Let's change the world

Hello village people!

Greetings from the end of the year!

Today is brought to you by the catch phrase "Sustainability by Design" and the letters S D and G and the number 17.


What is Sustainability you ask and why are we talking about it here?


© Image Gitanjali Muhendaran

 
Comrades - Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

 If you do some reading on sustainability, you will find that there are 3 pillars of sustainability:

 
 
 © Image from Sustainable Cities Index

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. If you google it, you will find numerous papers written on the topic of why sustainability and the SDGs are important, and the various aspects that make up sustainable development for a country or a city or a populace. 

And  because I love you, I now share with you here a very cool video that demonstrates the 17 SDGs (Stereogum reminded me that last year, Piko-Taro — the fictional pop artist created by Japanese comedian Kazuhito Kosaka — became the record holder for the shortest song to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100 when his goofy “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” became a viral hit thanks to a Justin Bieber tweet. Now, he’s partnering with the United Nations for a PSA about the organization’s sustainable development goals, with his updated version of “P-P-A-P,” now reconfigured to support “SDGs”)
 

As a child rights advocate, I have attended and participated in numerous consultations and discussions on the importance of Malaysia as a nation striving to achieve the SDGs especially where they relate to children - and these include eradicating poverty, eliminating forced and early marriages, and educating all children. Children are the future and if we do not protect them, we have no future. 

Despite these engagements, I used to believe that the SDGs and sustainable development are world and national concerns and above the ordinary concerns of the common man.

It took me some time to realise that this is a sad myth. We all have a part to play in achieving sustainable development. We all have duties and responsibilities and obligations if we want to preserve the ability of our future generations to meet their needs. 

We at Muhendaran Sri believe that this duty to be sustainable goes beyond donating money to save the turtles (which is  an important cause - turtles are amazing) or sharing an instagram post about the burning forests in the Amazon.

So I thought I would share with you our experience of how as a small legal firm - we in our small way strive  to achieve sustainability. 

Here's a list of some of the things we do, in no particular order of importance:
1. We have made it a policy of the firm that all correspondence with our clients, and where possible with our opponents, is via e-mail, thereby reducing our paper usage;
2. as a policy, all print jobs are double sided, again to reduce paper use;
3. we have installed fans (and are in the process of installing more) throughout the office, to cut down on the use of air-conditioners and electricity;
4. we reuse printed paper as much as possible;
5. we read online newspapers;
6. we have  a water dispenser in the office and mugs;
7. we separate our rubbish
8. our job application forms do not have categories for age, race, religion or gender - as we do not practise hiring on any of those terms;
9. we have 2 employees over the age of 60 working for us currently and have employed others in the past;
10. we operate from the Zhongshan Building which is a hub for culture and arts and we actively promote, encourage, support and participate in the activities of our neighbours;
11. we buy local art from young artists, as we believe that art is the backbone of any culture and any people;
12. we do our best to patronise the different stalls in the medan selera across from our office, all of which are run by small vendors struggling to make ends meet;
13. where possible, we take on all attachment students who apply to us - even if they do not possess a background in law or have just completed school, as we believe that young people need exposure and practical skills, regardless of their academic levels;
14. we spend quality time training our students and interns - even if they've only come in for short attachments of a couple of weeks;
15. we believe in sharing our knowledge;
16. we carry our own containers, when we pack food;
17. we refuse plastic bags when given to us;
18. we refuse straws and plastic cutleries
19. we take our own water bottles to court, instead of buying mineral water bottles;
20. we don't pre-print our letterheads or notebooks or files or envelopes;
21. we don't print any corporate swag, like calendars;
22. we use lighter weight paper instead of 80gm paper;
23. we try our best to reuse bound bundles of authorities and other court bundles as notepaper;
24. we have bamboo blinds in the office, which are hand made by an old chinese uncle - thereby not just promoting local talent and industry but also reducing the heat levels in the office and thereby our electricity use;
25. we turn the tap off when we soap dishes;
26. we don't have any carpeting in the office, thereby cutting out the use of vacuum cleaners entirely;
27. we have live plants in the office;
28. we keep carrier bags in the car, so that we don't have to take plastic bags when we shop;
29. we accumulate used paper and sell these to recyclers;
30. we encourage work life balance, and try our hardest to exit the office before 6.00pm everyday; and
31. we pay our bills online.


 I have written out the list above - to show, how even the little things can make a difference. Having said that, I would be the first to admit that we are nowhere close to reaching the ideal of sustainability, and I am not in anyway suggesting that we are. We have a long way to go, and a lot to do to become truly sustainable. We still buy office supplies that come packaged in single use plastics. We still have the air-conditioning running. We still print final drafts out to check for mistakes. We still keep paper receipts. There's a lot that still needs fixing. It's work in progress and we're still figuring it out.

All I'm saying is - look these are simple things. You're probably practicing some if not all of these measures already. They were not difficult for us to implement. They have now become force of habit for us - and a lot of the measures outlined above - have actually resulted in us saving money and cutting down on our operating costs. 

The moral of the story - we don't need governmental direction and legislation to make basic changes to the way we operate in our daily lives.  Sustainable development is not the sole responsibility of government and the big corporations.


You and I - we can change the world.