MASTER community developer Sunway Property recently won the prestigious Low Carbon City Award at the ninth Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP) Awards for Planning Excellence held at The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur.
The award recognises projects that implement low-carbon city initiatives promoted within the Government’s Low Carbon Cities Framework (LCCF) 2011.
It aims to highlight initiatives that demonstrate efforts in implementing LCCF and illustrate how the initiatives have helped reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Sunway City was named the sole winner out of four submissions received for the category.
“Sunway City is indeed a role-model for urban planning. The transformation of what was previously a mining wasteland into Malaysia’s first sustainable township, as recognised by the Malaysian Green Building Index in 2012, was spectacular.
“What is even more compelling is the developer’s sterling commitment to continue to pursue a zero-carbon agenda, more than 30 years after the conception of the masterplan; a testament indeed to its commitment to making Malaysia sustainable for our communities,” said Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) town planning director Ismail Muhamad, who nominated the Sunway City integrated township for the award.
Sunway Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah received the award on behalf of Sunway Property.
“We are humbled by this recognition as being the first LCCF township in the nation to win this prestigious award.
“Through our unique Build-Own-Operate business model, we are driving Sunway City towards becoming an even more effective low-carbon city in various ways for the benefit of our current and future communities,” he said.
Sunway City is Sunway Group’s first integrated township.
Resurrected from a barren mining wasteland, Sunway City is 40% green; home to more than 150 species of flora and fauna, is 100% walkable through a canopied walkway and pedestrian walkways, as a result of a RM23 million investment by the developer, and a transit-oriented township development enabled by Malaysia’s first elevated Bus Rapid Transit – Sunway Line, the first public-private partnership between the Sunway Group and Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, which connects the Setia Jaya-Sunway KTM and USJ 7 LRT stations, serviced by eco-friendly electric buses.
Besides the existing sustainability initiatives, Sunway Group is currently driving to retrofit the older buildings, and is in the midst of converting the entire city into a smart township through its own SunwayNet, as well as building a water treatment plant to cater to the commercial buildings within the City.
As of last December, Sunway University is also home to Asia’s first Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development (JSC) in Malaysia, a catalytic move to mobillise comprehensive collaboration particularly among South-East Asian nations to move towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The centre is the result of a gift of US$10mil (RMRM44.9mil) from the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation.
The MIP Awards for Planning Excellence was created to recognise excellent practices, leadership and achievement in town-planning and the town-planning profession, as well as their contributions towards a better future for Malaysia.
The distinguished panel of judges for the MIP Low Carbon City Awards comprised industry experts from the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Federal Department of Town and Country Planning, Housing and Local Government Ministry and MIP.
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