Meet Our Green Hero: YAM Tengku Datin Paduka Setia Zatashah Idris

Advocate and Environmentalist

KLASSics Alumna 1978 - 1983

“We all have this capacity to make the world a better place.”

In 2016, she founded her own #zerofoodwastage campaign after realising almost 230,000 tonnes of food during Ramadan was being thrown away and thought that this was totally unacceptable. As a regular volunteer with Kechara Soup Kitchen to feed the homeless, she saw that there were better ways to channel this wastage. This propelled her to write to major hotel groups and supermarkets such as Tesco Malaysia, Aeon Malaysia and SegiFresh to be part of #zerofoodwastage. Since its inception, the campaign has saved 721 tonnes of food and it has benefited 22,000 people from the homeless to urban poor families and special children's houses.

She is currently on the Board of Trustee to Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia, which is now spreading #zerofoodwastage nationwide with government support.

Tengku Zatashah also sets great examples to motivate the community towards becoming more environmentally conscious and sustainable. Scrolling through her social media feeds, the public can see how she advocates for her campaign #sayno2plastic which she initiated three years ago to fight against plastic pollution. Her social media campaigns have seen success with much lobbying to authorities as well as impacting change amongst the public to raise much needed awareness. She shares her stories of carrying tiffin during Ramadhan, conducting beach and dive cleanups, as well as coral replanting and conservation projects. Since 2018 she has facilitated and collected with volunteers over 455kg of trash, which is mainly plastics. Additionally, she is a Sharksavers Malaysia ambassador fighting to stop shark finning through the #ImFINishedwithFINS campaign.

As President of Alliance Francaise de Kuala Lumpur, her role in promoting the French language and French culture in Malaysia has culminated in her being awarded the prestigious Chevalier de Legion d’honneur, the highest French order of merit by France in 2017. We are also proud to have her as a Board Member of the Alice Smith School Foundation since its inception in 2018.

Her involvement in many charities and NGOs will help open up links to organisations that the Foundation will be able to access’ through our community outreach programmes. As Tengku Zatashah always tells us, “There’s so much we can do!”. She has certainly made The Foundation and the School aspire to commit ourselves to making a difference for our environment and our community.