Sustainable Development Project

         Through this project, I had learned that the benefits of sustainable development have been recognised world-wide, making more organisations take the initiative to engage in different sustainable development projects since 2015. Both Malaysian governmental and non-governmental organisations have been playing role in exploring more renewable resources to generate electricity, moving towards Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy. One of the reasons for this is because of the threat of climate change and pollution due to the emission of the burning diesel. Knowing this and the fact that rural electricity in Malaysia is being neglected, my team members and I did research on the rural states that are facing the electricity outage.

           We studied on the problems faced and the location of our target before coming up with the idea of proposing a new micro hydropower. Reason for proposing this instead of any other renewable resources is because there are many rivers around our targeted village and this solution needs smaller civil works and space. This could explain why planning a sustainable strategy is never easy in terms of adaptability and effectiveness. In order to make a project sustain, certain standards need to be met through feasible research, studies, implementation and so on. Having a clear vision and understanding about the problem are crucial to avoid inappropriate planning.

           Furthermore, marketing the solution was one of the biggest challenges. A brilliant project idea would not find us a backing partner. Instead, we have to build a foundation for it, making the idea clear and precise to pique the customers’ interest and to gain their trust. This is why Business Model Canvas (BMC) is very important in starting up a business. In this project, it helped us to think beyond the project and design the business more clearly and correctly. We needed to know the demand of our customers or investors, the benefits they would get, the key activities of the plan and so on. These could help us to deliver information to the customers as an effective communication and reduce the risk of failure.

         Last but not least, communication and team working among the team members are vital to make a project successful. There were times when the group members disagreed with each other’s opinion therefore tolerance and analytic skills were highly required to keep the team moving forward. This project had helped in developing the leadership skills, where my team members and I tried to provide clearer vision and strategy, communicate effectively and motivate each other.