A SPEECH: "Sustainable Green Building Technologies in Facing COVID-19 to Support SDGs."

 So guys, this is a speech that I made for a preliminary round for a speech contest in my city.  ORIGINALLY MADE BY ME. I hope you guys enjoy reading this! xoxo 

Ladies and gentleman, the main topic that I’m going to talk about today is “Sustainable Green Building technologies in Facing Covid-19 to support SDGs.”

First of all, have you ever heard about a green building? I know what you’re thinking, a skyscraper building with so many plants or vegetation covering the building. But, did you know that a green building is so much more than that? Green building in general is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. Now, before we learn about a green building, let’s talk about what a sustainable building is. Sustainable buildings are buildings that respond to climatic conditions and the ecosystem in which they are built. Sustainable buildings also usually get their own source of energy. Most importantly, a sustainable building CAN prevent the transmissions of Corona Virus and support one of the goals of the SDGs in the field of Sustainable Infrastructure and Climate Action. One of the way to make a building sustainable is applying the ‘Green Building’ concept.

Ladies and gentleman, making a building ‘green’ is not something hard to do. We can start from minimizing energy consumption because consumption of a natural resources is the heart of sustainability. First thing first, we can apply the cross ventilation system to reduce the use of Air Conditioner. Cross ventilation is a system that relies on wind to force cool exterior air into the building through the open window while outlet forces warm interior outside through the open window. If we keep using the Air Conditioner, the air inside the building is not good anymore and it’s bad for our health, especially those who works in office buildings without any air circulation (only glass) and that’s not very responsive to the climate in Indonesia. Secondly, we can take the advantage of natural sunlight to reduce electricity usage or using an intelligent lighting system that is controlled by main control panel so that the lights will turn off automatically by motion sensor. Third, a technology that every green building must have is a solar panel that function to convert light into electrical energy. Solar panels also can help smoothing water circulation especially for those who live in countryside. So, living in a green building is not something so precious that we can’t afford by ourselves. We CREATE IT. Green building can save energy use and even more than that, by living in clean, well-maintained, and green space can make us stay healthy so that we can prevent us from Corona Virus and help the government suppress the positive number of Corona Virus.

Ladies and gentleman, have you ever thought that Corona Virus can change the interior design in the future? Well, the answer is YES, Corona Virus can change the layout of interior building as long as vaccine hasn’t been found. Us, as a nation’s next generation, must prepare that. Maybe in the future, we won’t need to touch everything and start using technology. For example, for office building, using sensor motion and face recognition would be a normal thing to do. And recently, an innovation from our Electrical Engineering students, the creation of a portable sink that we don’t have to touch, just need to step on it or using a sensor. It can be used as a temporary sink at home. Those are examples of applying technological advances in facing COVID-19 and support SDGs.

Ladies and gentleman, as a young generation and also agent of change, we must be able to develop sustainable technologies that are responsive to viruses because if not us, who will? Sometimes we forget how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on earth as its other creatures do. Environment is no one’s property to destroy, it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect. I remember a quotes from someone, “Progress Is Impossible Without Change, and Those Who Cannot Change Their Minds, Cannot Change Everything.”