June
After my wedding in Aix Provence, my sister-in-law brought me for a walk in the city. She told me she recently embarked on a zero-waste lifestyle, and wanted to show me what it was about. So we went to her favorite zero-waste store; which was quite big and looked like a rustic apothecary. They had everything from bulk food, naked soaps, detergents, etc. While helping her with the refill, I also took the opportunity to have a very good chat with the community over there.
Being so inspired by their efforts, I began to think about how to replicate it in my own country. I started doing some research and while I did find some information, it was limited and sometimes not very accurate. Well, when you want to get something done, I thought what better way than to do it myself? Fast forward to barely one month after I came back to Singapore, I launched my online business selling green products.
I used to do Marketing and PR for about 7 years, but have been wanting for the longest time to do a job that would give back to society. As a freelancer, I worked with makeup companies, and learned a lot about the chemicals, and couldn’t bring myself to carry on after knowing what’s inside. So I decided to switch over. Now I can live by my own morals and principles. The business itself is a constant learning journey; I have to throw myself into learning new skills, transitioning from the customer side to the in-house side.
Today, I am trying to look for regional partners to cut down on my footprint. While Asia is still growing in this movement, it’s amazing to see how my customers are sometimes more well-informed and often give me feedback to improve, thus keeping me on my toes.
I am in touch with different green businesses and we support each other to boost the green market. Now I keep receiving requests to talk about this movement but I have stage fright! Still, I will persist as we need to be the starters to set motions for changes to come.
