Overview

Malaysia is a fast grown well producing and exporting palm oil industry. However issues of sustainability are being raised worldwide connecting economy, which is fed by the production of palm oil with deforestation of rain forests, loss of biodiversity and substantial agro-emissions due to fertilizer and water use. In response the government has issued strict limits for land use and is strongly supporting the development of “Green Technology”. The Prime Minister has presented the ambition to reduce the Malaysian GHG output with 40% over the coming years at the Climate Top. At the same time the increase in income has led to a considerable increase of unsustainable living practices, such as using cars and air conditioning units. The strong governmental focus on sustainability is taken up by companies but is not yet well embedded in society at large. It seems that the awareness for the necessity for sustainable living is not very high and or that the options for sustainable yet comfortable living are not well known or ignored. This project aims to make the public aware of sustainability issues urging changes in behavior leading to more conscious focus on sustainable options and lower energy uses. It focuses on the innovations in renewable materials made for example from waste material from oil plantations, which can be used for novel designs of sustainable and biorenewable houses.

What?

The GreenTech House Competition focuses on the innovations in renewable materials for example materials made of waste material from oil plantations, which can be used for novel designs of sustainable and biorenewable houses. The challenge is to make a house design in a multidisciplinary team which keeps the environment of Malaysia in mind.

To get everybody aware of the considerations they have to keep in mind in their design, two days during seminar will be held where Dutch and Malaysian Professors will give lectures about sustainable criteria for the design.

The entries have to be submitted by January 31, 2012. The jury will choose the best designs and these finalists have to defend their design in front of the jury where after the winner will be announced. The winner will win RM 20,000.00 and the organization strives to realize their design in Malaysia

Why?

Traditionally, Malaysian houses are build with (bio)renewable materials and a vegetation-construction based symbiosis to control the inner house climate. Modern city life (as in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Singapore) has moved away from this ecologically balanced situation to an energy consuming (especially in air conditioning), carbon emitting (in concrete) landscape that is not sustainable at all. This project intends to rethink tropical urban housing and connecting infrastructures to recreate a much more sustainable city-eco-system, supporting innovation, economy and ecology in Malaysia.

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About the Organiser

IBD is a specialty chemical Research & Business Development (R&BD) centre focusing on the processing of biochemical, phytochemical and natural products for wellness industry. Currently, human wellness is an emerging industry with the estimated current annual global value of more than USD 1.3trillion. Wellness industry is providing products and services intended for healthy individual those with or without an existing disease to make them even healthier, look better, slow down the effect of ageing and to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases. At present, there is a tremendous global and local interest for wellness product. The wellness products developed by IBD are intended for the promotion of health in soil, plants, animals and human. Soil health is the lifeline of the country as healthy soil products healthy plants and crops which in turn produce healthy animals for human nutrition. At present, we can no longer assume plant and animal food as having a fixed nutritional value; for such value varies according to the soil health. The metabolites profiles in the plants and animal products depend highly on the health of the soil. A depleted soil produces altered metabolites profile in the plant and animal products. IBD is involved in the development of products and process for the wellness of soil, plant, animal and human. The focus of IBD is in the specialty foods, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, aromatherapy, prebiotic, probiotic, biopepticide and biofertilizer using biotechnology.

About BE-Basic

BE-Basic (ecologically balanced Biobased Sustainable Industrial Chemistry) is an international public-private partnership of universities, research institutes and companies in the field of sustainable chemistry and ecology. BE-Basic has a budget of 120 million euros, half of which is financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.
BE-Basic aims to develop bio-based industrial solutions for a sustainable society.

More information: www.be-basic.org