AS I drove down south the other day, I saw several huge housing projects that had erected billboards claiming to be eco-friendly, with lush greenery that promised to protect the environment.
It's greenwashing. It makes these housing development corporations appear more environmentally friendly than they really are.
Many offer greenwashed "products" to solicit housebuyers' trust and make more profits.
The rising demand for more environment-friendly residential areas is genuine, but people have been "tricked" into buying these homes developed by over-promising, greedy corporations.
The results of these new housing projects are disappointing. Corporations build nice, modern-looking homes but with sparsely planted decorative trees over what was once a virgin jungle or a secondary forest.
Some are built on large tracts of dormant oil palm and rubber estate land.
Worse, they build homes by clearing vegetation on steep hills.
I do not know why and how the authorities could have overlooked the environmental assessment impact (EIA) but at the end of it, we have landslides threatening the lives of the occupants.
Low-lying areas are threatened by flash floods.
Back in 1986, environmentalist Jay Westerveld coined the term greenwashing when most consumers received news from television, radio and print media — the same outlets that corporations regularly flooded with a wave of slickly produced commercials and print ads.
Those were the days when limited public access to information and seemingly unlimited advertising enabled companies to present themselves as caring environmental stewards, even as they were engaging in environmentally unsustainable practices.
The same thing still happens now, as there are many ways to convince the public in this digital age.
Companies now pride themselves in so-called eco-friendly projects.
Someone told me the other day that it was a euphemism, a nice way of saying they were stewards of the environment, when they are not.
Hence, there's a pressing need for the authorities to reflect on the defining attributes of eco-friendly projects.
There must be a higher EIA standard, especially when projects could lead to natural disasters occuring in the surrounding areas or downstream.
These include the construction of roads and other auxiliary infrastructural support that the corporations and authorities could have neglected to build.
Furthermore, there is now a glut of unpurchased homes in large housing projects across the country.
Some abandoned or completed projects have caused flash floods due to unmaintained roads and construction debris in the monsoon drains. Water run-off appears to be the problem.
Hence, we need to look at our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) when the authorities give permission to corporations to build new housing and commercial projects.
Malaysia and 192 world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept 25, 2015.
This is a global commitment towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive development, with 17 SDGs and 169 targets.
One of the pillars in the government's road map to achieving the SDGs is enhancing environmental sustainability through green growth to ensure sustainability of natural resources and increase resilience against climate change while achieving higher economic growth.
This is admirable and looks good on paper, but in recent years, we have to admit we have failed to observe what is required of the authorities and corporations to achieve the SDGs.
As a nation, we have until 2050 to accomplish all 17 SDGs and 169 targets.
While there's a need to ensure that people are aware of what sustainable development is about, there is a parallel need to encourage corporations to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle before and after project constructions.
Many a time, we see corporations flouting environmental laws, including polluting the rivers.
The authorities must deep dive into every sustainability information to avoid slip-ups and regulations circumvention.
We need to avoid recurring criticisms against government agencies for alleged poor development planning and weak environmental regulation or enforce-ment.
What we really don't need is greenwashing by corporations claiming that their development projects are truly green.
The writer, a former NST journalist, is a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts
