Children-led climate change adaptive initiative: GreenROSE@Putrajaya 2018 and 2019

The GreenROSE@Putrajaya Programme is an educational and awareness-raising programme on climate change, carried out by Putrajaya Corporation and the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia, UKM). GreenROSE@Putrajaya 2018 is catered for primary school students, aiming to instill climate-friendly practices among the youth while creating awareness on climate change in Malaysia. The ROSE from GreenROSE stands for Reduce, Offset, Substitute and Enhance. 

The programme ran for 8 months in two pilot primary schools in Putrajaya. The project is entirely student-led with support from the programme’s facilitators comprising of lectures and volunteers from the UKM. The main objective is to shape the youth in being more sensitive towards global climate change issues and adopt a low carbon lifestyle.  

There are three initiatives that the GreenROSE focused on: they are to: 

i) Initiative 1: Use STEMSEL and Ecobricks innovation to preserve the environment; 

ii) Initiative 2: Observe and practise the principles of sustainable lifestyle using Green Folio, a logbook for the primary school students to report project learnings; 

iii) Initiative 3: Raise awareness, concern, empathy and attitude change towards environmental pollution issues through storytelling. 

In the 8 months, students from the two pilot primary schools were tasked to fulfil the objectives in four categories, which are the STEMSEL (Science, Technology, Mathematics and Social Enterprise Learning), the Green Folio, Storytelling and Pledge Wall – all of which were showcase in the 2-day closing ceremony of the GreenROSE@Putrajaya 2018 programme. 

Under the STEMSEL module, the children led the innovation of ecoboat, ecobricks, smart streetlights, solar tracker, wind generator and smart city model, using the STEMSEL kit provided by the programme. The activity provided them with a comprehensive, theoretical education and practical training to students in the field of environmental preservation. 

The Green Folio comes in a form of a logbook, to monitor students’ daily activities that contribute positively to climate change. Students were encouraged to record their reflection on how they can contribute in reducing water usage and promote recycling habits, among others. 

In the spirit of making climate education an interesting discussion among youngsters, the storytelling module was launched. This has facilitated the children with the creation of storylines and characters relevant to climate preservation efforts. During the closing ceremony, the winning teams presented their stories with costumes! 

The final component of the programme was the Pledge Wall. Participating students of the project were tasked with encouraging their friends and parents to write down pledges in preserving the environment. 

Following the successful launch of the GreenROSE@Putrajaya in the previous year, in 2019, the Green Technology Application for the Development of Low Carbon Cities (GTALCC) and the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam collaborated with the project leaders on the publication of GreenROSE@Putrajaya Green Folio. 

There are altogether 5 key modules in the GreenROSE@Putrajaya Green Folio, namely Water Management Campaign, Recycling Campaign, Energy Saving Campaign, Save the Air Campaign and Save the Land Campaign. 

The Green Folio book is written in such a way that is interactive to the children. The book is aimed at educating and training the younger generation of Putrajaya to be the agents of change in preserving the environment. The book holds the narrative where the four Green City mascots named Leo, Otto, Sera and Nini interacts with the children in explaining complex environmental terms and prompting them to adopt climate-conscious habits. 

The book is tailored to the Putrajaya city, where examples used are within Putrajaya for the children to be able to relate to these issues and understand how they affect them and the city they reside in. Even the mascots are animals which can be found in Putrajaya – the Purple Heron bird, the smooth-coated otter, the dragonfly and the tree frog.