Tree Planting

19/11/2009

The Greening of Puchong and SDI’s Merdeka Tree Planting

Sime Darby Industrial Sdn Bhd celebrated Malaysia’s 52nd Merdeka this year by ‘going green’, and taking yet another positive step in the Group’s journey towards making a sustainable future real for everyone.
Along this path, we planted our own Merdeka Tree of Life.  This Merdeka tree was decorated with heart-felt messages crafted by staff who wanted to contribute towards a sustainable future for the planet, people and profits of the company they work for.

Here are some of the gems submitted by our staff :
 “Business as usual is dead.  Green growth is the answer to both our climate and economic problems” – Mohd Raifudden Ramli, Management Apprentice
“One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade” – Goh Li Wei, Finance
“The world has enough for our needs, not our greeds” – Lynette Chong, 6-Sigma
“Take nothing but pictures; Leave Nothing but footprints; Kill nothing but time; Good planets are hard to find” – Nelly Ng, Marketing
“Heal the world.  Let’s make it a better place – for you and for me, and the entire human race” – Yusri Samsudin, Power Systems

As our Merdeka journey progressed in August, we distributed 1,000 saplings of rainforest trees to the Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ) so that the Council may plant these trees and beautify Puchong for its community.

We gave out still more rainforest trees to 10 schools in Puchong for their own school beautification programmes.  In doing so, these students may discover for themselves why the different species of trees are important to our own survival.  Each tree is tagged with the name of their specie.  We also kept aside some trees for the greening of our own work environment at Tractors Engineering Complex, and for the gardens of our employees.
A total of 2,000 rainforest saplings and treelets were given away by our Managing Director Mr Chong Kwea Seng on Tuesday, August 18.
In his speech, which stressed on the importance and value of rainforest trees, Mr Chong remarked that about one quarter of all our medicines comes from rainforest plants and that “more than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for cancer”.
“Scientists have estimated that more than half of the world’s plant and animal species live in tropical rainforests.  A tropical rainforest will have more kinds of trees than any other area in the world, and it is a fact that tropical rainforests produce 40% of the Earth’s oxygen,” he added.
Finally, a parting message from one of our staff, Norizan Mohd Nordin : “Do our bit to save planet Earth from destruction – it is not difficult.  Do it for us and do it for our children”.

Crowd gathered to witness the Tree Planting Ceremony at Sime Darby Industrial,Tractors Engineering Complex, Puchong.

The Merdeka tree is being watered by Mr K S Chong Managing Director & Encik Faudzi, General Manager-Facilities as a symbolic gesture of life.

Mr. KS Chong and Encik . Faudzi shoveling earth to plant the first merdeka tree at Tractors Engineering Complex.

10 schools participated in the tree planting ceremony and have pledged to plant the trees at their schools. Here Mr K. S. Chong, Managing Director of Sime Darby Industrial Sdn.Bhd., with teacher representatives from each schools from the Puchong community.