A Living Lab for Sustainability: Tampere Students Explore Sustainable Engineering at Sunway
We were pleased to welcome a group of Construction Engineering students from Tampere University of Applied Sciences , Finland, to Sunway University during their short visit to Malaysia.
On 15 May 2026, the students spent the morning with us, beginning with a campus tour of our new Sunway Square campus, followed by a visit to the Net Zero Carbon Building at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology. Serving as a living laboratory, the building offered students a first-hand look at how sustainable design is translated into real-world application.
This visit highlighted a transformative leap in sustainable campus development, with the building representing Sunway University’s first Net Zero Carbon Building and serving as a model for future-ready, effective learning environments. It also reflects Sunway’s commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2030, in alignment with Sunway Group’s Net Zero 2050 goal and Malaysia’s National Energy Transition Roadmap.
Students gained insight into how the building targets net zero operational carbon through a combination of energy-efficient design strategies, high-performance building systems, and on-site renewable energy generation. The integration of smart monitoring systems further enables real-time tracking of energy performance, supporting continuous optimisation and data-driven learning.
For Construction Engineering students, this offered valuable perspective on how design, engineering, and sustainability must come together holistically to shape future-ready built environments.
It was an inspiring and engaging session, with students actively participating, asking thoughtful questions, and exchanging perspectives. They also had the opportunity to meet our Engineering student leaders, exchanging badges as a small but meaningful token of friendship and connection.
Beyond the building itself, what stood out was the opportunity for students to experience Sunway City Kuala Lumpur as a living laboratory — witnessing the transformation of a former wasteland into an integrated, sustainable township. From planning and design to daily operations, the application of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is not merely conceptual but actively embedded and practised across the entire ecosystem.
A special thank you to the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, particularly Dr Ean Lee Woen and Dr Karen Kong for their generous sharing of knowledge and for showing the students around.
We hope this experience has sparked new ideas and perspectives for the students in shaping how they approach sustainability and its application in their future profession.
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