KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 -- Sunway Malls recently received the Leadership Award from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Asia Pacific region, making it the first group of malls in the Asia Pacific and the first in Malaysia to be acknowledged for their leadership role in advocating, educating and bringing awareness of the importance of forest sustainability.
The FSC is a globally recognised social and environmental certification, and in the Asia Pacific region it is focused on matching market supply and demand for sustainable forest products.
There were eight other Asia Pacific recipients of the award including IKEA (China), Tetra Pak (China) and Kimberly-Clark (Taiwan), Sunway Malls said in a statement today.
"Sunway Malls' most notable efforts include their commitment to using only FSC certified toilet paper products to ensure the paper sheets are obtained from FSC managed forests and produced in FSC certified mills, which safeguards the sustainable cycle of responsible harvesting, and back to replanting,
“This helps maintain the overall ecology, integrity and longevity of the forests," it said.
The group also placed notices in all of their washrooms to remind shoppers that trees are the source of paper products, hence reducing wastage would help to save the trees.
The notices also educate shoppers to take only the necessary amount of tissues they need, it said.
Chief operating officer Kevin Tan said through the exercise, in Sunway Pyramid alone the group saved 17 million sheets in just five months.
"We estimate a total reduction of 41 million sheets per year in Sunway Pyramid alone, and our target is to reduce by at least 100 million sheets per year in all of our malls.
"We will continue our efforts to look for collaboration with other companies advocating sustainability.
"This is in line with Sunway Malls' commitment to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," he said.
At present, the group has six malls, with its seventh to open in Johor at the end of the year.
Sunway Pyramid recently launched their Food CPR initiative, under which the mall collects food wastes from their food and beverages businesses to be turned into compost.
The group was also the only Malaysian finalist at the United Nations’ SDG Action Campaign's Global Festival of Action in Bonn, Germany in May this year.
-- BERNAMA
