The Matcha Initiative
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In 2023, I co-founded Greenfinity, a Singapore-based supply chain sustainability venture focusing on sustainable and low-carbon transformation for supply chains. The objective is to help people and companies strategize their sustainability action plans to make a difference for the planet, the people, and the business.
I have a background in industrial engineering and supply chain management and 20 years of multi-national company experience in Europe and Asia, driving best-in-class logistics, manufacturing, customer services, and planning processes (S&OP/IBP). With climate change becoming an additional consideration to supply chain management over the past decade, I decided to help supply chain professionals juggle between achieving the best service, optimal cost, cash efficiency, and now decarbonization.
Being groomed as an engineer, my thought process is to understand the underlying physical aspects of everything and find innovative ways to solve real-world problems with a long-term view. "Take it and give it back better and more sustainable". The climate crisis brings the most challenging and interesting transformation that humankind needs to undergo, beyond the previous four industrial revolutions, and this time with a carbon clock ticking.
Both this threatening challenge and the need to reinvent societies raised my interest and pushed me to adopt sustainability from personal and work perspectives.
Last, becoming a father extended my horizon and accelerated my interest in understanding the issue in more depth and in raising the bar to help both peers and corporations be educated, and implement tangible actions to reinvent themselves.
Being in charge of supply chain sustainability in my previous company, we faced the same questions as many: what can we do?
In a for-profit company setup, this translates into a longer question: what can we do that is good for the business, cost-effective, good for the planet, and good for the people? This led us to run a baseline assessment on the value chain carbon footprint, which was designed both to educate and engage team members and leadership and act as a reference point to benchmark improvement solutions.
This meant creating the best possible value chain model with help from all functions, discussing in-depth the validity of assumptions, gathering all possible data from suppliers, customers, and consumers, filling the gaps with collective intelligence, and finally ensuring an understanding of emissions at the lowest granularity to enable action plans.
Convincing co-workers of the urgency to act despite multiple business priorities is and will remain a challenge for many. While a data-based and analytical approach can help, the human factor and emotional engagement are needed to better convince decision-makers of the urgency.
I found surrounding myself with competent and business-oriented folks was paramount to making the conversation easier when it is time to put skin in the game.
A growth mindset and listening skills are crucial to adopt as we go into sustainable growth territories and reinvent society to put sustainability at the forefront.
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
So it is time to get started and accelerate!