Green exchange

Participants of the recent Bayer Young Environmental Envoy programme in Germany came away with new solutions to existing problems, writes NURJEHAN MOHAMED

SHE deals with polymers and formulae on a daily basis but Chemical Engineering major Natassia Julianna Zaini also has a soft spot for the arts and the environment.

She recently had a chance to show this facet of her personality when she entered the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy (BYEE) programme earlier this year.

“As a Chemical Engineering student, I am exposed to the chemical industry and am aware of the impact it has on Mother Nature.

“I wanted to show people that everyone has a responsibility to preserve the environment,” says the 22-year-old whose endeavour to teach Orang Asli schoolchildren to make craft items from recycled materials earned her a spot in the BYEE field trip to Germany recently.

The Universiti Kuala Lumpur undergraduate was among some 50 young environmentalists from 18 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America who attended the programme, organised by the company together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

They were selected from some 800 participants who took part in BYEE competitions in their home countries earlier this year.

During the trip, the participants, known as envoys, met Bayer and UNEP personnel as well as experts in the field of sustainable development.

They also visited various facilities such as the industrial waste incinerator at the Burrig Waste Management Center; the AVEA municipal waste processing and disposal facility (both in Leverkusen) and the Steinhaus Forestry House in Bergisch Gladbach.

During the week-long trip, a representative from each country also competed for the Bayer Young Environmental Leader Award (see accompanying story).

UNEP associate information officer Waiganjo Njoroge, who followed the week’s proceedings and judged the Young Environmental Leader Award, says the envoys demonstrated innovation, passion and energy through their projects.

“You can see that they are aware of the problems we are experiencing and the solutions.

“Meeting each other (in Germany) also allows them to cross-pollinate their ideas and learn to improve on them,” he says, giving the example of an Indian envoy who, while presenting his vision of an improved cooking stove, discovers a Kenyan participant is working on affordable and green briquettes.

He is now considering using those briquettes in his cooking stoves.

Envoys themselves realise the value of this unique networking opportunity, as noted by Natassia.

“Sharing ideas and learning from the other envoys have been great,” she says, adding that it is also stimulating to see an “industrial-based” company such as Bayer having a green outlook.

Another Malaysian representative, Lim Gene-Harn, an Architecture undergraduate at Universiti Sains Malaysia, values the chance to expand his environmental network.

“Nothing is more inspiring than being surrounded by positive change agents who do it all out of passion, not obligation,” says Lim, who established a platform for bringing together various stakeholders in the field of environmental protection.

Lim added that he was “better able to understand environmental issues facing people globally and how they are shaped by geographical, social, economical and political factors”.

Brazilian Joao Paulo Amaral, whose project Bike Anjo (or Bike Angel) aims to reduce the use of motorised vehicles by teaching people to ride bicycles, found the trip an eye-opening experience.

“Germany is an excellent example of a country with a cycling culture — children are taught from a young age about traffic education and cycling to school.

“When they grow up, they can still bike their way around because of urban planning that includes bicycle paths. If they drive, they know how to respect cyclists on the road,” says the 25-year-old Integrated Management System postgraduate student, adding that he would like to see a similarly strong cycling culture in Brazil.

Maria del Rosario Ojeda Verjel, 19, from Peru, found it gratifying simply to present her project to an international audience.

Despite language differences, the Business Administration student — who crafted handmade dolls called Amigalitos, made of recycled materials from textile companies — sparked connections with her non-Spanish speaking counterparts.

Envoys are expected to return home better able to raise awareness of environmental protection in their own societies by passing on the impressions, experiences and insights they gained during the trip.

As UNEP public information officer Bryan Coll told the young environmentalists during the awards ceremony on the last night of their trip: “This is not the end of your projects, this is just the beginning of a new chapter.”

The next eco-fighters

WHEN Mary Jade Gabanes was thinking of a project to submit to the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy (BYEE) programme recently, she turned to the very people who inspired her choice of vocation — special needs children.

The Special Education major from West Visayas State University, the Philippines, was one of four envoys named Bayer Young Environmental Leader at the end of the week-long BYEE programme in Germany.

Some 50 young environmentalists from 18 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America joined the trip organised by the company together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

While Gabanes’ project directly involves special needs children and some 100 volunteers, she hopes that a stronger message can be conveyed to the public.
“If you see these special children doing something for the environment, wouldn’t you take a second look at yourself and ask what you have done and can do?” asks the 19-year-old.

She hopes to garner sponsors to hold a tree planting activity for her charges with the publicity from winning this award.

“It would be nice for the children to experience planting a tree instead of seeing a video about it,” she says.

Michael Sam Muli, an Environmental and Biosystems Engineering student from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, was also named a recipient of the award for his effort — briquettes made from shredded newspaper, small woodchips, dried leaves, sawdust and cow dung as an alternative energy source for cooking and heating.

“I didn’t have any funding before; now I do,” says the 19-year-old of the significance of his achievement.

“It was great meeting all of the envoys. This is what the world needs (and) what we visualise the world to be,” says Muli, who was happy to just be in Germany.

The other two recipients were Sara Ervinda Rudianto from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia — for her practical, simple and affordable procedure to produce biogas for private households — and Maria Rosa Reyes Acosta from Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, Ecuador, for her approach to tackling the contamination of water with mercury caused by hydraulic gold mining.

The four winners will receive project support in terms of materials, equipment, services and partnerships valued at a maximum of EUR 1,000 (RM4,300) per winner.

Dr Michael Preuss, Bayer Communications head of corporate policy and media relations, says the winning ideas offer innovative and inspiring solutions to current global environmental challenges.

“These young people show that change is already possible on a small scale. Their commitment to environmental protection and sustainable development is truly inspiring and sets an example to others.” — By NURJEHAN MOHAMED

Bayer Young Environmental Envoy programme

Quick facts:

• Started in 1998, this annual initiative focuses primarily on the world’s fast-growing emerging economies.

• The programme was first introduced in Thailand and subsequently expanded to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Venezuela and Vietnam.

• Every year, around 50 envoys are selected to attend a week-long study tour to experience how environmental protection is practised in Germany.

• While in previous years, students had to submit a proposal of environmental projects, this year marks the first time participants had to implement their ideas in their communities.

• The programme is one of a dozen environmental projects for children and youth around the world organised jointly by Bayer and United Nations Environment Programme every year.

Source: NURJEHAN MOHAMED (jehan@nst.com.my)