General

The office is, very often, the first visible part of your company. There you can make your commitment towards sustainability visible to your team & colleagues, as well as to your visitors. A category easy to start with, with quick-wins to embark further your teams on your sustainability journey.

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Measure & Monitor
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Measuring your office carbon footprint is a key step for a greener office. It is of high importance for an efficient environmental management: if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it!

It requires methodology and proper data collection: papers expenses, electronic equipments, electricity charges, office supplies...

  • Implement an adequate procedure to measure across all departments.
  • Set annually reduction targets to continuously improve.

For suggested sources of data and units of measure (paper, electronic, waste, energy...) refer to Pages 4 - 5 of the UK-based WRAP.org guide and Page 10 - 14 onwards of the Singapore NEA 3R Guidebook for Offices.

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Set up a Sustainable Procurement Policy - BASIC
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Preliminary Note:

  • Many sustainable products could be still more expensive than the non-sustainable ones. This “extra cost” will be offset on the long run by better procurement practices as described below, will raise awareness and improve your reputation towards your employees and your final customers.
  • You need to take into account the whole life cycle of your supplies, from manufacturing to end of product life.

Steps to take:

1- Analyse your current comsumption and existing practices

  • Identify your most purchased products and unused references (20/80 rule)
  • Ask your suppliers what are the carbon footprints for your 20% most purchased products.

2- Define Targets and KPI evolution, such as

  • Office supplies annual costs
  • % of sustainable or eco-certified office products purchases (to be done per category: paper, inks cartridges…)
  • Carbon footprint evolution for main office products purchased. Eliminate higher footprints products and replace them with lesser carbon footprint products.

3- Prefer

  • recyclable materials
  • biodegradable materials
  • refillable materialise
  • certified products (always ask for proof of certification). See Green Label Singapore. To find all other eco labels in Singapore, browse ecolabel website.

4- Make it simpler

  • Limit your annual number of orders to decrease logistics/transportation cost by aggregating orders among services/departments & defining a minimum amount per order. It will help you decrease your costs.
  • Reduce your suppliers list: limit order volumes and aggregate volumes on 1 or 2 suppliers to optimize cost.
  • Limit the number of supplies references, eliminate unused references and define a green list, to negotiate better prices on less references with higher volumes.

5- Packaging: Discuss with your supplier to limit packagings, e.g. all pens in 1 carton box.

6- Involve all stakeholders in the sustainable purchasing policy and train them

  • Employees : present the green product lines to them (especially people in charge of office supplies) in order to get their support.
  • Suppliers : involve them in the green purchasing policy, share objectives and let them find better sustainable options for you.

Refer to the global sustainable procurement policy in Resources section for more details.

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Buddies - Experience sharing

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.

FRANCE - Benoit Barraque
ECODESIGN Coach - Credit Agricole Assurances (CAA)

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.

Jing Ying Lim
Senior Marketing Manager - Synfindo

Jing Ying is a marketer with over 10 years of experience. She is currently the Senior Marketing Manager of Synfindo, heading the marketing team.

Before this, she held positions in Sleek, leading marketing, CSR and ESG initiatives and helping them to achieve their first-ever B-Corp Certification. She also co-founded Soule, a social enterprise, with two friends when she was 16, leading the branding, marketing and sales. Soule's mission was to provide youth products with a social cause to empower children in Singapore, China and disaster-hit areas.

Loretta Teo & Eliza Boecker
Asia CSR Team - Azqore

A lawyer by training, Eliza has been in Private banking since 1996, with roles ranging from Relationship Management to Head of Strategy for PWM Latin America at Deutsche Bank New York, and a member of the Management Committee. Eliza was also the Business Manager and Head of Business Compliance for the International markets at Bank of Singapore, before joining Azqore as COO for Asia. Eliza has worked in Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, New York and Singapore and in addition lived in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, an experience that has shaped her outlook and made her very much a global citizen.

A banking operations professional, Loretta has had experience across various firms, like UBS and Nomura, before joining Credit Agricole 5 years ago.  Currently Azqore’s Head of Asia Operations, she has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and even had a short stint in India.  These experiences have opened her eyes to various cultures and cuisines.  

Both Eliza and Loretta kicked off the Azqore Asia CSR initiative in 2020 and have never looked back since.

Ivona Balint-Kowalczyk
Sustainability consultant, Founder - Sustainao

With a background in sustainability consulting and audit, Ivona supports businesses in their sustainability journey by building an impactful strategy, embedding sustainable practices across operations, and reporting performance to stakeholders.

She is the founder of Sustainao, a Singapore-based company specialized in sustainability consulting. Previously, Ivona worked as a sustainability auditor at KPMG France. She holds an MBA in CSR & Sustainability and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management.

Mun Wei Chan
Founder & Principal Consultant - SustainableSG

Mun Wei is the founder and principal consultant of SustainableSG, which provides advisory and training services in sustainability, strategy, risk and entrepreneurship.

He has worked with corporate, government and non-profit clients on strategy and implementation, reviewing organizational programmes and targets related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, benchmarking and communicating sustainability and other corporate programmes and achievements, promoting inclusive hiring, developing compliance policies and reports, and formulating innovative business models.

He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Nadège Claudel
Head of Sustainability APAC - Chanel (Former General Manager - BSI - British Standards Institution)

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.

Package Pals Trio
Founders – Package Pals

Package Pals is a circular packaging initiative that seeks to extend the life cycle of packaging. We collect used e-commerce packaging from members of the public, distributing it back to businesses seeking eco-friendly, second hand packaging options. There are 7 categories of packaging we collect: poly mailers (<A4),paper envelopes (<A4), plastic wrappers (<A4), bubble wrap, padded envelopes.

Package Pals has worked with multiple large and small businesses, schools, NGOs and governmental organisations since it was started in May 2020. Other than carrying out collection and distribution, we also focus on education and outreach, seeking to educate our 4k-strong audience on packaging waste and other environmental issues, through social media, webinars and other events.

Vincent Desclaux
Managing Director - Palo IT

I have been working in Asia for the past 12 years (Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore since 2014) within the digital and technology space.

I have founded and run several companies in different sectors such as IT Consulting, Education, and the F&B business.

I am passionate about how to use technology as a force for good.

Virgile Viasnoff
Professor, Mechanobiology – NUS, CNRS

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...