SYNOPSIS

From the daily headlines that we see today, on the issues of climate change, world
poverty and food safety, it is without a doubt that global sustainability is starting to
gain significant attention from the major media around the world. This sentimental
reaction on the issues of sustainable development is the consequence of the
misalignment of the world’s global economy in relation to the expectations and
needs of today’s communities i.e. community well-being. The rapid expansion of
industrial activities and the traditional governmental policies which both focus more
on the economic bottom line at the expense of environmental and social obligations
is a major catalyst for such misalignment. As a consequence of this mind-set,
irresponsible practices such as uncontrolled pollution and indiscriminate use of
natural resources have occurred freely resulting in wide spread degradation of the
environment. This has also caused the lack of social cohesion to occur due to the
unfair distributions of wealth and benefits widening the gap between the rich and
the poor. How can we resolve these issues? What needs to be done? Who should be
responsible to resolve these issues? These are compelling questions that need to be
answered. If one would to look back at the engineering profession of yesteryears,
we would find that engineers have always played a pivotal role in our lives. They
have provided us with many great inventions that have enhanced and improved our
quality of life. In light of this, engineers need to take up the responsibility to
resolve these global sustainability challenges to help protect the well-being of the
present and future generations to come. This presentation deliberates on how
engineers can take a leadership role in addressing these global issues on
sustainability.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Ir. Dr. Aidil Chee Tahir has more than 11 years experience working in the corporate sector of Malaysian GLCs
focusing on areas of sustainability and corporate strategy. He obtained a Doctorate of Philosophy in the field of
sustainability metrics from the Engineering Science Department at the University of Oxford and read a degree in
Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. He was also educated in England at Malvern College and St
John’s Institution in Kuala Lumpur. At present he is an employee of Sime Darby Plantations where his responsibilities
cover quality assurance, operational excellence, and developing corporate strategic roadmaps and business
development opportunities in sustainability for the palm oil business. He is a certified Professional Engineer by the
Board of Engineers Malaysia and a corporate member with the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). At present,
he also serves as a committee member on the Mechanical Engineering Technical Division of IEM. He has published
papers on sustainability in international journals and have presented on the subject matter in both international and
local conferences throughout the world.