3 TED Videos on a Greener Future

We all hear about the inspiring and brilliant TED videos where inventors, thought leaders and social activists give a scintillating 18-20 minutes speech about their own topic of interest. While the talks about social media, politics, economics, language, design, architecture and many more gave us much food for thought, there are interesting TED demo videos which give us a glimpse of future technologies and what is going to come. For this week, we look to 3 TED videos on a Greener Future for social entrepreneurship and sustainable development from Al Gore’s update on the environment, Shai Agassi’s initiative on how we can transition to an electric car economy and finally Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s new project “Home”. Read more

Charity Fundraising 2.0 at GIVE.sg

GIVE.sg is a social enterprise that places itself in between individuals and charities, attempting to create a better bridge that allows individuals to contribute to charitable causes easily over the web and at the same time, making it easier for charities to reach people by receiving donations on behalf of these charities. Read more

In Conversation with Jack Sim, World Toilet Organization

In the book “The Power of Unreasonable People“, a definitive guide (by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan) on the social entrepreneurship movement has mentioned a Singaporean social entrepreneur by the name of Jack Sim, who started the World Toilet Organization (WTO) and how his work provided a scaling solution for governments to set standards on sanitation. Earning two prestigous global social entrepreneurship accolades: Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur and Ashoka Global Fellow, Jack has started a global clean toilet movement that help governments to shape sanitation policies. One success story is that the World Toilet Organization assisted the Chinese government in adopting the standards for lavatories before the Beijing Olympics last year. We have managed to get Jack to come on board for an interview, to tell us about the story behind World Toilet Organization and his views on the trends of social entrepreneurship in Singapore. Read more

Interview with Kenneth Lee, Founder of Green Koncepts

We often hear about how much we can do about energy conservation and sustainable development from the activists involved in the green movement. However, there exist companies with products who are doing their small part to guide us in our household towards energy conservation and in a small part, help us towards saving the Earth. So, we found a company in Singapore, Green Koncepts, which specialized in this area, and got their founder, Kenneth Lee to tell us about their product, Wattson – their wireless electricity monitor and the challenges involved in this emerging industry of energy conservation for the household. Read more

Putting The ‘Ethics’ In ‘Business’

Start-Up@Singapore put together for the first time the Social Enterprise Challenge competition and panel discussion session.

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Event: Wake Up And Smell The Coffee

If you’ve watched Blood Diamond, then you know the exploitation that goes on in the diamond industry. But this is hardly unique. Commodities like fresh fruit, tea, sugar, cocoa and coffee are just some of the other industries plagued by marginalization and exploitation. This is where Fair Trade comes into play. Read more

Lien i3 Challenge: S$1m to Implement Innovative Social Projects

This Challenge aims to catalyse social projects that are innovative, implementable and impactful in Singapore and Asia.

The Lien i3 Challenge will award up to $1 million to spur ideas and make possible new social models. Read more

Forum on Social Entrepreneurship – 20 Nov 08

As part of the international movement Global Entrepreneurship Week, one of the upcoming events for the Singapore chapter will see the NUS Business School’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy and the NUS Business School Alumni Association brings us a forum on social entrepreneurship. Read more

SYINC Connect 08 – Youth Conference on Social Entrepreneurship

Want to meet like-minded people who are passionate about making a difference? Want to learn from respected and experienced community leaders and social entrepreneurs? SYINConnect is a one-day youth conference that connects participants to urgent social issues, and what people are doing about them in Singapore. Participants will get the opportunity to meet the community leaders making change in our society today, and build the skills, networks and confidence to be effective agents of change. Read more