50 Acts of Sustainability started out as a simple initiative, hoping to influence Sunway students to start making small changes in their daily lives for the benefit of the environment,” comments Vivian Beh Wei Ean, Secretary of Sunway College Student Council. This social media campaign was carried out to raise awareness on the myriad of individual, daily, easily attainable actions for a sustainable future. Championed by the Sunway College Student Council, the campaign was entitled 50 Acts of Sustainability and encourages all students to be more mindful of their choices and to start playing a part in making the world a better place.

Sunway University Celebrates the 5th Anniversary of the SDGs with a Flag display at the College Foyer

Making Sustainability Accessible
The aim of this project is to encourage students to incorporate sustainability into their daily lives. This initiative included 50 acts across a wide range of categories. The categories included food and drinks, clothes, daily life, and conserving resources. These acts clearly proved that sustainability can be easily embedded into everyday choices. Sunway strongly advocates and supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and this campaign encouraged students to walk the talk.

Sunway Specific Sustainability Acts
To create more avenues for participation, Sunway-specific acts were framed. The Student Council brainstormed acts targeted for the Sunway community to spur greater collective action in creating a culture of green living. Some of these acts included using the elevated canopy walk to the neighbouring Sunway Pyramid Mall instead of driving as well as using Sunway Pals cards instead of taking a parking ticket.

SDG 12
The student council developed acts aligned with SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. “Simple and straightforward, the 50 AOS champions small acts that would eventually accumulate and contribute to a better future,” mentioned Hannah binti Muhammad Nasir, an A-Levels student.

Minimalist Campaign Design
The campaign used a combination of pastel colours to reflect the simplicity of the project as well as minimalistic messages to make it easily understandable to students. As Jacqueline Lye Chen Chen, Vice-President of the Sunway College Student Council mentioned, “Our vision for the aesthetic of this campaign was to keep things minimalistic since the theme was about sustainability. We wanted the layout to be simple by using more neutral colours that were more pleasing to the eye and resembled nature. We also went for softer illustrations that resembled hand-drawn art to emulate the feeling of naturalness.”

Small Acts Count
Across the 38 weeks of the campaign, students were constantly interfaced with behaviours that positively impacted the environment. The acts were intentionally designed as easily attainable to encourage behavioural change. Nasir commented, “‘Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world’, the 50 Acts of Sustainability initiative reflects this idea perfectly. Many don’t realise the impact of picking up sustainable habits, and that’s exactly what the initiative highlights.”