Climate. Community. Culture

By Michelle Ng

During our office retreat a few weeks ago, I set these focus for our Heads of Department.

Being climate focused it means to decarbonise and reduce emissions. In doing so we want our actions to speak. Therefore, a target we have set is for all programs to be Plastic-free; Styrofoam-free and food waste-free.

As for ‘Community’ – we want togetherness and ownership to be at the forefront of our values.

With regards to ‘Culture’, we want to leverage strength in our diversity. All cultural events organised by our office moving forward must impart knowledge. This is so that we form a deeper understanding of where we come from and why we do what we do.

The upcoming Chinese New Year festivities is an opportunity to demonstrate what it means to be climate, community and culture focused.

In this article, I would like to extend the invitation to all of our readers to come on board this journey with us. There are a few tips that I would like to share with you as to what you can do.

Firstly, you may want to consider exchanging gifts with your neighbour from another ethnicity – whether it is ang pao, drinks or cookies or even better to invite them to your home for a meal. A story that I like to tell is why we give mandarin oranges during Chinese New Year. You would be surprised – many do not know the reason. Mandarin oranges in Cantonese is pronounced ‘kam’ and that also sounds like gold in Cantonese which is also pronounced ‘kam’. So in giving mandarin oranges what we are doing is wishing prosperity over that household because it is akin to giving them gold. This is an example of stories that we can tell.

In being climate focused, I invite you to join us on the journey of going plastic free, styrofoam free and food waste free.  The less we waste, the less carbon we produce, the more we conserve this Earth better for our future generation.

And lastly I would like to urge you to join a community activity in your neighbourhood that your Resident Association or Rukun Tetangga is organising. How well a life is led is also determined by the meaningful connections that we make and what better we to achieve the outcome than to come together with like-minded community loving people to develop Subang Jaya together.

Happy Chinese New Year! May this New Year be better for you and yours!