The Matcha Initiative
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Pantry, take away, delivery are integrated in our office’s routine and whether on an individual level or an organisation level, we can limit our environmental impact with minimal effort.
This section is mostly about raising awareness and reducing waste, including single-use items - such as but not limited to plastic: bags, cutlery, packaging...
Check out the BYO (Bring Your Own) Campaign launched in 2017 by Zero Waste SG. So far, 2.5 million pieces of plastic disposables were avoided through the campaign.
If you don't measure it, you can't manage it!
- Start recording your food and drinks consumption/ waste
- Implement a proper procedure to measure across all departments
- Set annual reduction targets of food and drinks consumption/ waste to achieve environmental sustainability, economic outcomes and food security
Target a Zero Waste objective. Among other ideas to decrease your F&B consumption:
- Avoid over-ordering F&B for meetings, workshops, trainings, events. It is usually sufficient to order for 10–15% less than the number of guests attending.
- Serve tap-water in reusable glass bottles
- Make sure to share the leftovers with others or offer to take them home.
Singapore's tap water is perfectly safe to drink without any further filtration. You can add a filter to the tap water if you wish.
Use reusable cups!
Prefer pipe-in Water Dispensers. Direct piping dispensers are plastic bottleless and typically connected to the water source (piped-in) in the office, with/ without filter.
- Reuse plastic, paper, tissue bags
- Create a "bags box" for employees for their take-away lunch or other purchase. To do so, collect existing bags from home or the community, instead of producing new ones
Get rid of single-use plastic/ styrofoam cups, plates, cutlery, boxes... Replace them with reusable in the pantries.
Consider investing in reusable compartmentalised trays and crockery instead of disposable ones. If you contract your canteen, take a look in the General section at the "Choose sustainable food service contractors" solution.
Use dispenser for sauces, soft beverage, ice cream, coffee and tea instead of single dose packaging. Allow self service for napkins, bread, sugar, etc.
If reusable is REALLY not an option, consider using compostable dining ware suitable for a food waste digester if used. Otherwise, use disposable ware with first lower carbon footprint and then from sustainable sources
- For take-away meals, encourage your employees to refuse single-use (bag, box, cutlery,...), to bring their own (BYO) reusable containers or use reusable containers app solutions such as Muuse.
- Refuse plastic carriers if packed food can be held in the hand.
- For BYO, glass, stainless steel or BPA-free plastics are some recommended material options from a safety standpoint.
- Some products can be found in bulk to limit transport and packaging: coffee, tea, sugar, fruits...It can be the opportunity to promote healthier/ better quality of products, such as organic nuts and dry fruits.
- Make sure you don't over-order and waste. It is usually enough to order for 10%-15% less attendees than planned.
- Use proper containers to avoid wastage (e.g. airtight boxes, resealable packaging...)
Herbal tea has been used for centuries and has many proven health benefits, depending on the plants used. Mint, chamomile, lemon balm, dandelion etc. can be grown indoor or outdoor in Singapore. Herbs are easy to work with. Once harvested, they just need to be dried and enjoyed. Use this indoor garden to raise awareness about food production.
Learn more on how to grow different herbs here.
Provide fresh fruits to your employees once or twice a week (prefer package free, chemicals-free, local products)
Meat consumption contributes to climate change. Encourage your employees to learn more about this issue, and adopt a vegetarian-diet-day once a week.
Take a look at Green Monday.
Hold an optional monthly or quarterly potluck to encourage people to eat a healthy, home-cooked lunch. Employees will have the opportunity to share a good meal, strengthen relationships and meet people they don’t usually interact with. Check this example.
If you need to order food delivery:
When you order food via delivery platforms or directly from your favourite restaurants & stalls, don't forget to specify you don't need disposables such as plastic cutlery, tissue, cups...
Reuse / Donate / Compost used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are 100% natural and have various practical usage related to gardening, cleaning or technological usage such as fire retardant material. Contract with a specialist to collect them.
If you want to compost it by yourself, be aware that used coffee grounds must be detoxified by composting for a minimum of 98 days for plants to benefit from the potassium and nitrogen contained in the roasted beans.
The « sustainability journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.
Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.
Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.
Alya is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, Positive Mentor, and engaging Public Speaker driven by her mission to empower change-makers to take action with a 'Positive Push.'
As the founder of Green Push, she works with companies to engage employees in sustainability through customised programmes that inspire positive change. At her core, Alya is a natural people connector and community builder, dedicated to creating spaces where individuals can collaborate and amplify their collective impact.
Through her mentoring, Alya offers actionable insights and encouragement to aspiring changemakers, guiding them to turn their ideas into real-world impact. As a public speaker, her keynotes can explore topics like Climate Action, Impact Entrepreneurship, and Climate Optimism, inspiring others to make a difference.
Alya is also an Earth shot Prize Official Nominator for 2025 - if you have an inspiring, inclusive, and impactful solution, feel free to get in touch!
With 17 years of experience in IT across different sectors and industries, Benoit managed a team focusing on project management and IT application support in Singapore. In 2017, he was one of the founders, and later on leader of Credit Agricole CIB's first green team in Singapore. Since 2022, he has started in France a new adventure within Credit Agricole Assurances (CAA) and managed up to 24 people, in software integration team.
Recently, in September 2023, he was promoted to ECODESIGN Coach within CAA. He is creating and deploying a new framework for all projects to add a sustainability dimension to help CAA reduce its environmental impact.
Coming from a background of digital media, film-making, and digital marketing, Yen-Lyng fell into the sustainability field when she joined a waste management company as a Recycling Ambassador. During that time, she saw the many intricacies and challenges facing the very overlooked and underappreciated world of waste. So, when given the opportunity of working on a coffee recycling project, Yen-Lyng jumped at it. She will tell you more about her why and what of coffee recycling in her sharing and the challenges of lauching sustainable projects.
Mary has founded Journey Makers to support organisations in their online presence blending customer experience and employee experience. She was previously in charge of Customer Experience for Lyreco Asia and worked on accelerating Digital and Marketing activities. In 2020, she was appointed sustainability ambassador as well for the region, as the topic was becoming a strategic one for the company. Thriving to drive the change internally and externally, she launched a Green Team that she co-led with her colleague.
Prior to this role, Mary had made her career essentially in the hospitality industry at global and regional role, from trade marketing, sales to Digital marketing. Before moving to Singapore in 2015, she was based in Dubai, UAE and France.
Before joining Chanel, I was General Manager of BSI Singapore for 2.5 years. Prior to joining BSI, I held different job assignments for the international retailer Carrefour. For them, I oversaw Quality, Food Safety and Sustainability in China and then at the Group level.
I spent most of my career working in Asia: in Shanghai, Hong Kong and I have been happily settled in Singapore for 8 years now.
I have a real passion for sustainability and nature conservation and I love to share the knowledge and experience I gained in this field. I am also a volunteer for the Singaporean NGO called Climate Conversation which aims to raise awareness on climate change.
Virgile is an academic researcher who works for the CNRS (France) and the National University of Singapore. He heads an international collaborative lab between Singapore and France at the mechanobiology institute.
He is also in charge of the transition towards more sustainable practices in the lab and in the institute. He has already implemented various actions covering energy efficiency, consumables usage reduction, waste management...
I am Naomi, currently co-founder & director of givvable. I started my career as an Australian diplomat with postings in East Timor, Thailand and Switzerland then moved into private banking where my interest in ESG and sustainability was seeded.
Today my company helps businesses screen and track the sustainability profile of their suppliers to help them achieve their goals and targets.
I run a business called Bright Green where I work with corporates to engage employees in impact projects in the areas of environmental and social impact. I also facilitate sustainability learning programs to educate employees on developing an eco-friendly mindset and high impact actions they can take in their homes and daily lives.
Before founding Bright Green in 2020, I have been working in Project Management, Change Management and Continuous Improvement roles within Human Resources and Recruitment. I love that I get to work with organisations that are making commitments to net-zero and inspire employees to make an impact!
I was born in Vietnam and grew up in France in Paris’ low income suburbs. My parents used to bring us to the park to have some outdoor activities and that’s where my father taught my siblings and I to observe, love and respect nature. He gave us perspective on our place in a much bigger ecosystem.
At that time, we didn’t describe our family as “sustainable”. It was very pragmatic, we didn’t waste anything, we mended everything, saved and reused, because we just couldn’t afford not to :)
In 2018 in Singapore, after what felt like a long, unfulfilling professional tunnel on autopilot, I was forced to make a pause and took the opportunity to consider what I really wanted to do with my life (I know this resonates with many!)
Then I really realised how passionate I was about sustainability and for the first time, I considered making it my job. Nothing is easy when you don’t hold the right degrees or the right amount of money, so I co-created The Matcha Initiative to jump into action instead of procrastinating. That’s how you start an amazing experience with amazing people :)
Cherry on the cake: TMI helped me land my current job at Handprint, where we help businesses embrace the next step - Regeneration.
