Bibd Eco-Alam Festival: Tackling Food Waste By Going Zero-waste, Plastic-free and Cashless.
- Community, Featured, Sustainability
Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) today organised the BIBD Eco-Alam Festival, a three-day event which celebrates sustainability, highlights local businesses, and reaffirms the Bank’s commitment to preserving our planet for future generations. The festival is currently being held at the PGGMB Building in Bandar Seri Begawan. Present to officiate the launch of the BIBD Eco-Alam Festival was BIBD’s Managing Director and CEO, Junaidi bin Haji Masri.
In her welcoming speech, BIBD’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chair of the Sustainability Transformation Group shared that the BIBD Eco-Alam Festival is intended to be a combination of a marketplace, a workshop, and a space for learning, with fireside chats and panel talks revolving around food security, food science, the food eco-system and food waste management.
She added, “In Brunei Darussalam, food waste represents the largest proportion of waste in our landfills – approximately 32% according to the Brunei Climate Change Secretariat. For this reason, today’s festival aims to promote environmentally conscious practices and highlights ways of tackling and reducing waste.”
Held as part of the Sustainable Nation Campaign, under the SME360 Series, the Eco-Alam Festival is part of BIBD’s commitment under the Bank’s Sustainability Framework that aligns with Brunei Vision 2035 goals as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). The Eco-Alam Festival is also supporting the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports’ Youth Agenda, highlighting various youth-lead small businesses who play a part in the nation’s sustainability agenda. The event also coincides with the Ministry’s ‘Semarak Hari Kebangsaan’ initiative.
The Eco-Alam Festival will also hold a series of panel discussions featuring prominent speakers from the government sector, local businesses as well as education institutions who will be discussing issues surrounding food security and food waste management from a holistic perspective.
In addition to supporting local vendors, BIBD has also made it a priority to minimise impact on the environment by adopting cashless payments during the event, reducing plastic usage by making use of eco-friendly packaging and encouraging visitors to bring their own reusables, as well as eliminating food waste.
BIBD is working closely with local companies such as Biofield Brunei, Tebalik Plastik and Shaliz Waste Recycling who are offering solutions to the issue of food waste.
Aside from featuring local food vendors, the Eco-Alam Festival will also see various panel discussions and dialogues centred around the theme of food security, food sciences, food eco-system and food waste management. With speakers representing government departments, higher learning institutions, local NGOs, businesses, and youth advocated, members of the public are welcome to attend the talks throughout the three-day event.
The Eco-Alam Festival is organized in collaboration with Big BWN Project and endorsed by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Development with event partners Crop Culture, Tebalik Plastik, Shaliz Waste Recycling Sdn Bhd, Biofield Solutions, EnEvo and Aloha Nature House Brunei.
