Cover Melissa Tan, climate action and sustainability advocate, shares her insider tips to green spaces and planet-friendly initiatives in Kuala Lumpur
Melissa Tan, climate action and sustainability advocate, shares her insider tips to green spaces and planet-friendly initiatives in Kuala Lumpur
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Malaysian TV host, producer, actor and sustainability advocate Melissa Tan shares her guide to discovering Kuala Lumpur through its green spaces, conscious businesses and community initiatives
Based in Kuala Lumpur, TV host and climate advocate Melissa Tan has built her work around making sustainability tangible—whether through zero-waste living or collaborations with grassroots communities across the city. In recent years, that work has taken on a real urgency. “I am reminded every day how real the environmental crisis is,” she says. “Not just on my social media feed… how birdsong has disappeared from the city I live in. The constant heat waves. The price of goods skyrocketed.”
The change was not theoretical. Within the span of a week, Tan narrowly missed two extreme weather events—first a hurricane in the United States, then historic floods in Chiang Mai. “It may sound like a joke that climate change was ‘following’ me,” she reflects. “But in a span of one week, I narrowly escaped dangerous major weather events in two different places.” The contrast between her own proximity and others’ lived reality stayed with her. “I was lucky, and privileged. But their residents? They felt the full force of it.”
Back in Kuala Lumpur, her response has been to make sustainability tangible, even within the constraints of a dense, high-consumption city. Living zero-waste, she describes the process as “being the McGyver of avoiding disposables and waste… using your mind to spot the gaps and fill them.” What began as a personal experiment has evolved into a broader philosophy—one grounded in resourcefulness, community and rethinking everyday systems. “Life became like a video game,” she says. “It showed me we don’t have to accept things as they are just because ‘this is how it’s done and everyone’s doing it’.”
That mindset moulds how she moves through Kuala Lumpur today—seeking out spaces, businesses and communities that offer alternative and planet-friendly ways of living within the city. Here, she shares her guide to navigating it with more intention.
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Above Exploring Bukit Kiara
Exploring Bukit Kiara
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I start my weekends in …
the hills of Bukit Kiara, [where I go] for a walk— preferably early in the morning—with “nature’s air conditioning” provided by the forest.
A grassroots initiative worth supporting is …
Friends of Bukit Kiara. Through the power of community, they’ve been defending Bukit Kiara from development for decades. I grew up right in front of Bukit Kiara. I’ve watched large plots of it carved and cemented over, and the fact I still have a hill to enjoy and hike in my adulthood is a testament to their decades long marathon of persistent advocacy.
A city trail in Kuala Lumpur showing why green spaces matter is …
Pulai Trail in Bukit Persekutuan. Once a former rubber estate, this secondary forest is rehabilitated and in the care of Free Tree Society, which I’m a part of. You can hear how alive the forest is compared to everywhere else. We focus on native plant species and nurturing a healthy ecosystem and encourage the community to use it and care for it as a precious green space.
Above Fresh produce, bakes and condiments from Kongsi Co-op
Fresh produce, bakes and condiments from Kongsi Co-op
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A business doing inspiring work is …
Kita Refill. They were early front runners in championing sustainability, offering refill biodegradable safe-for-waterways detergent for cleaning for more than a decade. I’ve refilled by cleaning solutions for my house and my self-care with them for the past eight years, refilling the same reused random bottles over and over again. It was never about selling you a fancy branded refill bottle for “customer loyalty”, it was the true goal of not producing any new plastics when you can reuse anything you’ve got from the start!
Places that capture Kuala Lumpur’s creative energy include …
cultural hotspots such as The Zhongshan Building in Kampung Attap—an arts and research hub—and RexKL, a vibrant cultural space. Parc Subang is also a lovely community‑centred venue.
For local crafts, I go to …
Gerai Orang Asal, a travelling pop-up that brings woven crafts from indigenous communities to the city, with all proceeds going back to the weavers.
A restaurant championing local ingredients is …
the cooperative Kongsi Coop! They partner with regenerative organic farms and grow in their urban farm as well. The food is made with such love and care with locally grown organic whole foods, including their own fermented products like tempeh, kombucha and more adventurous common types of fermentation.
Above Tan at Kebun-Kebun Bangsar with its co-founder Ng Sek San
Tan at Kebun-Kebun Bangsar with its co-founder Ng Sek San
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Sustainability and creativity come together at …
While we don’t have a dedicated space that consistently serves sustainability and creativity, we have ample grassroots organisations that pop-up all across the city that do. A slightly biased pick: Fashion Revolution Malaysia, where I’m the country coordinator. We host events that heal your relationship with fashion— through alternative ways of enjoying fashion like swapping, creative mending, restyling, learning and preserving cultural heritage, It’s all part of a larger shift away from fast fashion, and towards a more personal, intentional sense of style.
More people should know about …
Kebun-Kebun Bangsar. It’s a space where the neighbourhood shows up—children play, people gather and the community garden grows food around you. It’s a free, authentic third space that attracts people who use it thoughtfully and give back to it.
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Nafeesa Saini is the Features Editor at Tatler Singapore, where she shapes long-form stories on culture, business, philanthropy, wellness, and the people driving change in Asia. With a deep interest in storytelling that intersects meaningfully with identity and impact, she has profiled a diverse range of visionaries, from scientific pioneers in AI and health to creative trailblazers and literary minds.
Nafeesa’s writing includes cover stories and profiles that spotlight influential voices, alongside commentary on the trends reshaping our world.
Off the clock, Nafeesa unwinds with fiction, a good thrift hunt, and ‘brainrot’ TikTok scroll—while always keeping one eye on her next cultural getaway, usually to Indonesia.
