Young Innovators Unite: IPC Shopping Centre Empowers Children And Youths To Pave Way For A Greener Tomorrow With Its ‘Little Eco-Heroes Awards’

IPC Shopping Centre in collaboration with its super partner, Alliance Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to kick-off the IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards. Open to students from the age of 7 to 17, the initiative aims to ignite creativity of young minds, encouraging them to craft innovative, eco-friendly solutions to solve environmental challenges using recycled and recyclable materials.

For the last 20 years, IPC Shopping Centre has been committed to create a more sustainable future for its communities. Its Recycling and Buy-Back Centre (RBBC), first established in 2009 and later underwent an upgrade in 2022, plays a vital role in empowering visitors to adopt sustainable living by accepting up to 15 recyclables categories, namely cardboard, paper, plastic, metal, aluminium, drink carton, polystyrene, textile, light bulb, florescent light tube, medicine, glass, battery, e-waste and food waste. The IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards that will take place from today up till 3 March 2024 further extends this commitment by challenging students to build either functional or non-functional prototypes aimed at addressing waste-related issues using the same recyclables accepted in the RRBC.

Ms Karyn Lim, General Manager of IPC Shopping Centre, said, “As we celebrate our 20^th anniversary, we are thrilled to introduce the IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards. At IPC Shopping Centre, we have always been passionate about sustainability and reducing our impact on the environment. We take pride in being the ‘home away from home’ for our community, a place where individuals of all ages can come together to make cherished memories with each other and also participate in giving back to the planet. That is why through the IPC Little Eco Heroes Awards, we want to provide a platform for our future generation to showcase their green ideas and creativity. We hope that this inaugural award will spark interest and curiosity about green innovation and solutions among children and youths so that they will not only feel inspired but also empowered to take on environmental challenges around them.”

Dr Aaron Sum, Group Chief Strategy, Marketing & Business Development Officer of Alliance Bank added, “At Alliance Bank, our mission is to improve lives and one way to do so is by doing our part to help preserve the planet. Further to our previous collaboration with IPC Shopping Centre on ‘Gavå with Your Recyclables’ campaign, we are excited to strengthen our partnership to work together with IPC Shopping Centre for the Little Eco-Heroes Awards to nurture a generation that actively contributes to improve our environment for the collective good. This partnership is also line with our brand purpose of ‘The Bank for Life’ and our endeavour to build on ESG initiatives, which is centered on supporting our customers through every step of their life’s journey. With the introduction of this award, we hope that more Little Eco-Heroes will arise and work together to transform our community into a better, more sustainable home for all.”

To participate in the Little Eco-Heroes Awards, students are required to first form a group comprising of 3 to 5 members according to their age categories, namely 7 – 12 years old and 13 – 17 years old. Subsequently, they are to submit a video presentation of no more than 5 minutes covering the introduction and inspiration of their invention as well as a description of how recycled materials will be incorporated in their invention process.  The top 20 finalist teams will then get the opportunity to develop and showcase their prototypes and poster boards at IPC Shopping Centre from 17 February to 2 March 2024 for public voting via the official Facebook page of IPC Shopping Centre as part of the judging process.

The top 20 finalist teams will be invited back to IPC to attend the Little Eco-Heroes Awards Grand Final on 3 March 2024 where each team will be allocated 10 minutes for their live presentation and Q&A session with the panel of judges at Concourse, Level G of IPC Shopping Centre.

The team registration and video presentation submission are open from 1 November 2023 to 8 December 2023, and other deadlines for the competition are as indicated below:

The IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards will feature several award categories, each celebrating a different aspect of young eco-innovation:

• Most Creative: The little visionary that sparkles with imagination.
• Most Practical: The little genius problem-solver.
• Most Innovative: The little brainiac with powerful inventive ideas.
• Most Aesthetic: The little artist with ideas that colour the world with life.
• Most Sustainable: The gentle one who invents with earth-loving care.

The winning teams will receive the following prizes:

• 120,000 Tack Points (valued at RM1,000 and will be awarded to the nominated Tack Club membership accounts).
• RM500 cash (credited to the Alliance Bank bank accounts of the nominated team (one recipient per team)).
• Trophy (made from recycled materials).
• Certificates (personalized certificate for each team member).

In conjunction with the IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards, IPC Shopping Centre is also inviting its Små Club members to join its weekend activities in November that aims to stimulate young minds to adopt an innovative sustainability mindset. For more information about the IPC Little Eco-Heroes Awards, visit ipc.com.my/littleheroes