Project Business
2018 - 2019Key aims of Project Business
Creation of pledge/ petition site for individuals to lobby corporates and/ or government.
Identification of companies that had a wide reach on whom the Alliance could leverage or with whom the Alliance could work.
To secure the support of a handful of large, consumer-facing organisations to:
Commit to new environmentally-friendly initiatives in the near future; and
Run consumer-facing campaigns to promote these initiatives.
Key members involved
Jessica Cheam | Mike Barclay | Esther An
Project Business was broken down into two parts, whereby Part 1 of the project focused on collaborating with mass consumer-facing companies while Part 2 focused on getting companies to rid the use of plastic in their offices. See below for an elaboration on both parts of the project.
PART I: Working with mass consumer-facing companies
The first part of this project involved key Alliance members working closely with mass consumer-facing companies to develop and adopt more environmentally friendly practices (e.g. reduced use of plastic), through the supply chain and customer engagement. It was envisioned that these companies could potentially join the Alliance.
Listed below are 4 companies with whom the Alliance worked and the pledges that they made.
KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
KK Women’s & Children’s hospital committed to reducing food waste, increasing recycling and reducing the use of single-use plastics in 2019.
They also agreed to launch campaigns targeting patients and visitors to raise awareness on the importance of these initiatives.
Changi Airport Group
CAG committed to reducing the use of single-use plastics and increasing recycling rates across passenger terminals in 2019.
They also agreed to collaborate and communicate with tenants, partners and guests to educate them on how everyday actions can benefit the environment and to advocate adopting those actions.
Marina Bay Sands
MBS committed to installing 100% LED lights and energy-efficient televisions across the property by 2020.
They also agreed to run campaigns targeting consumers to raise awareness of the role that technology can play in climate action.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore & NTUC Fairprice
This partnership committed to jointly launching drinking water in a co-branded paper carton packaging in 2019 as an environmentally friendlier alternative to plastic bottles, which are harmful to biodiversity when improperly disposed.
They also agreed to communicate to shoppers at NTUC stores and visitors to WRS’s four parks on making choices that are less detrimental to biodiversity around the world.
Part II: “Plastic Purge”
Part 2 of Project Business was termed “Plastic Purge”. This was an initiative to rid offices of single-use plastic which would help address the global plastic crisis we face today.
This was based on the fact that Singaporeans use at least 1.76 billion disposable plastic items a year, with less than 20% of our plastic waste getting recycled and, on the knowledge that discarded plastics kill millions of marine creatures and birds every year, with ingested plastics now entering our food chain (Hong, 2018).
“Plastic Purge”’ aimed to raise awareness of the dangers that using plastic can bring and how, as an individual and/or organisation, one can reduce one’s use of plastic.
The Plastic Purge website, which was launched at MEWR’s Year of Climate Action Appreciation Luncheon 28 November 2018, invites viewers to take the pledge to reduce their plastic usage. The Plastic Purge website can be accessed here: https://plasticpurge.eco-business.com/.
Letters were also sent out by Alliance members to companies, encouraging them to take the pledge.