SUSTAINABLE development has gained immense support over the years, especially with the Earth's biodiversity being threatened by climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.
This support must, however, depend on public knowledge of sustainable development, which in turn is dependent on how the government (and mass media) portrays the relevant scientific data.
Without the public's support, bringing positive and major changes in sustainability will be harder to achieve.
Communicating scientific research accurately while being easy for people to understand is essential to creating a science citizen nation.
Doing so will help spread knowledge on certain subjects and topics (in this case, sustainable development) and get people to ask questions and, thus, stimulate further discussion.
This depends on the government's willingness share information with the public.
Dr Zeeda Fatimah Mohamad, Universiti Malaya's (UM) expert on sustainable development, during a discussion, highlighted the government's role as the medium of change when deliberating the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
When asked if it was possible for the government to develop more promising roles towards sustainable development and to ensure the increment of public participation, Zeeda says: "Yes. Actions like Sekitar Kita and the Water Warriors will be able to gain more traction faster with proper actions of promoting it to the public, this will make Science Citizen action even more feasible".
We can look to Singapore as an example, as the government knows what they want, allowing them to envision their actions towards goals that benefit current and future generations.
UM's Associate Professor of Socio-Environmental Energy Science, Dr Zul Ilham Zulkiflee Lubes said: "Communicating sustainable development in this era does not necessarily require a top-down approach, where government machinery is needed. This requires one to be an agent of change. We must help our future agents of change, give them the opportunity to innovate and make the world a better place."
In order to create a new generation of agents of change, we must foster this mindset at college level.
If we can turn one person into an agent of change, imagine how much we can accomplish if we do the same on a national, and later, global scale.
This concept formed the basis for the "heartware" approach that UM's Water Warriors (WW) adopted for their projects.
Where "hardware" is the utilisation of science and technology and "software" are rules and regulations that have to be applied, heartware represents the human element, such as the relationship between us and nature, local traditions and folklore and the role of local communities, scientists and politicians.
WW recognised that a combination of hardware, software and heartware is necessary to achieve their goals in sustainability.
WW co-founders Affan Nasaruddin and Siti Norasiah Abdul Kadir had organised community activities, such as gotong-royong, to get people involved in the revitalisation of UM's lakes and rivers, including Tasek Varsiti.
"We were inspired by the use of traditional local shared values to drive the heartware of the community in Lake Biwa, Japan," said Norasiah who wants to apply the same strategy for Tasek Varsiti.
Another is the RIMBA Project, where a variety of capacity-building activities were conducted.
They include workshops for creating nature illustrations and paper-making (the latter, encouraging students to recycle their exam question papers rather than throwing them away) and an ongoing series of nature guide workshops to inspire students to become volunteer guides at the Botanic Garden.
The RIMBA Project also runs an online nature watch (therimbaproject.wordpress.com) to provide students and the public with resources and thus, widen their influence.
Zul and his #energysavingculture research team, meanwhile, aim to implement a bottom-up approach to sustainable development communication, seeking to influence policy through behavioural changes.
"An individual behaviour change, such as always unplugging your electronics after use, may have a limited impact, but has great potential if adopted by many.
"The key to effectively activating the potential of a bottom-up approach lies in communicating both the goals of behavioural changes as well as the best strategies for implementing these changes in order to have maximum impact."
It is vital that the government provides a proper communicative tone and adopt new communication strategies in order to spread the agenda of sustainability for current and future generations.
Equally vital is the need for the public to become agents of change, pushing the government to adopt sustainable practices and working hand-in-hand to transform the nation for the benefit of our children and children's children.
Muhammad Shuhaily is a postgraduate candidate at the Faculty of Science, UM
Michael Hoe is a research assistant, Institute of Research Management and Services, UM