When I arrived in Singapore in 2018, I was shocked by the amount of single use plastic that was used on a daily basis. I felt overwhelmed by all the packaging that came each time I purchased something. So I decided to do some research online to see how I could change my habits and create less waste in my home and in the office. Fortunately, I discovered a lot of Facebook groups & information online to help me kickstart my sustainability journey in Singapore. Joining some eco-conscious communities in Singapore and having conversations with other like-minded individuals, helped me a lot to stay motivated and keep on growing and learning.

It was a long ‘test & learn’ process, during which I made some mistakes (we don't change habits overnight!) and that is why I decided to share everything I found out, all the tips, good practices, etc. to my friends & colleagues, during awareness talks and events. I have been working hard to raise awareness about sustainability by making small sustainable changes in my own life and sharing my experiences with others. Since I embarked on my green journey, I have been taking action to keep on spreading knowledge & inspire more individuals to start their own journey. From organising free workshops and holding sustainability talks, to creating a neighbourhood chat group to reduce waste & increase sharing amongst neighbours.

It took me months to realise that it was not about being perfect, but rather realise that we have a choice to make better actions & choices every day.

After doing so much research online, I started sharing a lot about green practices & sustainability in general with my former colleague Carolin Barr (founder of susGain). 

In the previous company I worked for, we used to organise some "Lunch & Learn" talks in the office, to get to know our colleagues better. So we decided to take this opportunity to organise a presentation about how to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle in Singapore. With Carolin, we shared about our own experiences and what we were already doing at home. 

After the talks, we started initiating some ‘green initiatives’ in the office - such as adding a compost container next to the coffee machine to collect coffee grounds & tea bags, or nudging our colleagues in reusing plastic containers & metal cutlery when going outside for our lunch  breaks (to reduce our waste).

During the talks that we organised, we shared some of our best practices to reduce waste using the 5R (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Rot). 

To that extent, we implemented a composting container in the pantry, to collect used coffee grounds & tea bags. We explained to our colleagues that instead of throwing the coffee grounds & their tea bags in the regular bin, they could just do the same in the container next to the coffee machine. We made it easy & accessible for them to start doing it.

After a few weeks, we designed and added a flyer to show to our colleagues what they could (or not) put in the compost container. Gradually, not only we saw coffee grounds & tea bags being added regularly, we  also saw some crushed egg shells, avocado, banana peels… being added to the compost. To manage the compost system and keep it simple, Carolin was bringing home the full container on a daily basis and added the food scraps to her community garden’s compost.

Furthermore, we started washing the plastic containers that came with our take-away food and reuse it for the next meal. By seeing this, more and more colleagues followed that habit and started re-using plastic containers and avoiding plastic cutlery (since we had metal cutlery in the pantry!). This way, we reduced our consumption of single-use plastic, and when we gathered over lunch time, some of us were bringing their own containers. 

Great team effort as everyone started to be conscious about not creating more waste when going out for lunch :-)

At first, it took us some time to adapt to this virtual environment. No more lunch breaks & physical office to meet made it, of course, hard to sustain what we started. 

I decided to keep the momentum by making a virtual presentation about how to "Green Yourself" - where I explained to my colleagues how to make their own products at home using ingredients that they have in their kitchen. The topic is not directly related to office life since we did not have an office anymore after the pandemic hit. 

The company is now using shared offices, which I hope will lower their carbon footprint, paper footprint, etc.