Page 250 - Shaping A Sustainable Future

We were glad to partner with ITE students and lecturers applications and discussed the details and findings with
in the project. We were open to the idea of integrating my teammates. I also spent more time on research
IoT technology for improved equipment maintenance online. Through this project, I am more determined
& energy savings. We appreciate the ITE lecturers to play my part in helping businesses to enhance their
and students for their help in this project and its Eco- environmental sustainability and improve business
Solutions. We would also like to thank HSBC/NYAA for performance. I would recommend such projects
starting the project with their funding. to my juniors for the awareness and importance of
environmental sustainability.
Student’s Reflection

Before this project, I only had a At first, I did not care about
brief idea of what environmental environmental sustainability. I
sustainability was all about, would not say that I did not fully
such as tapping on renewable appreciate the environment and
resources and ways to conserve had not given much thought.
our current resources. I felt When I first heard about this
that I had learned a lot from project, I intended to improve
this experience, as I could not my technical skillset. Moreover,
I had little knowledge about
have imagined that businesses the 3Rs (Reuse, Reduce and
Joseph Chua Zhi Jia would overlook certain areas in Jarel Koh Jia Le Recycle) and using energy when
their operation, increasing their using a device. In short, you
operational costs.
could say that I was oblivious towards environmental
While studying my specialization in IoT, I realised that by sustainability, or perhaps even self-centred.
using electronics and the ‘Internet of Things technology, For my part, I drafted, analysed and wrote the
it was possible to monitor the operation of machinery, environmental review report. I also had video
in this case, freezers, which were concluded to be the conferences with the supervisors to ensure the review
primary source of energy consumption. IoT solutions questions were clear and meaningful. I also worked on
help track the freezers’ operation time, downtime, and the final report and project proposal. Towards the end,
capping the wastage of precious resources such as food I produced the sensors placed within the freezers to
to the minimum, lowered power consumption and monitor the temperature. I encountered a few challenges
associated carbon emissions, and improved company with the parts associated with the sensors. However, I
profitability. The project has also piqued my interest in overcame them with guidance and advice from my team
members and supervisors. Overall, I appreciated the
environmental sustainability. project experience as I was able to improve my technical
skillset, but it was also a learning experience about the
Previously, I had not considered how businesses could environment. I spent a considerable amount of time
impact the environment significantly. Because of the researching ideas about environmental sustainability,
pandemic, it was harder to proceed with the project. for example, using LED bulbs instead of tungsten ones
However, this allowed me to explore various online and the type of coolants used in freezers and air-

248