DBS Bank’s Ms Karen Ngui addressing the media
Do you know that we produced 7.7 million tonnes of waste equal to 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools in 2017?
This staggering amount of rubbish is an astonishing seven-fold increase from 40 years ago! At this rate of waste generation, Singapore’s only landfill in Semakau will run out of space by 2035.
Gary Vaynerchuk once famously said that “If Content is King, then Context is God.”
Indeed in the world of content and social media marketing, context matters a whole lot. The best content in the world would fail miserably if it is crafted and disseminated without any consideration of the context surrounding it.
Sharing is caring. Waste not want not. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
These age-old mantras rang through my head when I start penning this blog post on the recently launched Sharing Economy Association (Singapore). Beginning in Singapore, the association hopes to become the “regional hub for companies and organisations involved in the sharing or collaborative economy which is an emerging economic model of sharing of physical and non-physical resources that is empowered by technology and social networks”.
“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.” – Nigel Marsh
How much stuff do you really need in life?
Do the things that we own end up owning us instead?
Can marketing scale Maslow’s pyramid to achieve transcendence? (courtesy of Prakash Advani)
What is the real purpose of your product or your brand?
Does it meet a customer need? Solve their greatest problem? Eliminate a nagging pain? Or help them to be more productive?
Can you guess the name of this actor? (courtesy of Lawson Stone)
In the social era, everybody’s becoming an activist.
Don’t believe me? Just look at the feeds on your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Sprawled over 1.4 million square feet along Singapore’s most scenic waterfront at Marina Bay, The Fullerton Heritage is an integrated dining, hotel and retail development comprising seven heritage and new buildings – The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore, The Fullerton Waterboat House, One Fullerton, The Fullerton Pavilion, Clifford Pier and Customs House.
Beginning with the retrofitting of the iconic Fullerton Building in 2001 to become the Fullerton Hotel, the group has given a new lease of life to heritage icons Clifford Pier (built in 1933) and Customs House (built in the 1960s), transforming them into swanky F&B destinations. Collectively, these developments have added vibrancy to the waterfront area and attracted guests both foreign and local.
Courtesy of Coca-Cola Singapore
With Earth Hour around the corner, it is timely for both individuals and companies to consider how they can reduce their environmental impact on our beautiful planet.
Coca-Cola Singapore is certainly taking a proactive role in this area. As part of their effort to instil the habit of recycling in Singapore, they are launching the Recycle Happiness Machine (yes that’s its actual name!) which will be popping up at five different locations around the Orchard Road/Dhoby Ghaut area. The machine provides a fun way for members of the public to deposit their used plastic beverage bottles in exchange for a little gift.
Student volunteer guides Jessie and Janet from Naked Hermit Crabs
By now, you’ve probably heard how social technologies can transform social, political and environmental movements. Globally, one can find numerous examples of causes given an online shot-in-the-arm through Twitter, Facebook, Youtube videos, shared photos, and other platforms. These channels have been further accelerated by the ubiquity of mobile apps on smartphones, tablets and other devices.
While the tools for making a difference have expanded tremendously, the core principles of creating and sustaining a cause are less well understood. Through a recent guided tour of Chek Jawa led by the Naked Hermit Crabs, I had the privilege of speaking to Ms Ria Tan, a passionate nature activist and founder of the Wild Singapore website. A close associate of my good friend Siva (another legend in nature circles), Ria provided useful insights on her journey.
Nobody manages resources better than Nature! (image source)
Sustainability seems to be the buzzword these days. We’ve all heard about how companies are investing in carbon credits to offset their industrial activities, embark on occasional recycling programmes, or improving their efficiency to reduce their carbon footprint. While such motives are laudable, they often compromise on business profitability, and are seen more like “CSR” investments. Should the economy – and business – nosedive, would companies still be as noble?
To overturn traditional thinking on business sustainability, Gregory Unruh of the Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management shared that one should adopt a “value cycle” rather than the standard “value chain” in one’s business model. The idea behind this is reuse as much material from one’s products as possible, and to feed that back into the manufacturing, distributing and retailing process. This should be done in a profitable manner and be so ingrained into business practices that it becomes second nature.