Tomorrow Today

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attention to the needs of the disempowered community while operating

at the nexus between the scientific world and the policy community.

One of the first priorities of the centre was to coordinate the devel-

opment of the sustainability roadmap, which was completed in 2009.

Currently CGSS is involved in a series of ‘roadshows’ to catalyse the

roadmap’s effective implementation while concurrently realigning and

building synergies among the abundant sustainability-related initiatives

already initiated at USM, as well as those of surrounding communities,

both nationally and internationally.

The centre offers multi-disciplinary training and a postgraduate

programme, MDP, in collaboration with Columbia University, New

York. CGSS also conducts cluster-based research, publishes extensively

on the topic of sustainability, and promotes strategic network activities

in areas such as sustainability in higher education, science-technology

innovations for sustainability, climate change, biofuels and food secu-

rity, and front-end technologies for sustainable development.

High value flagships

The following four flagship initiatives are examples of USM’s capa-

bilities to deliver on sustainability promises:

(i) Archaeological windfall

: a USM team from the Centre for Global

Archaeological Research, has unearthed stone tools at Bukit Bunuh,

Perak, Malaysia dating back 1.83 million years, older than the 1.5

million-year-old hand axes previously found in Africa. Once fully

confirmed, this discovery will replace the ‘out of Africa’ theory of

human origin by what might be called the ‘out of Malaysia’ theory

for the oldest evidence of human presence. It will also shed light on

the history of sustainable living as practised by communities in this

part of the world over many millennia.

(ii) Rubber genome unveiled

: USM’s Centre for Chemical Biology

announced on 27 October 2009 the decoding of the rubber tree

genome (Hevea brasiliensis).

This discovery has far-reaching

implications for rubber production, disease resistance, timber,

pharmaceuticals and other biotechnology applications for rubber,

Malaysia’s second-largest cash crop. As the science progresses, this

will also directly contribute to the income of small rubber holders.

(iii) USM-Karnataka Lingayat Education University (KLE)

collaboration

: with the emergence of new diseases and rising

population and poverty levels, health care has become a crucial

sustainability issue. Therefore, USM’s School of Medical Sciences

and KLE (Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College) have partnered to

offer a joint medical curriculum that combines KLE’s

rigour of medical training with USM’s problem-

based learning approach. The inaugural class will

commence with the intake of 100 medical students

from Malaysia in 2010 who will help alleviate doctor

shortages in Malaysia. Students from Bangladesh and

the Maldives will also benefit, gaining medical train-

ing at an affordable cost.

(iv) USM e-motorcycle

: USM’s engines laboratory has

developed an electric motorcycle that is environmen-

tally friendly and cheap to run: 0.5 cents/km for the

e-bike as opposed to 1.5 cents for gasoline models of

similar capacity in Malaysia. This short-range (~100

km) vehicle can be recharged from any standard 240V

AC wall outlet. USM engineers are currently working

with DRB Hicom to commercialize the vehicle.

The way forward

A higher educational institution that opts to live in the

past cannot be an agent of change in an ever-chang-

ing world. It is for this reason that through systematic

realignment of its priorities, curriculum changes, inno-

vative research approaches, networking, RCE activities,

and dialogue between the academic community, poli-

cymakers and other stakeholders, USM is actively

promoting sustainability.

We admit that there are significant barriers, both

perceived and real, in terms of staff awareness, attitudes,

expertise and institutional commitment to accelerating

the sustainability embedding processes at USM. Unless

transformation takes place in the minds of people first,

implementation at the institutional level will be slower.

The value of dialogue and awareness building cannot

be overemphasized in this regard. As we move ahead

with our responsibility to serve Malaysia’s knowledge

economy, we are also mindful that we must not relin-

quish our leadership role as the ‘social conscience of

society’. We need to deliberately create an organiza-

tional means to ensure that this delicate balance between

academic and social obligations becomes the norm.

We need to continually re-examine our fundamentals,

as we strive to address pressing global challenges such

as the implementation of the Millennium Development

Goals, rising population pressures, over-consumption

and the impact of climate change. We have learned that

today’s universities can no longer afford to be oblivious

to the problems faced by the people within our own

shores or in the world beyond our borders.

In a world that values economic competitiveness

over ethical considerations, USM seeks to balance

economic, cultural and environmental integrity using

the principles and practices of ESD. Exceptional skill

will be needed to create USM’s comparative advantage

in articulating a new form of globalization that benefits

from socio-cultural heritage.

Finally, we have learned that in the life of a univer-

sity, as in the case of individuals, there comes a point

after which there is no turning back. In our sustainabil-

ity journey, USM has reached that point.

Biodegradable replacement for the ‘white coffin’ of polystyrene, supplied by USM

Image: USM