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Conserving water, reducing energy use, and eliminating solid waste can improve the environment, save money, and help communities become more Sustainable and resilient. Environmental researchers are helping by developing and implementing Net Zero strategies, approaches, and technologies. Simply put, Net Zero means consuming only as much energy as produced, achieving a sustainable balance between water availability and demand, and eliminating solid waste sent to landfills. Net Zero and Net Positive (NZ/NP) strategies emphasize taking a systems approach to reduce water, energy, and waste footprints in installations and communities. These NZ/NP strategies provide long-term solutions for sustainability and resilience by meeting the environmental objectives of clean air and water, and reducing or eliminating waste sent to landfill, while ensuring the long-term viability of resources is not only maintained but also improved. At their core, NZ/NP strategies represent "sustainability in action". Net Zero means consuming only as much energy as is produced, achieving a sustainable balance between water availability and demand, and eliminating solid waste sent to landfills. Achieving Net Zero Water means limiting the consumption of water resources and returning it back to the same watershed so as not to deplete the resources of that region in quantity or quality over the course of the year. Achieving Net Zero Energy means producing, from renewable resources, as much energy on site as is used over the course of a year. Achieving Net Positive Energy means producing, from renewable resources, more energy on site than is used over the course of a year. Achieving Net Zero Waste means reducing, reusing, and recovering waste streams to convert them to valuable resources with zero solid waste sent to landfills over the course of the year. We can all do our part to achieve the sustainability and resiliency goals of Net Zero and Net Positive Energy, Net Zero Waste, and Net Zero Water in ways that protect human health and the environment while generating societal and economic benefits.

“Do More. Be More.” Every year, new Young Global Leaders (YGLs) are named for their exceptional work in their industries and communities. And they accomplish so much before they even hit 40. The global organisation of YGLs has an ever-growing membership, now with over 1,400 members and alumni of educators, activists, journalists, tech pioneers, business innovators, entrepreneurs, just to name a few. But they don’t get the title easily. The Forum of Young Global Leaders has to go through a painstaking process to select them, and of course when they’re chosen, these leaders are commemorated for their hard work. This year they welcome 112 new members. They are people who advocate for gender injustice and human rights to leaders of business, healthcare and civil society. Every time, each is motivated to do more and be more, as the motto goes. All these leaders are proactive, ready to make a difference and visionaries of our time; and today we focus on a couple of amazing social entrepreneurs. They are unmistakably selfless as they tackle social issues and exemplify what the world needs: empathy, drive and hope. THE FUTURE OF HOPE FOUNDATION Chido Govera grew up as an orphan. At 7, she became the parent to her brother and her grandmother, who was virtually blind. At 8, she became a victim of abuse. And when she was 9, she dropped out of school. "I remember I cried many days after that and I used to watch other kids going to school that I used to run around with, and it was painful. But it was more painful to go to school and spend the whole time thinking about what's going to happen when I get home. “Getting back home to watch the hungry faces of my granny and little brother. It was unbearable." Govera recounted. From then on, she promised herself that when she was older she would protect other orphans from suffering like she had. “This hope of helping made me stronger. It made me have something to look forward to every day even though I had no idea how to achieve it.” said Govera. Her dream is to empower and inspire women and orphans to change their lives and help others for the betterment of society. The mission of her organisation is to ‘capacitate, collaborate with, support and mentor marginal and vulnerable members of society through entrepreneurial and self-development initiatives.’ “The reason why I go into communities, select groups of young orphans, empower those and bring them back into the communities to inspire change there is because we need to change the way change is viewed.” she expressed. Her work has reached over 1000 women around South Africa, Zimbabwe, Congo, Tanzania, Cameroon and Ghana, as well as communities in India, entrepreneurs around Europe and the US and aboriginals in Australia. “We are not victims. We are endowed with so much potential, provided we learn the tools and are exposed to the best examples.” And one of the ‘tools’ she prizes using is the humble mushroom. She learned to farm them when she was 11 and realised the art of cultivating them was a way to aid and improve the situations in her community. She was able to use them to convert the agricultural waste at the end of a farming season into food as well as income. ‘We use all kinds of agricultural wastes to produce the highest quality mushrooms. From maize stalks, coffee waste, to baobab fruit waste, all can be converted into tasty mushrooms - good for health and good for nature!’ — The Future of Hope Foundation “If we want to change things, we will need to go to the grassroots and teach them to stand up for themselves, because if we can empower them beyond being a victim of a political situation, then we are making change happen.” said Govera, who was named a Young Global Leader in 2017. FOOD 4 EDUCATION ‘Hungry kids cannot learn or grow’ The United Nations’ Deputy Secretary-General addressed Food 4 Education and its founder as “an example of putting people first”. This Kenyan non-profit uses technology, such as Tap2Eat which is a wristband linked to a virtual wallet that subsidises costs for lunch, and logistics to deliver nutritious meals to primary school children in Nairobi, Kiambu and Mombasa. “I see myself as a young person who has the responsibility and the power to create the world I want to see in ten years. I do not take that responsibility lightly.” said Wawira Njiru, Executive Director of Food 4 Education and a trained nutritionist. She founded the organisation in 2012 so they could address the education and food supply needs in her community. But things got worse during the pandemic. Kenya had to close schools and beyond that the impact has left many of its people more vulnerable. They were at an even greater risk of undernutrition and undernourishment. Food 4 Education mobilised funds to create a food bank and managed to provide food packages and cash transfers for over 2 million meals to families and children in Africa. Now their number is up to 5 million. Njiru expressed that she “learnt a lot about the impact food has not only on health, but on political stability and security. Food insecurity drives many people all over the world from their homes to the streets to steel, beg and engage in other forms of violence. “I grew up in Ruiru where many children were being forced to choose between staying in class to learn or going out to the streets to beg for food. “Although I didn’t have immense resources as an undergrad student, I mobilised those around me to raise some money and start a feeding programme for school children that would enable them to stay in school and learn.” They’re feeding the future. “I define leadership as service. I believe that the greatest thing you can do as an individual on earth is to be of service to others. I believe the greatest leaders view their work as service.” said Njiru, named one of this year’s 112 Top YGLs. She also won the Builders of Africa Award 2018 and the Global Citizen Youth Leadership Prize 2018 by Cisco. TERRACYCLE Did you ever think that baby diapers and cigarette butts could be recycled? Or what about chewing gum and laboratory waste? When Tom Szaky was 19 and a freshman at Princeton University, he launched his company. A year later he dropped out to focus on TerraCycle. He’s now one of the top eco-friendly entrepreneurs in the world. “I started TerraCycle out of my dorm room with a passion for solving the critical issue of waste.” TerraCycle’s creative and inspired approach has made “the coolest little start-up in America” rocket to success as a global business, operating in 21 countries; and a frontrunner when it comes to developing recycling and reusable packing methods. They are completely doing away with the notion of waste. “About five years into our business we shifted our model to focus on garbage as the hero, and the solution is what can we make it into. Now we’re able to deal with hundreds of different waste streams.” said Szaky. Their mission is to turn items we deem as unrecyclable and thrown into a landfill into something that can actually be recycled. Millions of cigarette butts and juice pouches have been made into goods like backpacks and fence posts. “Over a few year period, we grew into a $6 million business with clients such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot selling products like worm poop fertilizer in a reused soda bottle. It was quite exciting.” And they’ve partnered with big brands. When they wanted to work on a project involving shoes and didn’t know how, they partnered with Timberland. They replaced the sole of shoes with wine corks and 30% of the leather with coffee bags. Now TerraCycle has had over 202 million people collecting and recycling billions of pieces of waste which in turn churned out over $44 million for charities globally. “We decided we were going to be an expert in one thing – and that thing is solving waste. “If you scare people, like the world’s going to end, with all these negatives, you’re going to create no engagement… People will feel like nothing they do truly means anything. “When you do it through delight and make people happy, then they will feel awesome, and they’ll want to make those incremental steps. “This can be applied to anything, not just garbage. Whatever you work on, try and get people to smile and enjoy interacting.” said Szaky, named a YGL in 2018 and the “#1 CEO under 30” by Inc. magazine in 2006. We hope their lives and work will inspire you to do good. If you’d like to find out more about Social Entrepreneurship, you can engage with us!

“Women have more sensitivity than men. Sometimes I really feel that more women should take responsibility in the leadership of our planet. It would mean less violence.” said the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Women have led the charge and paved the way forward for social enterprises. And they’ve already achieved wonders. International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day to celebrate social, culture, economic and political achievements of women. This year, IWD says Choose To Challenge. ‘The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.’ Today we are highlighting just a few of these champions who have taken the world by storm through their businesses. ‘Women social entrepreneurs have, time and time again, made a deep impact in their work through a form of impact called “scaling deep” — overhauling unfair and unjust systems, sparking collaborative social movements, and reshaping dominant expectations, norms, and stigmas.’ — World Economic Forum At the core of women empowerment is how females have been striving to gain rights and fight oppression. To achieve such virtuous and honourable goals, these entrepreneurs have chosen to create a business that is involved in making a social impact. Women surveyed by the WEstart project were shown to have a personal connection with the mission of their social enterprises; and they had a personal or first-hand experience motivating them. BREAKTHROUGH Human rights start with you - Breakthrough. Mallika Dutt is the founder of Breakthrough, which is an organisation driving change using media, art and technology that promotes human rights values of equality, dignity and respect. They’ve done collaborations with people like students, artists, community leaders, cultural workers to uplift creative and transformative efforts for their change. Using what they know, they aim to reject any cultural norms, practices and products that perpetuate discrimination and violence. Breakthrough’s campaigns uplifts communities of women and girls, migrants and those living with HIV-Aids. “Our current goal is to create social actors around the world who challenge violence and discrimination against women. “Human rights at their core are about the rights we all share: to live a life with dignity. That means that each one of us has to be accountable for how we treat our partners, our colleagues, our communities and ourselves. “Young people are absolutely critical for human rights leadership because they are not only the ones who will be most affected by our current global challenges; they also have new ways of thinking and being that may be more effective in getting us to a better place. “It really starts with you. At the end of the day, if you treat the people closest to you with respect, you can change the world.” said Mallika Dutt, former President and CEO. AFGHAN INSTITUTE OF LEARNING Dr Sakena Yacoobi’s vision is what started it all. Their mission? To provide education, training and health services to vulnerable Afghans in order to foster self-reliance, critical thinking skills and community participation. Back in the 1990s, in the refugee camps where there were no educational opportunities, she founded Afghan Institute of Learning. She wanted to help the people improve their situations and provide education as well as health care. AIL operated 80 “secret schools” for 3000 girls during the Taliban regime and when the latter were removed from power, AIL expanded to establish clinics, provide legal aid, run workshops, open learning centres and hold conferences on subjects like love and forgiveness. After decades of strife and ensuing war, she’s impacted millions of lives by providing early childhood to primary education. Today, AIL imparts knowledge to girls and boys with skills and knowledge. It is constantly working to rebuild the education system by also training 21,000 teachers, 10,000 healthcare staff and operating a hospital which has 2,000 patients every month. “I pray for the day when the world sees more than the war - when they see the other side of Afghanistan. “Every single girl must be educated in Afghanistan - that is my dream. I don’t have a small dream. My vision is big, has been big and is going to remain big. “She is hopeless. I cannot save her. You cannot save her. She must save herself. That is why I give her skills, I give her training, I give her education and I give her love and courage.” said Dr Yacoobi, who holds six doctorates from institutions like Princeton University; and was honoured with a multitude of awards from the Sunhak Peace Prize to being nominated as one of 1000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize. INNER GODDESS Since its startup in 2016, Anannya Parekh’s social venture has made an impact on over 10,000 poor and underprivileged girls and young women across cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. Inner Goddess empowers them by educating on the importance of financial literacy and anxiety, mental health issues and personal investing. “There was a relative uproar in the women's movement around the time, and people were just starting to understand the subjects of feminism and equality ... they do not know how to do it because nobody ever taught them. The education system is not teaching us these things and women are falling behind because of that. "So, the vision right now is to ensure that a lot of these girls get the right kind of information about personal finance, so their literacy around it becomes higher. It will automatically help them make better decisions.” said Parekh, who has represented India at global summits. LIFELINE ENERGY Kristine Pearson’s the driving force behind Lifeline Energy. Since 1999, Lifeline Energy has worked at communication initiatives for people across Africa by integrating MP3 players and radios into areas like health, education, climate change, agriculture and emergencies. They have distributed more than 685,000 wind-up, solar-powered radios so millions of listeners can get facts, help and even how to get tested during this pandemic. Even before that, Lifeline Energy provided education broadcasts in Zambia after HIV-Aids cost teachers their lives; relief information in flood-flattened Mozambique; providing English lessons in Kenya and life skills to child-headed households in Rwanda post-genocide. “Orphans in Rwanda didn’t trust the adults around them. Somebody next door could have been complicit in their parents’ murders. What I loved most was seeing the power of radio in a language they could understand, a voice they could trust, so that they did not have to make their decisions by guesswork. “A man who heads a nonprofit is considered heroic or enlightened, whereas I’ve been patronised numerous times as the charity worker.” “Don’t try to solve a problem you don’t understand. Live it, or work for an organisation. Be as close to it as possible, otherwise you’ll waste money and not help.” said Kristine Pearson, who served on the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for 8 years. She’s been honoured with the James C Morgan Global Humanitarian Award and TIME magazine named her Hero of the Environment in 2007. RAVEN + LILY Raven + Lily’s designs are inspired by the culture of the women who created the products. As a certified B Corporation, it is committed to responsible production of handcrafted accessories using recycled or repurposed materials. It also believes in championing women from all backgrounds and cultures. After all, Kirsten Dickerson founded her business to aid in alleviating poverty by employing over 1,500 marginalised women globally by providing a sustainable income, a safe job, education, health care and a real chance for them and their families. “Our focus on women has never and will never be compromised; it is the very heartbeat of Raven + Lily. Since college, I have felt called to be an advocate for women. I have seen firsthand how women globally can overcome great odds and circumstances when given empowerment opportunities through education, access to meaningful work, and micro loans. “I am inspired daily by the strength and resilience of the women in our partnerships. I love sharing their stories so that our customers can also be inspired by the amazing women involved in all our production.” said Dickerson. HUSH TEABAR Slow down, take a pause, breathe and reflect. Hush Teabar is a social movement that advocates for mental health and employs people who have/are recovering from mental health conditions. It has become Singapore’s first silent teabar with the aim of bringing self care and social inclusion to communities and workplaces, through a humble cup of tea. The Hush Experience brings together the deaf and hearing by having the former lead participants through 4 zones: Intention, Hush, Expression and Sharing. ‘We see you – through the good times and the bad. We feel your endless exhaustion, and working hours that never seem to end. We see your stress. We also see your smiles, joy, and reverberating laughter. We want to let you know that you are not alone, in times of sorrow and joy. We can’t stop time, but we can make time in the moment to care for ourselves, be it to rest or rejoice. Let us support you by giving you a safe space of silence to take a pause.’ — Hush Teabar “I have much admiration for the Deaf, for their strong sense of identity and culture. I wanted to challenge the notion of disAbility by flipping the world around. In a space of silence where spoken words are not needed, where is their disability? And who is disabled? “A caring and inclusive society can only come from caring and inclusive workplaces.” said Ong. BLUE SKY ANALYTICS One day in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, a river turned orange. It was at that moment Abhilasha Purwar saw the devastation of climate change. The incident impacted her so greatly she chose to pursue a master’s in Environmental Management at Yale. “Enough is enough.” and so, with her brother, they created Blue Sky Analytics. It is leading the fight against air pollution by using the power of artificial intelligence and satellites to provide real-time data on the environment. The next on their list of issues is water quality and pollution. They’re aiming to solve big problems by tackling it at grassroot level. “When you are a female founder and you’re only meeting men, you start to normalise behaviour which you shouldn’t otherwise. When I started Blue Sky Analytics, for a year I was meeting men every day. Investors, employees - all had been men. Finding other women became a specific task. The representation is poor, way poorer than we think it is. “Women often go for safe jobs, I feel they need to be more self-driven and take risks. I’ve seen that people who took more risks have done better. “I advise young people to explore not what you want to do, but what you don’t want to do … As a startup, too, you are scared and self-conscious. It’s about doing the little things, one step at a time and overcoming that fear.” said Purwar. We hope their lives and work will inspire you to do good. ‘We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge.’ — IWD

This year, IWD says Choose To Challenge. ‘The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.’ Today we highlight the women of MTC who expressed what "women empowerment" means to them. ‘Women social entrepreneurs have, time and time again, made a deep impact in their work through a form of impact called “scaling deep” — overhauling unfair and unjust systems, sparking collaborative social movements, and reshaping dominant expectations, norms, and stigmas.’ — World Economic Forum We're also greatly inspired by 7 female entrepreneurs who are dedicated to helping others. Find out more about them and how they made a difference.

Just last month, The Straits Times reported on a “record number of scams in 2020” where Singaporeans have lost more than $201 million, which means there’s been over 15,700 cases. One of the Top 10 scam types was social media impersonation scams and it’s a serious concern when Make The Change works with youths. It’s why “Be Smart” is one of Digital Arts For All (DAFA)’s three foundational values. The core is for students we teach to comprehend media literacy and the meaning of being safe, smart and kind online. And when we celebrated Safer Internet Day (Feb 9), it was a reminder to us on the serious dangers that come with our overuse of technology, which include hacked social media accounts, dangerous trending challenges, fake news and cyberbullying. Unless we are directly affected by them, we don’t realise how awful they can be. But that shouldn’t deter us from using it once we receive the right education. That is precisely why our DFG Youth Competition design brief this year is the Better Internet Campaign, which is all about creating a safer and better internet for everyone. We are open for submissions and close on June 15. It’s been a strong start to DAFA. Since the end of Circuit Breaker, we’ve had the chance to educate Sec 1s to 4s on media literacy. They include schools like CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent Mayflower Secondary Holy Innocents High Hwa Chong Institution Ngee Ann Secondary (twice) Yuying Secondary as well as reaching our interns from Temasek Junior College, Raffles Girls Secondary, Singapore Chinese Girls School, ITE Central, PeiHwa Secondary and Zhenghua Secondary Schools that wish to enter will get a complimentary 2-hour Digital Arts and Cyberwellness Workshop for your students. “At this digital arts workshop, there are no crayons and paper. Instead, participants create drawings on iPads, and also pick up media literacy skills along the way.” - Read more at TODAY ONLINE

Make The Change with Mr S Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information & Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations Hacked social media accounts. Dangerous trending challenges. Online scams. Fake news. Cyberbullying. These are some of the most serious dangers that come with our overuse of technology. Unless we are directly affected by them, we don’t realise how awful they can be. Today marks Safer Internet Day (SID), which started out as a European Union SafeBorders project back in 2004. Each year since then, SID aims to address a current issue that affects or influences users online, especially youths. This year, it focuses on the theme of “An Internet We Can Trust”, which has become an obvious issue and will get increasingly worse as we spend more of our time on the internet. So as we carry on, we need to practice healthier habits. It’s our initiative at Make The Change to bring awareness to digital and media literacy with our Digital Arts For All workshop. We actively inform and educate students by teaching them to Be Safe, Be Smart and Be Kind when they’re online. We want our students to cultivate a better understanding on how information online can shape and impact an individual. After a DAFA workshop, they will be empowered with critical thinking skills and take away the 3 main pillars in discerning how they receive as well as create content online, which are the essence of media literacy. But they don’t only focus on theory. We have plenty of practical activities using iPads and Apple Pencils that will keep students engaged as they create their own digital art picture or GIF advocating a message on media literacy. That is precisely why our DFG Youth Competition design brief this year is the Better Internet Campaign, which is all about creating a safer and better internet for everyone. We are open for submissions and close on June 15. Schools that wish to enter will get a complimentary 2-hour Digital Arts and Cyberwellness Workshop for your students. If you’d like to know more about our DAFA workshops, please contact us!

Singapore's Budget 2021 has just been announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday (Feb 16). The focus for Singapore's economy this year will shift from Containment to Restructuring in light of the global coronavirus pandemic which ravaged the world in 2020. Budget 2021 with the theme "Emerging Stronger Together", combines measures to help families, workers and businesses weather this ongoing crisis in the immediate term, with measures to accelerate structural adaptations for the long term. To encourage charitable giving and corporate volunteerism even in these trying and uncertain times, the Singapore government will extend tax deductions and a number of initiatives to assist charities. This comes as community partners, charities and social service agencies are facing new challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic, with donations to many charities declining, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng. To summarize, these are the changes: (1) Currently, the Singapore government already offers tax incentives for donations made to institutions of a public character (IPCs) and also matches donations raised. The 250% tax deduction on donations to IPCs will now be extended for another 2 years till the end of 2023. (2) The additional government support for the Tote Board's Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme will also be extended by 1 year. Charities can apply to receive dollar-for-dollar matching on eligible donations, which are raised from projects in FY2021, up to a cap of S$250,000 per applicant. (3) Support will also be extended to Community Chest (ComChest), which plays a critical role in raising funds for many social service agencies.The government will extend the matching period to FY2023 for ComChest's SHARE as One scheme. The scheme provides dollar-for-dollar matching for new and additional donations through the SHARE programme, under which corporates, employees and individuals can commit to regular giving. (4) Moreover, the government will set aside S$20 million for a new Change for Charity Grant. The Change for Charity Grant will match ComChest donations raised through this new initiative, and also co-fund one-off development costs to integrate or enhance donation functions on to businesses' payment platforms. (5) To spur more employees to volunteer, the government will extend the Business and IPC Partnership Scheme for another two years, till the end of 2023. (6) In addition, the government will provide three dollars for every dollar raised for the Community Development Councils' Care and Innovation Fund. Some S$50 million will be set aside for this matching grant, which is meant to support bottom-up, innovative initiatives addressing the needs of the community. Deputy Prime Miniter Heng urged all individuals, organisations and corporations to do more for Singapore's charity sector if they can. Every little bit counts to make a difference, an impact in people's lives, and Make The Change.

Sustainable design is a unique combination of two concepts: Sustainability and Design. Perhaps the most common understanding of sustainability is drawn from a 1987 UN paper that defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” And then there’s the varying usage of the word “design.” There are many fields of specialization within the design profession such as architecture, fashion, experience design, interiors, interactive design, graphic design, product design, and web design, each with its own parlance and practices. However, the basic lack of understanding about "Sustainable" and "Design” means there’s a lot of room for misunderstanding and misintepretation of the meaning of both words. The biggest misunderstanding is to use “Sustainable Design” to describe the act of creating less bad versions of something unsustainable. For instance, designing cars with more efficient internal combustion engines doesn’t actually erase their impact on the environment, despite how car manufacturers tout their green vehicles. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as clean coal. Cleaner burning is definitely an option, but the problem is that we cannot burn fossil fuels at all if we want to be sustainable. Compounding the confusion is the dizzying array of seals, certificates, green stickers and “eco labels.” Originally conceived so consumers can swiftly recognize conscientiously-made goods and services, the legions of eco-themed emblems on product packaging and signage can sow confusion. As much as there’s no universal definition of sustainable design, there’s also not one globally accepted symbol for it. Even advocates of “Sustainable Design” don’t always like the term, arguing that the goals associated with it have proven to be too narrow. “Regenerative Design" does a better job of capturing the field’s goals from an environmental perspective. In general, most brands are often too focused on talking up their sustainability efforts. It would be great if they could change or gradually tweak upon their mindset, as while to sustain is merely only to maintain, but to regenerate is to restore. For those companies, organisations and individuals who have been involved in sustainable design for 30 years or more, it is painful to accept how badly sustainability has failed to prevent the multiple environmental crises from worsening. The implication, and all too often the reality, has been that fully sustainable simply meant ‘100% less bad. To surmise, we urgently need to shift to optimize positives and repair the damage done to our life support systems.

There are many diverse benefits of Sustainability. This is all the more so in Singapore, a tiny island nation with extremely limited natural resources. Why is Sustainability so important not just in Singapore, but the world? Sustainability maintains the health and biocapacity of the environment, which in turn supports the well-being of individuals and communities. Sustainability also promotes a better economy where there is little waste and pollution, fewer emissions, more jobs, and a better distribution of wealth overall. It is important to consider where individuals and society derive their well-being from. Many Singaporeans may regard the health of the economy as most important, and that individual and social well-being derives from it. This mentality can be credited to the country's status as one of the richest, but also most expensive places to live in the world. However, that stance on the economy is only partially accurate. Whilst the economy exists to support the well-being of society, it is still only a subordinate component of society as a whole. The economy is in fact, entirely dependent on natural resources to sustain it, as well as the energy of people to drive it. Society is also a part of the environment and therefore is reliant on the well-being of the environment for life itself. So we can safely say that the priority of Sustainability is Planet First, People Second, Production Third. Environmental Sustainability Environmental well-being is crucial to human well-being because that’s where all our physical resources come from. However, each year, we deplete resources and humanity uses over 1.5 times the biocapacity of the earth. Biocapacity is the amount of renewable resources produced by the earth that can be used by humans. It is only possible to use more resources than are supplied by diminishing and degrading the environment. Consequently, humans continually reduce the ability of the environment to provide the resources we will need in the future. Therefore, it is important to pratice environment sustainability, so that the environment can thrive and continue to sustain life for as long as possible. Social & Individual Well-being Sustainability supports individuals in many ways. The benefits of simple living are many. Instead of the produce-and-consume way of life, people are able to focus more on the things that really support well-being such as relationships, self-improvement and meaningful pursuits. Also, sustainability tends to promote healthier living. Society as a whole also benefits. If individuals are well it will help make a healthier society overall, and vice-versa. Sustainable practices include sharing, giving and supporting each other to achieve a higher level of social well-being in our communities. A Sustainable Economy Sustainable development is about improving the quality of the economy, not the size of it. The fact is we need a better economy, not a bigger one. Sustainable practices will make the economy better through reduced consumption overall and more equable distribution of wealth. People’s lives will made be richer through better quality products and services. Sustainable economies encourage distributed, local production over centralised production. Local production has many environmental benefits over centralised, or even offshore, production including reduced emissions, pollution and waste. Localised, smaller-scale production has societal benefits of creating jobs and boosting local economies. Sustainability encourages better design as well as less production. This means that products and services will be better quality, more durable and more useful. There will be less junk and less waste. The Benefits of Sustainability In conclusion, sustainabilism maintains the well-being of the environment so that it can support human well-being. If we are able to move forward and each adapt to a more Sustainable personal lifestyle, we definitely can Make The Change and create an impact in not just Singapore, but the world.

Hello again, and a good day to all! We would like to extend our best wishes wishes to everyone, and a great start for the new year. Additionally, we'd like to wish everyone a Happy & Prosperous Lunar New Year! We are truly positive that 2021 will indeed be a better year, as all the adversities we've had to endure in 2020 have galvanised us and made us stronger. Indeed, just like the tough, sturdy and indomitable Ox which happens to be the Chinese Zodiac Animal for 2021! Come Join Us! We offer our heartfelt and appreciation to all Students and Teachers for your gracious support and participation of our Design For Good Youth Competition all these years. 

Our competition keeps growing each year, as does its outreach and positive impact on society. We continue to strongly believe that we are helping to plant the seeds for future change makers to make a difference by utilising their creative skills. We are pleased to announce that the competitionis now open on and will close on the 15th of June. Additionally, we are excited to announce that this year's competition will be held with support from, and in conjunction with the Media Literacy Council. Thank you very much again to all Students and Teachers for making DFG Youth Competition possible, year after year. We're look forward to working with you guys again in this year's installment. For more information, click here. Use Your Creativity To Make An Impact!

At Make The Change we are always innovating and we are improving our programmes. We have always incorporated Social Intelligence to our programmes, but what is Social Intelligence? Are our IQs, or book smarts, the only kind of intelligence we need to pay attention to? Outside of academics, teachers want their students to grow up with social and emotional skills. It’s why there’s so much emphasis placed on school values and what they represent, especially when students attend programmes outside of the curriculum. Our social intelligence is a skill that is developed throughout our lives and it involves someone’s ability to connect to those around them. At Make The Change, we hope to develop the core traits of social intelligence in all students. Our course will cater toward helping them Become Effective Listeners Those with social intelligence really pay attention to what someone is saying and both sides would feel that they were understood. It’s so important that students practice active listening; and that they are able to understand their teachers and classmates. Be Open-Minded It’s easy to argue with others when things don’t go the way you want it to. If someone has high social intelligence, they understand that making someone else feel bad isn’t the way to settle a difference of opinion. Improve Conversational Skills Many people lack this skill, especially at a young age. It’s not only being able to converse with everyone in a room in any setting, but to be sincere, appropriate and tactful. Respect Different Cultures Even if they are of a different upbringing, students should seek to learn from those of another race or religion. It will help them broaden their understanding of the world around them. Do you want to learn more about Social Intelligence and how apply it in your school? Look out for our new course on Social Intelligence. Students will improve on their empathy, how well they respond to others’ emotions, and better their social skills. To learn more please email us at info@makethechange.sg.

2020 was tough on everyone, but here at Make The Change, we saw opportunities to create positive impacts for the community despite the uncertain times. Here's a look at what we accomplished last year, and we look forward to serving more this new year