Research Platforms' Performance Reports GA21 2015-2017 | Page 11

Sustainable Development
‘Economic and neural foundations for sustainable resource
management, ‘Consumer knowledge, attitudes and
willingness to pay for sustainable palm oil in Selangor’;
and ‘Sustainable community vulnerable for free-riders: A
Sikhism study’. All these areas are relevant to sustainable
development goals (SDGs) providing input to further
investigate the SDGs for policy-relevant insights.
The cluster has been active in promoting the concept
of sustainable development especially with reference to
the SDGs of the UN. Several seminars on sustainable
development was presented in the School of Business,
School of Engineering and the School of Science under
the Sustainable Planet Program. In addition, the cluster
published several promotional newspaper articles in Sri
Lanka and Australia on important topics to support the
sustainable development cause.
Professor Gamini Herath
Research Cluster Members
Professor Gamini Herath
(Cluster Leader)
Associate Professor Motoki Watabe
Dr Ashutosh Sarker
Dr Holly Barclay
Dr Saman Ilankoon
The sustainable development cluster focuses on economic
growth and development that is socially inclusive,
environmentally benign and prosperous for society. The
cluster promotes sustainable development in Asia by
integrating economic, environmental and social dimensions
of development to enhance awareness amongst
researchers, policy makers and the general public.
The cluster was successful in being involved in a
multidisciplinary grant on ‘sustainable rivers’ with Sunway
as the research site. This is a RM 250,000 grant for two
years and is very much on this cluster’s agenda.
One of the projects under this cluster is to study consumer
knowledge, attitudes and willingness to pay for sustainable
palm oil in Selangor. The aim of this research is to identify
whether these attributes are correlated with demographic
characteristics and/or the environment worldwide,
including concern for the environment of consumers in
Selangor. This research will provide preliminary information
about the potential of Malaysian consumers to generate
increased demand for certified sustainable palm oil
(CSPO) products as well as contribute to the international
literature on associations between demographic
background, environmental attitudes and uptake among
consumers of products which are marketed as coming
from sustainable sources. Upon finalising the findings,
the researcher aims to submit the research paper to a
Q1 journal. All in all, these initiatives will provide a robust
approach to foster the sustainable development idea
across the university and the community and provide a
solid foundation for future work.
The most significant achievement is the disbursement
of funds through large and small seed grants to several
academics across the campus. The themes supported
deal with the most critical issues of sustainability. Grants
have been offered on the following topics: ‘Sustainable
and low-cost resource recovery in developing countries’,
10