Malaysia is looking forward towards its 2030 ambition of becoming a Digital Nation and multiple goals are currently being laid by all ministries, stake holders, agencies, and infrastructure planners.
Among the goals is to turn some of the cities into smart cities but what does a ‘smart city’ mean. The Smart City Council defines them as one “that uses information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance liveability, workability, and sustainability. All definitions have one element in common, they agree that at the core it’s about leveraging new and disruptive technologies to address a broad range of urban problems.
AFES or Alam Flora Environmental Solutions Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alam Flora Sdn Bhd (Alam Flora), under Malakoff Corporation Berhad (Malakoff), aims to be the country’s urban problem solver in areas of waste, energy and green initiatives be it for a city of today or smart city of the future.
According to Chief Operating Officer Nazar Abdul Raof, AFES is well positioned to address many of the issues pertaining to achieving a smart city status. For instance, smart environment and smart living are found to be two important factors, here AFES fits the role in providing services like monitoring services for sustainable resource management, building disaster resilient cities and contributing towards cleaner environment.
Smart environment includes green technology, waste to energy, disaster management system and integrated waste management whilst Smart Living is about community urban farming, safe city, smart grid, digital healthcare and integrated CCTV. As part of Malakoff, AFES has the advantage to leverage Malakoff’s capabilities in creating a smart grid solution for smart city developments.
As for smart city development this is where AFES shines, according to Nazar, it’s here where the company can provide holistic services and facilities to all be placed in one city. The building management solution, Centralised Monitoring Management System (CMMS), Centralised Monitoring System (CEMOS), Modern Waste Management (collection of domestic waste, scheduled waste and recyclable wastes), treatment processes, waste segregation, anaerobic digesters, urban farming, incinerators, and landfills are the solutions the company already offers which ensures any development functions for future sustainability.
AFES can mobilise all these smart solutions needed for comprehensive development by utilising its state-of-the-art tools currently being actively mobilised in urban settings.
Smart Solutions During Critical Times
The pandemic highlighted many areas that became challenging when a lockdown or physical contact was not an option, this situation needed ‘out of the box’ thinking for utility and urban management companies like AFES. Operations need to continue and added roles of safety and sanitisation were a must.
In addressing situations like this, Nazar says that they quickly formalised solutions for the clients while maintaining safety SOPs.
“For our current clients, we provide value-added services which includes sanitisation of buildings and premises, all over the country to ensure that safety and hygiene standards are maintained. Rest assured, AFES is equipped with professional sanitisation team and equipment. We use environmental-friendly and certified chemicals to execute sanitisation and disinfection procedures,” Nazar adds.
Technology Enabled
AFES is actively implementing and practicing the latest in Facility Management in three key areas: Building and Energy Management, Infrastructure Management and Waste Management. Using technology to monitor their activities across the country, they have incorporated a Centralised Monitoring System (CEMOS). With this new monitoring system, AFES is able to monitor operations with very little human intervention.
In their Building and Energy Management activities, they can continuously monitor energy consumption by using smart lighting systems and make real-time adjustments on energy distribution. This remote management is what defines as clever technology utilisation in solving urban problems.
Having invested heavily in technology, AFES has future-proofed its systems in preparation for the country’s digitalisation efforts, as the transition to smart municipality and smart city takes-off.
In order for this transition to take effect smoothly, a capable partner is ever essential and in this case one enabled provider is fully geared to assist in that leap.
