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Glad to have a chance to be a workshop facilitator for the Sustainability Internship Programme, which is an initiative by Global Compact Network Singapore. The objective of the training workshop is to provide participants with basic Sustainability knowledge before they embark on an internship with a company.  We had a very fruitful Saturday (28 Oct) discussing how companies could be involved in addressing the various sustainability issues we face in Singapore and also what sustainability related challenges companies in other industries face.

More on the Sustainability Internship Program can be found here http://www.csrsingapore.org/c/youth/sip

Photo credit: GCNS

 

Photo credit: GCNS

I was a guest speaker at Intercem Asia 2017, which was held in Jakarta from 11-13 Sept, and spoke on the topic of sustainability reporting for the cement industry, specifically on what could be material issues for the cement industry.

Cement production is the source of 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world’s cars put together. Most of this is due to chemical processes and heat requirements.  It is quite evident that environmental issues are material, but if we look at the supply chain of the cement industry, there could also be other areas for concern, such a rights of indigeneous people when companies use land for building the plants, or even possibly child labor, if we think about where the materials such as limestone could be mined from. Environmental topics usually pop up in most people’s minds when they think about sustainability. While those are important, we shouldn’t forget about social topics, e.g. human rights, local communities and health and safety of workers.

Photo credit: Intercem

Extremely honoured to have the opportunity to work with Global Compact Network Singapore as a mentor for the CDL-GCNS Young CSR Leaders Award 2017. The mentoring took place in June 2017 and I worked with 2 teams – one from Yale-NUS, and another team from SMU. It was a very enriching experience mentoring the students, I enjoyed the sharing sessions, discussing what sustainability really means for corporate organisations, and exploring exciting and realistic solutions for their proposals. A lot of our discussions took place over the phone, Skype and in the evenings after the students finished classes / work attachment.

I am glad that the hard work paid off for Team Viride from SMU, which was assigned to develop the sustainability proposal for AkzoNobel. They took the top prize for their human centric and innovative environmental strategies!

Photo credit: SMU

[Featured Photo: (R-L): Michelle Ann Lim, Lim Yi Chang, Ng Rui Qin and Amelia See with Ms Grace Cheah]