The Green Light

Renard Siew is making waves in the sustainability sphere, which is a constant work-in-progress, he divulges to Kathlyn D’Souza

- Kathlyn D’Souza

 RENARD SIEW has one of those pleasant faces that would have you smiling back in no time, for no reason. He calls it his ‘smiley’ face—one that would make photographers go, “Maybe we could try a non-smiling one?” To the local media, he is known as the ‘New Age Warrior’, ‘Malaysia’s Green Warrior’ and ‘Mother Earth’s Greatest Ally’. Why? Because he’s heavily involved in sustainability and eco-consciousness, delving into both the engineering and economic aspects of the green movement—addressing the many challenges of developing sustainable communities. He even cites Captain Planet as his all-time favourite superhero.

This huge love and commitment to nature stemmed from his childhood years, during when his hometown constantly flooded during the La Nina season, or during when there are really heavy downpours. “As a kid, I frequently asked the people around me what was the cause of these calamities, and all the time I’d just be told that it’s an act of God, and there’s nothing we could do about it,” says Renard. Clearly unsatisfied with that answer, he made it a personal goal to change that. Back then, Renard had first thought that sustainability was mainly a Western concept, and that career options in Asia would be scarce, but he was determined. “Then something truly amazing happened, Ban Ki-moon got elected as the UN Secretary General; it was great to see that someone from Asia was now the face of ‘Sustainable Development’, and somewhere along those lines, I genuinely believed that I could perhaps, one day, be like him,” he confesses.