Through the competition, RYSEC hopes to encourage the social entrepreneurs in youths by providing assistance in securing funding, and more importantly, in gaining support from a network of experienced business people in Singapore.

Submission Deadline: 23 August 2010

For more information, do visit the RYSEC website at http://rysec.sg/

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Date: 29 July 2010 (Thursday)

Time: 7.30pm-9.30pm

Venue: Artery, Red Dot Traffic Building, #01-04, 28 Maxwell Road

For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121829344528406&ref=nf

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OUR SPECIALITY:

Freshly baked goods, such as cakes and bread, and western cuisine served by the intellectually challenged, who are professionally trained by vocational teachers and practicing chefs.

THE INNOVATION:

The Children Are Us Foundation (CAUF) provides intellectually challenged young people of age 16 and above with training in skills that are practical in daily life and for work so that they might better integrate into society. At CAUF’s workshops, which are purposefully situated in busy areas of the city where students are visible to the public to dispel public ignorance and discrimination, they learn skills from baking pastries for sale to growing their own vegetables.

Children Are Us also operates cafes, bakeries restaurants in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hsinchu where some of their trainees are employed. Though workers might not be as efficient, through time and training, they perform their tasks adequately and with enthusiasm. To aid the learning process, tasks are simplified into simple steps where students are assigned to according to their abilities. And through employment, the young ones gain greater confidence and fulfillment in life.

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

CAUF chairman Su Kuo-chen and wife Hsiao Shu-Chen inspired by the sheltered workshops and communities they saw in Japan, brought the idea back home to Taiwan. Impressed by the level of service and quality of the products there, Hsiao, herself a parent of a child with cerebral palsy, was encouraged that with proper planning, training and hard work, her child might too be capable of holding a good job.

With the help of skill training and recipes from the Le Petit Prince Bakery, CAUF opened its first social enterprise, the Children Are Us bakery in Kaohsiung in 1997. It has since grown to operate five bakeries and restaurants in Kaohsiung, Taipei and Hsinchu. As of the year 2000, 51 percent of its funding from its business operations, 25 percent from private donations, 22 percent from the government, and 2 percent from fundraising events or bank interest.

The non-profit organisation, which was founded in 1995, hopes to change the general perception of the intellectually challenged as well as create job opportunities through training them to work in their social enterprises. Children Are Us, too, provides assistance to them in leading an independent life as much as possible and long-term care for them when their parents pass on.

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She has since done that and much more. She brings many others like her on board with her travel agency, Love Travel Co. Ms Zheng who shares her vision, challenges and experiences running the Taiwanese social enterprise with SEforum.

1. Could you share with us on how Love Travel Co came to existence?

In 1998, as the President of Taipei Young Female Chamber, I organized a group tour to Singapore for physically challenged citizens. We managed to gather enough donations from the public for 40 participants as well as 46 volunteers as funding for the tour. Still, we were selective on our participants. They must be below the age of 40, never been overseas before, belong to the low-income group, and are physically disabled. However, there were over 200 people who wished to register for the programme.

With so many people interested, especially the elder ones, I promised them that I would start a tour agency to realize their dreams to go on a trip despite their physical difficulties. This is done in the hope that, the trips would give the people motivation to be self-dependent, contribute to the society and even take initiatives to help others. As such, Love Travel Co was born in 2000. My vision is to create a team of giving and amicable travel companions, including tour guides and team leaders, to be part of our special customers’ great memories.

Since then, Love Travel Co has been in operation for 10 years and we are proud to receive many recognition from the industry and our customers. The greatest one is upon receiving the Honorary Travel Agency Distinction Award in 2008.

2. When and what inspired you to set up Love Travel Co against all odds?

I entered the travel industry as a small assistant. And after two years of hard work, I brought my first group of customers to Korea. I was worried that my disability would make the trip inconvenient for me. To my gratification, they insisted on me being their tour guide, and they have helped me to go around places. Not only had they realized my dream, their encouragements also inspired me to make the wishes of others like me come true. Therefore, I started Love Travel Co as the first travel agency in Taiwan that caters to customers with physical difficulties. Also, I envisioned that some of its profits would go to helping the physically and financially challenged.

3. What are some of the interesting stories and/or challenges you met in the course of running andpromoting Love Travel Co?

Our most accomplished moments are bringing out the people

who did not get to go to the outdoors for a long period of time. For example, a young man, whose both legs were amputated, had been on the bed for 8 years. His biggest wish was to bathe in the sun and breathe the fresh air outside. As he was unable to use the normal wheelchair, we brought him out by an ambulance and a stretcher. After the trip, he became much happier and motivated, and started learning to use automated wheelchair. Now, he is actively involved in choir practices and performances, going around the city on his own.

As for our greatest challenge, it would be the limited numbers of wheel-chair friendly buses and hotels in the market. It is hence more expensive and difficult to go on a trip logistically.

4. Which are the most popular countries or areas in Taiwan that you have brought your clients to? Where are some of the areas you hope to bring them to in the future?

Japan is our most popular location as the country offers a very wheel-chair friendly environment. It is also considerably near to Taiwan. Singapore is a frequent location as well, though it is more difficult to rent a wheel-chair friendly bus there.

In Taiwan, there are still lots of potential for improvement on wheel-chair friendly facilities. I wish that Taiwan could become a great place to travel for the physically-challenged and I have been actively spreading the idea to the related industries.

5. Where do you hope to see Travel Love Co in five years time?

I hope that in 5 years’ time, Love Travel Co will be able to fund, purely using its profits, more people with physical difficulties to step outside of their house and see the world. We would like to be both a charity and a social enterprise.

Everyone has a dream. And I believe that by seizing each opportunity you are given, your dream could be realised.

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All this was made possible through Cornerstone Works, a social enterprise based in Taiwan. The organization helped develop Xiong’s interest in stone crafting. And with marketing assistance from Taiwanese social enterprise Lovely Taiwan, Xiong’s art works can be purchased in many other cities outside of a small workshop in Hualian town where it was produced.

To describe his experience, the humble man quotes a verse from the bible: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”

“When I first arrived in Cornerstone, I stared at the crude stones for 3 months. One day, I suddenly realized that the stones are just like me, ugly and raw. I often disliked myself, just like how I looked down on those stones. But deep inside my heart, I want to be someone to be looked upon, and then I thought the stones would be feeling this way as well,” said Xiong. “I picked up my burin (a stone-crafting tool) ever since that day, and began to converse with the stones in my special way.”

He added: “I really appreciate Lovely Taiwan for their help, the team has given me an impetus to work harder so that my stone works could tell their own stories to the rest of the people.”

And just like Xiong, many other local artists have received support from Lovely Taiwan to continue their passion.

Situated in the heart of Taipei, Lovely Taiwan provides a collective platform for all designers to exhibit and sell their wares at its small but elegant establishment. It boasts an admirable repertoire of over 100 unique handicrafts created by designers from locations all over the island, including rural or disadvantaged communities.

Examples of other delicate creations stocked by Lovely Taiwan are figurines constructed by well-known metallic artist Jiang Cheng Yao, hand-crafted organic soaps by students from special schools, and unique cases knit by the indigenous Taiwanese.

The social enterprise emphasizes the product values that go beyond mere profit such as a sense of community and the importance of cultural retention. One of its founders, senior media worker Xu Lu, pointed out that they hope to establish a platform that connects the people and the community through the products and the sharing their stories.

Giving the indigenous people an avenue to show forth their talent and skill without having to travel tremendous distances to bring their works to the market not only opens a window of opportunity for them but also connects them to the entire Taiwan.

But to achieve this is no minor feat: Lovely Taiwan’s founders have traversed across the country, visiting up to 130 communities to discover this rich variety of handicrafts, which reflects the distinct potential and style of its Taiwanese artists and communities. Through these efforts, a more holistic picture of Taiwan’s cultural heritage could then be obtained and shared with everyone else.

Still, being unique is not enough for products to succeed in the contemporary market; the products have to be given a chance to stand out. Hence,

Lovely Taiwan also ventured into giving advice and consultation to the artisans on product, image and packaging development.

Xu Lu cited an example: Handmade chocolates from Taichung Women’s Prison were simply wrapped with aluminum foil and contained in a zip-lock bag when they were first sent to Lovely Taiwan. The social enterprise would then dutifully repackage each piece with colourful, glossy wrappers before placing them in elegant, eye-catching containers. This gives products a better fighting chance in attracting the attention of potential buyers to take a closer look, whereby they would then notice the meaningful stories behind each product and its significance.

However, Xu Lu stressed that the foundation would not override the designers’ artistic integrity. Designers can be assured of retaining the avenue of expression and actualizing their ideas. The Lovely Taiwan Foundation was set up not to lead but to work hand-in-hand with these creative minds, supplementing their skill with solid marketing strategy. Lovely Taiwan also hopes to encourage other Taiwanese to set up local shops, and contribute to the community.

He added that Lovely Taiwan is just a small beginning for a greater scheme of action.

Just like how XIong has transformed the seemingly useless stones to meaningful symbols of love and beauty, by giving local talent from all over Taiwan a stage to shine, the foundation aims to achieve a sustainable development for the local industry and bring out the understated grace of the country through the products it carries.

Lovely Taiwan’s elegant wooden cat and dog figurines could be purchased at Do Things Different here.

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For this particular Social Conversation, organised by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation, there will also be a macrobiotic and vegetarian fare prepared by chef Alexandra Hsieh as well as a goodie bag from the Kranji Countryside Association for the early birds.

Date: 15 Jul 2010 (Thursday)

Time: 5.00-6.30pm

Venue: Glassroom Cafe, Level 2, School of Information Systems, 80 Stamford Road, SMU.

For more information, visit http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/emailer/100715social_conversation.htm or email Jared Tham at jaredtham@smu.edu.sg . To register, go to http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/prog_reg.asp.

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OUR SPECIALTY:

The MAGNO Wooden Radio, a beautifully crafted wooden gadget equipped with AM/FM tuning, two shortwave bands receivers and a mp3 player input, is built from sustainably grown wood and blends design elements of both retro and modern minimalist. It stands out against the commonplace plastic products all around us and comes in three sizes.

THE INNOVATION:

Through the production of the MAGNO Wooden Radios and other sustainable products that are made with environmentally responsible materials, designer Singgih Susilo Kartono hopes to improve the economic conditions of his Indonesian village of Kandangan with its local craft industries. He marries the two most abundant resources in the village of wood and labour, and employs 30 villagers who make about 150 handcrafted radios each month.

What’s more, Kartono who seeks to “redefine the relationship between a user and a product”, includes a built-in flaw in the radio: The MAGNO Wooden Radio’s surface is uncoated and has to be oiled periodically to protect the wood. He hopes that this would give the owner of each radio a chance to feel the wood and also to care for it.

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

The MAGNO Wooden Radio is produced under Piranti Works, which was founded by Kartono in 2005. The ingenious design of the company’s products has won several design competitions such as the Japan Good Design Award G-Mark 2008 in the category of Pioneering & Experimental Design as well as the Design Plus Award 2009 (Ambiente-Frankfurt Germany) among others.

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In this talk by Dr. Timonthy Stanton, he will examine the history and theoretical foundations of service-learning to consider its possibilities for strengthening the work of social entrepreneurs.

Dr. Stanton is the director of the Stanford University Bing Overseas program in Cape Town and Visiting Senior Fellow at the John Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities in the school of Education in Stanford.

Speaker: Dr Timothy Stanton, Director, Stanford University Bing Overseas Program in Cape Town, S Africa.

Date: June 21 2010 (Monday)

Time: 2pm-4.30pm

Venue: BIZ 1 #2-1, Mochtar Riady Building, NUS Business School

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When he had a dream to teach children how to live sustainably, he not only built Green School Bali – arguably the first of its kind in the world, offering a holistic education of traditional math and science subjects paired with a green curriculum and a creative arts programme – he used what he believes is the most eco-friendly and sustainable building material on Earth: bamboo.

In Hardy’s case, this penchant and belief in bamboo has led him and his wife, Cynthia, to launch the Meranggi Foundation to encourage farmers to plant bamboo, create PT Bambu as a design hotbed and production facility for bamboo buildings and furniture, and open Bambu Indah, a hotel based on sustainability.

Along the way, he built what could possibly be the world’s largest bamboo building, the Heart of School, a grand, imposing, three-storey structure, located within Green School Bali.

Located 20 minutes North of Denpasar and 15 minutes South of Ubud, Green School’s eight-hectare campus sits among lush vegetation, divided by the Ayung River. It looks more like a serene, though rustic, holiday resort than a school.

The school’s tagline is “Equipping Children For 2025”. By that, the Hardys want, besides teaching the standard International Baccalaureate (IB) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus, to inculcate in their students the love of learning.

The Green Studies programme includes topics like carbon footprint analysis, water studies and even, organic farming and gardening. Within the Creative Arts and physical education programmes, students delve into yoga and batik painting using natural dyes made from vegetation on site, and martial arts, with the Balinese traditional art of Mepantingan being an important component. Students, aged between three and 15, learn by doing, with each child tending to their very own vegetable patch.

And as part of that commitment to greening the environment, Green School is built entirely out of bamboo – even its blackboards, desks, chairs and lamps.

Bamboo is the latest darling of eco-conscious architects, designers and manufacturers all over the world. The demand worldwide is high for bamboo for clothing, flooring, furniture and as building material.

Bamboo’s environmental benefits arise largely out of its ability to grow and spread quickly – in some cases, one meter a day – without the need for fertilizers, pesticides or much water.

A bamboo grove also releases some 35 per cent more oxygen into the air than a similar-sized stand of trees. One hectare of bamboo can sequester up to 12 tons of carbon a year.

Bamboo also reaches structural maturity in four to five years and produces a crop each year (compared to 30 to 50 years for most tropical hardwood trees), helping to improve soil conditions and prevent erosion along the way. Bamboo is so fast-growing that it can yield 20 times more timber than trees on the same area.

For the Hardys, bamboo was chosen not because there was lack of a better material – in current times, that is. It was chosen with an eye to the future.

John said, in an email interview: “Green School chose bamboo in the spirit of plenty. With rapidly escalating world cement prices, not to mention the sheer amount of fossil fuel that cement consumes, we must look to alternative building materials.

The world needs it. We have run out of cheap natural resources. Bamboo is a renewable resource, which sequesters carbon into the bargain.”

Some cement was used, however. While most of the cement is primarily underground, a small percentage of the classroom floors are made from cement, but “in general we want Green School to be really green, which means less cement”.

In part, they have also chosen bamboo for the children.

“Frankly, it is hard to talk to students about sustainability while they are using the last piece of rainforest for their chair and their table. It is the painful truth that they are going to have to stretch to get enough rain forest timber to build their homes.

“Bamboo is available and plenty, and when it is treated with borax salt, it is rendered immune to the bugs that like to eat it, so it becomes a permanent material.

“Every student at Green School will have an opportunity to plant his or her own bamboo and, eventually, four to five years down the line, will have a chance to harvest, treat and build something with that bamboo,” he added.

John has certainly created beautiful structures with bamboo.

Not only do they blend in seamlessly with the environment – the local craftsmen and their time-honoured traditional building techniques no doubt played a big part in this – the Green School buildings are engineering marvels in their own right.

Take the school’s administrative centre, the Heart of School.

Heart of School, built at a cost of US$225,000, is a majestic, three-storey building containing three interconnecting spirals. Towering over 20 meters tall, it enjoys over 2,000 sq m of floor space. Building the structure – construction started in late 2008, has taken 2,630 bamboo poles and 10,000 strips of alang-alang roofing. It houses the school library, IT laboratory, meeting rooms, exhibition spaces and offices.

John’s passion and belief in bamboo doesn’t just end with the school and its children.

Through the Meranggi Foundation, he encourages local Balinese farmers to grow bamboo. The Foundation works with farmers across Bali by providing seedlings of commercially viable bamboo to participating farmers free of charge.

The Foundation maintains detailed planting records, monitor bamboo growth rates and the associated carbon capture, and secures markets for future bamboo trade.

It has now already planted 15,000 seedlings with farmers across Bali. It is estimated that in seven years, that will yield 1,500,000 poles – enough to “grow” 150 new buildings every year.

However, the journey is just beginning for the Meranggi Foundation.

In an interview with Green School student for the school’s student newsletter, Chris Majors, the bamboo nursery’s manager, shared that some farmers they approach “don’t want any involvement in what we’re doing, and some want hundreds of plants right away… what we’ve learned is not to do hard sells”.

“Work with farmers who are willing and will help spread the bamboo word,” he added.

“A change in perspective will take more than a few months… The potential of bamboo has not yet been embraced fully by the Balinese. It will be quite a while before farmers come to us after the first harvests.”

Such is the reality of the task at hand for the Foundation.

But ever the epitome of someone who lives the life he believes in, John has this advice:

“If you need a lot of timber in the future, don’t look for wood, look for bamboo.

“It fixes a huge amount of carbon in the soil and this is a good solution in the world of ever escalating problems. It is a rapid solution to some of the problems that are facing us.

“Plant bamboo.”

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1. Tell me about Green Drinks Singapore.

Green Drinks Singapore is a non-profit group, which tries to involve everybody, and every environmental interest through our documentary screenings, free talks by industry experts, discussions, workshops and networking sessions. Since we started out, we have evolved from just networking sessions to having a diverse range of programmes. In addition, we have grown a following of more than 700 members on Facebook, and have been featured several times in the media, such as Channel NewsAsia, The Straits Times, Time Out, Her World and Female, among others.

2. What led you to take a stand on the environment?

I never thought I’d be the one saying this but doing absolutely nothing or being indifferent would certainly keep me awake at night. I suppose it’s because I have always hated injustice as a child, and it’s like watching a movie where the bad guy gets away with a heinous crime and is never prosecuted in the end. Except it’s in real life: The bad guy comes in the form of corporations that operate not illegally but immorally, and sell us a product that has either abused animals or people, or are loaded with pesticides or chemicals. We live in a world where every product is unethical unless otherwise implied when it should be the other way around!

The short answer to this question is that I’d only realised my passion for the environment a few years ago when I felt irked by the lack of accessible recycling facilities. Also, I started reading up more about the environment and becoming more aware of how everything and everybody around us is interconnected. I knew then that I had to do something. Something and not nothing.

3. Why Green Drinks?

We are called Green Drinks because we have adopted the Singapore franchise of the global movement, which started in London. It is termed as such because it has everything to do with the environment, and in an informal setting, preferably over drinks. I first got to know about it when I read a 2007 issue of the American edition of Women’s Health, and thought to myself, “I got to start that in Singapore!”

4. What are you doing on a daily basis to get others involved in green issues?

First of all I make sure that I walk the talk, because one has to set an example in order to convince and encourage others to adopt a change in mindset. As often as I can, I submit articles to environmental-centric portals like eco-business.com and Green Kampong to get the message out. Also, I’m always thinking of ways to engage people through Green Drinks, to keep things current and fun, while being educational at the same time.

Recently, I also started a public relations practice called Sustainable PR, targetting only SMEs in the environmental sector. I hope to use this as a vehicle to push the green economy along by increasing awareness and driving demand for green products and services.

5. Do you think green products can be visually desirable as well?

Certainly! Let’s start with ethical shoe company Terra Plana, which uses discarded leather sourced from NGOs and minimises the use of heavy metals and toxic adhesives in their range of gorgeous shoes. They also use recycled materials to make their shoes, such as recycled rubber, PET bottles, and rice husks.

Another company that successfully marries form and function would be Bloomerang that manufactures bloomerHang hangers made out of recycled cardboard. Using the surface area as advertising space, the product is as eco-friendly and ethical as can be using only soy-based ink in the printing process, and of course, being recyclable.

Others include CHOOSE the eco store and Qi Global’s stocks which includes Nahui Ollin’s candy wrapper bags, Escama Studio’s ringpull bags and several other ethical products, such as Ethletic shoes and soccer balls. CHOOSE also carries the Wattson electricity monitor, which looks very stylish. Also worth checking out are Echo’s beautiful range of Gulguvenc products made using PET bottles.

6. How would green utopia look to you?

It would be a world devoid of all forms of chemicals such as cigarettes, disposable ware and advertisements. Every product would have as minimal packaging as possible, and people would reduce consumption and not just think of recycling. Homes and building would feature sustainable design and have little use for air conditioning. Careful town planning will also be done to ensure easy use of bicycles and there will be plenty of green spaces to act as the lungs of the city-state. It would be nice to see only electric cars on the road!

Also, I would like to see the government invest more in alternative energy like solar energy and vertical-axis wind turbines so as to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In addition, the government could encourage composting in town councils, as well as communal vegetable plots to encourage community bonding.

7. What advice do you have for a layman to begin going green?

I would encourage people to start by being more mindful about where everything comes from and where everything goes. If it is not immediately obvious, I would suggest doing some research on the Internet, which holds a wealth of information. For example, one could go to www.cosmeticdatabase.com to find out exactly what toxins lurk in their trusted skincare product. Reading labels is another kind of behaviour I would encourage. It is always good to know what you are really buying, especially if you are buying this for a loved one. This applies to food as well.

Does your chocolate bar or ice cream contain palm oil? Was it sustainably sourced, or are you one of the demand drivers for the orangutans losing their habitat, or worse, their lives? When you shop for furniture, are you buying wood? If so, is it sustainably sourced, or are you contributing to deforestation? When cleaning your clothes, would you take them to the dry cleaners, which uses the toxic chemical perchloroethylene, that poses not only an eco risk, but a health risk to staff, and is only effective on oil-based stains, which exempts sweat and wine? Why not try the wet cleaners instead?

Lastly, it is worth remembering that we are all interconnected and part of an ecosystem. Whenever we disrupt the process of nature, whether it is to do with the oceans, animals, or environment, we will inevitably be affected.

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