I am privileged to convey this message as the founder and CEO of Optimal Systems Engineering Sdn Bhd (OPTIMISE), and as the leader of the team to champion energy and resource sustainability via Process Integration and Process Systems Engineering (PSE) solutions in Malaysia and beyond.

Driven by the mission to build a sustainable society, we formed the Process Synthesis and Design research group at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) before the turn of the millenium.  Our success in providing PSE solutions for industry led us to establish UTM Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT) in 2007 and steered PROSPECT on a journey to develop cutting-edge solutions for maximising energy, water and resource savings for facilities based on Pinch Technology that promotes industrial symbiosis.  In 2012, UTM-PROSPECT was ranked 1st globally under the Distinguished Competency (DC#5) of Water, Costs and Optimisation by Elsevier’s Scival Spotlight. In 2014, PROSPECT was ranked 1st by Elsevier Scival in the Emerging Competency (EC#49) of “Heat Exchanger, Retrofitting and Design”. 

Our success internationally led us to establish OPTIMISE as the spin-off company to commercialise UTM R&D products, services and know-how by “Advancing circular economy through innovative process integration and smart systems engineering solutions”.

OPTIMISE’s core expertise is in process-driven industrial energy and resource optimisation using process integration and smart systems engineering solutions. We spearheaded the UTM Sustainable Energy Management program that resulted in UTM amassing RM30 million (USD 6.5 million) energy savings between 2011-2020. We led UTM to be the first ASEAN institution certified with 3-star energy management gold standard. We are involved in the program to train and certify over 1600 ASEAN energy managers, and have outreached over 500 companies via professional training and consultancy. Our technologies and smart solutions have been used beyond building facilities, by numerous industries from sectors such as oil and gas, petrochemical, power generation, oleochemical, palm oil, chloral-kali, pulp and paper, medical glove and semiconductor. 

Our team’s resilience and dedication has enabled us to rise above the massive challenges of COVID19 that has disrupted businesses from the year 2020.  We regard this as the defining moment for us to harness our innovations and strong partnership with the government, industry, academia and community, en route to realising our vision of creating a society practicing sustainable consumption and production.