Malaysia’s Most Dynamic Living Lab
Sunway has built a physical and social ecosystem that fosters innovation, generates and incubates ideas to address the challenges facing humanity.
Our flagship smart sustainable city, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, is now Malaysia’s most dynamic living laboratory and a test bed for researchers, experts and academia to generate sustainable real-world solutions for the prosperity and progress of the people and the planet.
Why Sunway City Kuala Lumpur?
Sprawling 800 acres, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur encompasses an enviable portfolio of more than 11,000 residential and commercial units, in addition to its multi-award-winning hospitality, retail, leisure, healthcare and education components.
With more than 150 species of flora and fauna today, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur was built on a tin-mining wasteland and is a product of outstanding rehabilitation and restoration efforts. Regarded as a safe city that serves a population of 200,000, our township is a place where community can live, learn, work and play in a safe, healthy and connected environment for generations to come.
Talent
With the establishment of three universities and 42KL, a tuition-free programming school at Sunway FutureX that is located within the township, we continuously produce and groom talent through seamless collaborative partnerships with experts of different industries while nurturing future leaders for our nation.
GRI 200, 400
Liveability
As a smart sustainable township, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur features all the components of a liveable city: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Convenience is key in our township: there are electric buses running on elevated tracks, as well as a covered canopy walkway with built-in solar panels connecting various facilities and amenities including an award-winning medical centre and a host of universities within a 5km radius. In fact, the successful model of this township is replicated and remodelled in Sunway City Ipoh and Sunway City Iskandar Puteri.
GRI 200, 300, 400
Resources & Expertise
Home to Sunway Clinical Medical Centre, a collaborative effort with University of Cambridge; Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, Sunway Innovation Labs (iLabs), The Makerspace, three universities and Sunway’s thriving businesses, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is the only place where one can easily tap into these resources all under one roof. These establishments work closely with one another on academic research to incubate ideas and generate solutions.
GRI 200, 400
Key Focus Areas
Our living lab initiatives focus on six key areas:
Smart Cities
Disrupting conventional real-estate markets through the use of artificial intelligence, blockchain and IoT to reimagine and transform the use of space. Through technology and new innovations, we aim to build sustainable cities which are smarter and healthier, while improving convenience, connectivity and quality of life in the community.
Super Accelerator
- Sunway iLabs Super Accelerator is a four-month programme designed to provide funding and support to startups with at least a minimum viable product (MVP) or market-ready solution to accelerate their business in Sunway’s ecosystem. Each selected startup receives up to RM 100,000 in seed investment, mentorship and market access. We also facilitate engagement between startups and our corporate business divisions to ensure the smooth execution of innovative and impactful pilot projects at our designated test beds in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur.
Sunway Startup Immersion and Accelerator Programme
- Sunway iLabs works closely with global partners to curate and design startup immersion and accelerator programmes to support the expansion of selected startups into the Southeast Asian market, using Malaysia as their main launchpad. Focusing on knowledge sharing, mentoring sessions and localised skills transfer, each programme enables startups to learn first-hand about the local startup ecosystem, industry landscape, business culture and regulations.
- Our main objectives are to help global startups gain clarity and confidence, strategise with Sunway iLabs to offer the right product at the right time, and increase efficiency by developing localised products that meet customer needs at a lower cost within a shorter time.
Advancing Smart Sustainable Cities with 5G
- Our first tripartite collaboration with Celcom and Huawei hopes to take the nation one step closer to achieving sustainable development via smart solutions, thus positioning Sunway City Kuala Lumpur as the launch pad of this ground-breaking partnership as one of the region’s model smart sustainable cities.
GRI 200, 300, 400
Edutech
Complementing the education landscape through impact-driven teaching and learning tools to disrupt traditional education systems, by providing peer-to-peer, gamification, problem solving and hands-on learning on our campus.
Sunway FutureX Talent
- We have collaborated with France-based 42, resulting in the setting up of 42 KL, a coding school in Malaysia. It will be housed in Sunway FutureX building, as part of its FutureX Talent. 42 operates with a unique model that touts zero tuition fees, zero teachers and zero traditional classrooms. It offers peer-to-peer learning and is completely merit-based – the only application requirement is that students must be 18 years and above. Focusing on project-based learning imitating real-world work, the school encourages students to learn time management and build conceptual frameworks that can be applied to industry challenges and problem statements.
GRI 200, 400
Digital Health Tech
Supporting healthcare organisations to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery through personalised, efficient and cutting-edge medical solutions. Harnessing the power of data and in-depth analysis, we are also looking to solve problems related to preventive health conditions such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and deep tech in healthcare.
Contactless COVID-19 Testing Pods
- Sunway Medical Centre and Sunway iLabs have built a contactless COVID-19 testing pod, allowing healthcare workers in Malaysia to conduct testing for suspected cases in a safer and more efficient manner. The success of this project has been made possible due to the collaborative effort of various components and resources available at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, a vibrant and dynamic living lab with a thriving ecosystem where ideas are developed and turned into sustainable solutions.
GRI 200, 400
Agri-Food Tech
Addressing challenges with tech-driven solutions throughout the farm-to-fork supply chain to create impact both upstream and downstream. The need to scale clean and healthy food production in Malaysia is vital, and we are looking to build decentralised smart urban farms throughout our cities across the country, with the goal of improving Malaysia’s food security.
Sunway XFarms
- The first of its kind in Malaysia, Sunway XFarms (previously known as Sunway FutureX Farm) will be housed in the Sunway FutureX building at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur. It will serve as a skill-building hub for urban farming professionals, tech companies, researchers and young talent to collaborate and create transformative solutions focusing on food and agri-tech.
- It focuses on the delivery of four key objectives – Nourish, Educate, Empower and Innovate. In partnership with Sunway Property, we aim to nourish our community with fresh produce grown at our farms and educate them about sustainable living and urban farming. We hope to sow the seeds of inspiration and, ultimately, empower homeowners to grow their own food. Bringing together a wide pool of expertise and resources from ecosystem players, Sunway XFarms aims to build decentralised urban farms to serve local communities, as well as to address supply chain challenges and the distance between farms to fork.
GRI 200, 300, 400
E-Commerce
Empowering businesses to adopt eCommerce and digital solutions for faster growth, to reach new markets and to explore additional revenue streams. Together with our partners, we aim to build a holistic ecosystem by providing innovative solutions such as O2O enablers, logistics, omni-channel marketing, payment and security.
Alibaba Global E-commerce Talent (GET) Programme
- Sunway iLabs plays a role in mentoring the students on their e-commerce start-up projects and connecting them to the ecosystem.
eCommerce Jumpstart Programme
- The eCommerce Jumpstart Programme aims to help retail SMEs and entrepreneurs on their digital transformation journey to weather through the economic downturn we are facing using a structured curriculum and mentorship with digital experts – at no charge. It is a free four-week training programme for SMEs and retail entrepreneurs to help their businesses get online. It is hosted by Sunway Innovation Labs (iLabs) and Sunway University in partnership with numerous industry leaders, government agencies and digital champions.
SunSEA Capital
- We have also invested through Sunway’s Venture Capital arm, SunSEA Capital, in a Singapore-based e-commerce enabler (Intrepid Group), who recently closed its series B funding. We will be working with startups like Intrepid to build a seamless online-to-offline experience.
GRI 200, 400
Fintech
Through our Fintech ecosystem, we aim to enhance and automate financial processes and services in our bid to promote financial inclusion for Malaysians and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), aligned with the UN-SDG 10 of Reducing Inequalities.
Our own remittance system
Our fully owned Sunway Money is Malaysia’s first completely online and licensed remittance house. Through its e-Know Your Customer (eKYC) system, it can also be accessed at one’s convenience for banking activities such as deposits, loans, bill payments, financial products digitally.
Digital Banking License
Sunway aims to be among the five to be awarded the Digital Banking License by Bank Negara Malaysia. This license will contribute to our bid for innovative application of technology to uplift the financial well-being of individuals and businesses, fostering sustainable growth.
GRI 200, 400
Sustainability Report
This report is prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. We engaged an external assurance provider to verify the report’s accuracy and reliability of data, initiatives and policies, and to provide an independent assurance statement.
Feedback from our stakeholders is vital for us to continually improve our reporting and sustainability practices. We welcome your views, comments or feedback, which may be directed to sustainability@sunway.com.my.
View all past sustainability reports
