunteers require extrinsic motivation from external organisations to continue the LCS initiatives until a tangible economic impact is generated. Community’s daily commitment and limited communication facilities in rural areas made continuous engagement a challenge. The project also drew a lesson of importance in collaboration with different stakeholders for greater impact and optimisation in resources that would require further study.

Framework for Greenhouse Gas Accounting Towards Green Port

Several ports worldwide have been implementing green port initiatives such as switching to shore power or renewable energy to replace fossil fuel usage, control vessel speed reduction in order to meet Emissions Reduction Standard target. As for Malaysia, the Johor Port Association (JPA) has launched a Green Port Policy (2014-2020) that serves as a guide for decision making and establishing a framework for environmentally friendly port development and operation. However, this policy is lacking of empirical analysis to illustrate ports environmental sustainability performance. Due to this limitation, weak performing indicator is also difficult to identify for improvement of the port performance. This study discusses a comprehensive and systematic green port framework to evaluate an environmental performance that would be able to highlight the potential improvement for the port.

Resource Planning for Sustainable Production of Tailor-made Green Diesel

Producing energy from biomass and other organic waste residues is essential for sustainable development. Like biodiesel, green diesel is a next generation biofuels emerging due to the need for a renewable replacement of petrodiesel. Green diesel is a mixture of carbon chains which are derived from lignocellulosic biomass and the fuel properties are naturally similar to the petrodiesel. This paper discussed an integrated green diesel production route from non-food biomass resources. A systematic literature for lignocellulosic biomass resources has been developed. The systematic literature focuses on hydrodeoxygenation or catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction.

Towards low carbon universities in Nigeria: Agenda for green information technology

Over the years, so many efforts have been put in place towards achieving environmental sustainability. The international community has presented many models and frameworks aimed at creating sustainability awareness and cleaner productions among nations. Research concepts, policies, and technologies designed to foster the production of goods and services that conform to the standards of environmental sustainability were offered for consideration and use. However, the pace at which individuals and organisations adopt environmental sustainability policies differ across countries. Increase e-waste from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming an important environmental issue that requires urgent attention. To control the ICT e-waste, production of environmentally friendly ICT known as Green Information Technology (Green IT) and their use among individuals and organisations should be encouraged. While the adoption of Green IT in organisations has been partly considered by researchers, its adoption among individuals has largely been overlooked. In Nigeria, the university communities represent the best place for promoting and enshrining the environmental sustainability policies being home to youth who are likely to be more conscious to issues related to sustainable environment. This paper provides a framework for understanding and explaining the individual adoption of Green IT. An extensive literature review was carried out and an Integrated Model of Green IT adoption (IMGITA) in Nigeria is presented. The paper recommends the adoption of IMGITA in Nigerian universities that will facilitate green policies to enhance the low carbon development among Nigerians.

Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases Emission Through Food Waste Composting and Replacement of Chemical Fertiliser

A pilot scale composting plant has been established on-campus in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to achieve the goal as a sustainable campus. Portion of organic wastes were diverted from landfilling by converting it into compost (organic fertiliser) for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emission at the landfill and the dependency on inorganic fertiliser. Composting has been reported as a sustainable approach to reduce the footprint of GHG as compared to the waste disposal through landfilling. However, the amount of GHG emitted during composting can vary due to localised condition. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of composting in mitigating GHG emission compared to the current waste management employed in UTM (Landfilling). A business as usual (BAU) scenario represents the current organic waste management practice in UTM was established. Composting was proposed as an alternative scenario. The amount of GHG emitted or reduced from different sources including for transportation, waste processing, waste treatment as well as downstream activities such as carbon sequestration and inorganic fertiliser substitution was estimated based on lifecycle inventory analysis. The result indicated that composting scenario offer a GHG reduction of 66.72 % as compared to the BAU scenario. The fugitive emission from biodegradation of organic waste contributed significantly to the GHG emission for both scenarios whereas the GHG emission from the fossil fuel combustion was considered as not significant. The overall result suggested the potential of composting as a viable technology for sustainable organic waste management in UTM.