IPC Shopping Centre, in collaboration with Alliance Bank, is taking a proactive approach to encourage children and teenagers to contribute to a sustainable future by providing creative solutions to address waste management issues.
Located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, IPC Shopping Centre has partnered with its ally, Alliance Bank, to launch the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award. This initiative is open to students aged 7 to 17, with the goal of fostering the creative minds of the younger generation and encouraging them to create innovative and environmentally friendly solutions to address environmental issues using recyclable and reusable materials.
For the past two decades, IPC Shopping Centre has been committed to creating a more sustainable future for its community. Its Recycling and Buy-Back Centre (RBBC), which started operating in 2009 and was upgraded in 2022, plays a crucial role in empowering visitors to adopt sustainable lifestyles by accepting up to 15 categories of recyclable materials, including cardboard, paper, plastic, metal, aluminum, beverage cartons, polystyrene, textiles, fluorescent light bulbs, fluorescent light tubes, medicine, glass, batteries, e-waste, and food waste. The IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award, which kicks off today and runs until March 3, 2024, will further enhance this commitment by challenging students to build functional prototypes or prototype models aimed at addressing waste-related issues using the same recyclable materials accepted at RBBC.
Karyn Lim, General Manager of IPC Shopping Centre, stated, „On our 20th anniversary, we are delighted to introduce the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award. At IPC Shopping Centre, we are always committed to sustainability and reducing our impact on the environment. We take pride in providing a comfortable space for our community, where individuals of all ages can come together to create beautiful memories and participate in activities that benefit our planet. That is why through the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award, we aim to provide a platform for the future generation to showcase their creativity and green ideas. We hope that this inaugural award will spark interest and curiosity about innovation and green solutions among children and teenagers so that they are not only inspired but also empowered to tackle the environmental challenges around them.“
Dr. Aaron Sum, Chief Strategy Officer, Marketing & Business Development of Alliance Bank Group, added, „At Alliance Bank, our mission is to enhance the quality of life, and one way to do so is by playing our part in helping to preserve our planet. Building on our collaboration with IPC Shopping Centre in the ‚Give with Your Recyclables‘ campaign earlier, we are delighted to strengthen our partnership with IPC Shopping Centre to make the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award a success in nurturing a generation that can actively contribute to the effort of preserving our environment for the common good. This collaboration is also in line with our brand slogan ‚The Bank for Life‘ and our efforts to support our customers at every step of their life journey. With the introduction of this award, we hope to cultivate more Little Environmental Heroes and work together to transform our community into a better, more sustainable place for all.“
To participate in the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award, students must first form a team of 3 to 5 members, according to their age categories, which are 7 to 12 years old and 13 to 17 years old. They are then required to submit a presentation video not exceeding 5 minutes. The video should include an introduction and inspiration for their creation, as well as an explanation of how recyclable materials are used in their creation process. The top 20 finalist teams will have the opportunity to develop and showcase their prototypes and poster boards at IPC Shopping Centre from February 17 to March 2, 2024, for an online public voting session on IPC Shopping Centre’s official Facebook page as part of the judging process.
The top 20 finalist teams will be invited back to IPC to attend the Final Stage of the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award on March 3, 2024, where each team will be given 10 minutes to make a live presentation and engage in a Q&A session with the judging panel in the Legar Space, Level G of IPC Shopping Centre.
Team registration and video presentation submissions are open from November 1 to December 8, 2023, with the following key dates for the competition:
– November 1 – December 8, 2023: Team registration and submission of proposal videos
– December 8, 2023: Deadline for submission of presentation videos
– December 11, 2023: Judging session for presentation videos
– December 13, 2023: Announcement of the Top 100 Teams
– December 14, 2023 – February 4, 2024: Project development phase (7 weeks)
– February 4, 2024: Initial video presentation and submission of final reports
– February 6, 2024: Initial judging session
– February 8, 2024: Announcement of the Top 20 Finalists
– February 15, 2024: Submission of finalists‘ prototypes to IPC
– February 17 – March 2, 2024: Online voting
– March 3, 2024: Final Stage of the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award 2024
The IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award will feature several award categories, each celebrating different aspects of young environmental innovation:
– Most Creative: The visionary little one with a sparkling imagination.
– Most Practical: The genius problem solver little one.
– Most Innovative: The smart little one with great creation ideas.
– Most Aesthetic: The little artist with ideas that can color the world with life.
– Most Sustainable: The caring little one who creates with love for the earth.
The winning teams will receive the following prizes:
– 120,000 Tack Points (valued at RM1,000 and credited to a nominated Tack Club membership account).
– RM500 cash prize (credited to the nominated Alliance Bank team account (one recipient per team)).
– Trophy (made from recyclable materials).
– Certificate (personal certificate for each team member).
In conjunction with the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award, the shopping centre also invites Små Club members to participate in weekly activities throughout November aimed at stimulating the minds of the younger generation to practice innovative sustainable thinking.
For more information about the IPC Little Environmental Heroes Award, please visit ipc.com.my/littleheroes.
About IPC Shopping Centre:
Malaysia’s first shopping centre anchored by IKEA, and the first of many shopping centres in IKEA Southeast Asia’s portfolio in the region. A sub-regional Shopping Centre strategically located in the heart of a mixed development of offices, hotel, commercial centres & residential, it serves as the neighbourhood shopping destination for the community, complementing the shopping hub in the district known as Mutiara Damansara Commercial Centre. We opened our doors in December 2003 and today we welcome an average visitation of 15 million visitors per year to our Centre.