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Cheshire Home As part of our community development programme, we conducted a two-session workshop for persons with disabilties in Cheshire Home. The workshop introduced and shared on the key features and usage of the software Photoshop. At its core, the workshop series was more than just a technical training opportunity. It was a platform for individuals with disabilities to unleash their creativity, express themselves, and explore new avenues for personal and professional growth. By providing access to tools like Photoshop, we aimed to break down barriers and empower participants to pursue their passions with confidence.

We are proud to announce the launch of our Growth Mindset Programme for Primary and Secondary Schools. This interactive workshop is designed to help students understand the power of a growth mindset and how it can positively impact their learning, problem-solving, and resilience in academic and personal challenges. Through engaging activities, discussions, and real-life examples, students will explore the difference between a fixed and growth mindset, recognize the value of effort, and learn strategies to embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth. For more information, visit the programme website

28th August marks a beautiful end to our annual DFG Youth Competition Award Ceremony. This year, we collaborated with Disabled People’s Association (DPA) to encourage young minds to design and speak up for persons with disabilities. DPA's mission is to "be the voice of persons with disabilities, working with them to achieve full participation and equal status in the society through independent living." We were heartened to have received entries that addressed a spectrum of different special needs from physical (eg. lift access for wheelchair-bound) to societal (eg. employing persons with disabilities) aspects. Design For Good (DFG)'s heart has always been more about the journey. The student participant's journey of understanding and conceptualising the right message has always been our biggest takeaway. We believe this is where empathetic innovation sows its seeds, for youths can have the space to better understand other communities and individuals with challenges different from their own. This is what kept us running for 3 years, and it fuels us on for more youth competitions to come. Here are the 3 key highlights from the Ceremony on Monday! 1. Top 50 Finalists' Showcase We held a mini showcase of works from our top 50 finalists. Displaying them in a shared space, participants were able to gain fresh perspectives of how others perceive and answer the design brief. 2. Presentation of Certs and Handmade Trophies We took the chance to show our appreciation for the participating schools as well. We hope that this youth competition serves as a complementary platform to help nurture thinking minds of tomorrow. Our trophies for the schools this year were lovingly made by @deaf_artscraftsy, a deaf social entrepreneur passionate to advocate deaf artists in Singapore. 3. A layer deeper with guest speaker Alfred Yeo Lastly, our highlight has got to be the sharing session by Alfred. No stranger to Design For Good (DFG), Alfred has been invited to speak at the Design For Good Talk during Singapore Design Week earlier this year. His passion to bridge communities and share personal stories about being deaf have been incredibly inspiring and thought-provoking.

Zayn Toghyan MTC Freelance Writer Sustainability is a broad policy concept in the global public discourse and is often conceived of in terms of three "dimensions" or "pillars": environmental, economic and social. The original semantic meaning of “sustainability” and “to sustain” refers to the ability to continue over a long period of time. In the broadest possible sense, sustainability refers to the ability of something to maintain or "sustain" itself over time. In business and policy contexts, limits to sustainability are determined by physical and natural resources, environmental degradation, and social resources. Sustainability requires humans to learn to live within our means. Major factors, such as human population size, biosphere robustness, resource stock, food supply, and environmental quality must remain in balance, on a global scale. This state of balance must last long enough so that it will not be merely a blip on the curve of unsustainable growth. Even though we may not attain that balance, we must move in that direction if humanity and the ecosystem are to survive. Because the Earth is a closed system, a sustainable world is only compatible with "sustainable growth". A closed system might conceivably accommodate "sustainable development," a term popularised by the World Commission on Environment and Development, but how that could be done is not obvious. Another way to look at the issue is to consider the idea of a transition towards sustainability, which, however, needs a complementary discussion of the destination, or end-state, of that transition. Most of us probably accept the proposition that everyone should have access to fair shares of food, water, shelter, and health care. Surely, we want to sustain a healthy environment and a robust ecosystem. Certainly, we want to promote equity among societies, to reduce disparity between the rich and the poor, to protect human dignity, and to eradicate violence. While moving towards that goal, we need to protect the capability of future societies to make real choices for themselves, whatever their social organisation or cultural and religious affinity. If these goals seem incompatible with our present rate of material consumption, then we need to do some careful soul-searching about our obsession for ever-increasing economic output. To take sustainability seriously requires us to re-examine our ideas about growth, social equity, consumption, and standard of living, that putative indicator of social well-being. Sustainability is constrained at both ends of the economic output. At the starting point it is constrained by the availability of resources, and at the end point by the accumulation of waste and pollution resulting from their consumption. Consumption and systems of material distribution, the processes that link those two ends, go to the heart of the matter. The scale of global consumption, both public and private, depends on population size and on the intensity of resource use. What are some of the implications of sustainable consumption of resources? For those living at a subsistence level, to consume is to survive. This is true today for about a third of the world's human population. For them, amenities beyond survival are largely a luxury. Such "luxury", while arguably marking civilised societies, too easily degenerates into extravagance. One possible approach to "sustainable consumption" is to support and strengthen the "ecological middle consumers". Globally, the increasing number of people living in abject poverty, combined with the number among the better-off who lapse into ostentatious consumption, threaten to endanger the future existence of the middle consumers. Equity and social justice are therefore key to a durable and sustainable world. To discuss sustainable consumption, we need to know why people consume beyond their needs. Several essays in Crocker and Linden discuss the motivations behind consumption; why are commercial ads such a powerful driving force? Is it the attempted fulfilment of daydreams, the emulation of neighbours, or a display of enhanced wealth? If display is the motivating force, then it might help to substitute the assurance of material capability for the actual implementation. For instance, I don't have to stay aloft all the time in order to prove that I can afford all the plane trips I want to take. Such a shift in measuring the standard of living, which Sen calls a "positive freedom," might help to bring sustainability closer to reality. In the end, whether we can attain equitable sustainability depends on the aggregate effects of individual choices and systemic changes. Institutions can provide incentives and even role models, but every one of us must make their own decisions. Certain choices may require us to give up things, or even some of our dreams, for the good of "others'' which include those without voices and the future generation. A suggestive metaphor is the choice that would face you in an overcrowded lifeboat. If taking on one more passenger would swamp the boat, do those already on board have a right to fend off newcomers? Awful though such choices appear, we in fact face them daily. How we live and how we act affect our survival, environmental quality, and local and national attitudes toward immigrants and refugees. The scale and complexity of societies may help to buffer our individual impact, yet among all the living species, humans are the only ones capable of being guardians for global sustainability buttressed by justice. We must act because we alone can choose to make a difference. Our environment is all we have. If we don’t take care of it, who will? “Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” By Gro Harlem Brundtland Resources: https://cisl-onlinecourses.getsmarter.com/presentations/lp/university-of-cambridge-business-sustainability-management-online-short-course/?cid=15299441697&utm_contentid=562504612023&ef_id=c:562504612023_d:c_n:g_ti:kwd-21510980_p:_k:sustainability_m:p_a:135179686772&gclid=CjwKCAjw_tWRBhAwEiwALxFPodvHmaoFhK6NCOmiq2LvrchrhkOlR0JgzIkjvUGOFX49aPomR4ZlmRoC-CIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.sustainabilitydegrees.com/what-is-sustainability/sustainable-society/ http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustain10.html

While Earth Hour is celebrated every year in March, the unfortunate fact is that climate change is inevitable. As much as some of us will want to, switching off the lights for an hour every night is not feasible option for most, as many individuals have have work to do, or will simply forget about turning off the lights entirely. Here are some things you can do on a daily basis to help slow the process of climate change and do your part in protecting the environment, with a more practical approach. Who knows, before you know it, it might even become part of your daily routine! 1. You can reduce your individual carbon footprint by taking public transport or cyclo-commuting whenever possible. 2. Stop consumption of phantom energy by turning off your electrical appliances when they’re not in use. Electronics on standby can account for up to 10% of your home electricity usage. 3. Reduce your carbon footprint even further by making the switch to greener, sustainable LED light bulbs or to renewable energy. 4. Reduce paper wastage by using recycled paper as much as you can, and remember to set your printer settings to two-sided. 5. Refuse, reuse and recycle plastic bags when you go shopping. Bring your own recyclable bag instead. 6. Make a conscious effort to buy what you need and reduce food wastage. As a tip, it is always wise to never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach; you'll be tempted to purchase more food and stuff like snacks that you do not actually need. Get the word out and tell your friends and family about Earth Hour! Remember, Earth Hour is not only about turning off our lights once a year. It symbolises our commitment to take immediate and collective action to change climate change. Every small action, when combined with millions of others, has a huge, tangible impact.

Greetings everyone! Earth Day has recently come and gone, and we may or may not have done anything to make an Impact on that day. However, instead of making seeing Earth Day as a one-off thing for the year, why not choose to adopt Earth Day as a Lifestyle , and make everyday an Earth Day? Here are some ways that we can do so, and live the rest of the year while championing for Sustainability: Follow the 3 Rs Look for ways you can Reduce, Reuse and Recycle throughout your home. You’ll save natural resources, energy and money, and you’ll reduce waste sent to landfills. Conserve energy at home From turning off lights and electronics when not in use, to using a programmable thermostat, to changing your air filter regularly, there are many small things you can do to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while saving money on your utility bills. Reduce paper waste and junk mail Think twice before printing things at work and home. You can reduce your mail by using online payment options that avoid paper bills. And there are services that will remove your name from unwanted mailing lists to reduce junk mail. Recycle your electronics Your old, unused or broken computers, tablets, phones and other electronics can often be recycled, which saves natural resources while also reducing pollution. Give your car a break Whether you're commuting to work or running errands, you just might be able to leave your car at home, even a few times a week. Walk, ride a bike, carpool or take public transportation. You'll save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and get more exercise. Turn off the tap Whether you're brushing your teeth, washing dishes, or taking a shower, turn off the water when it's not needed. Replace your bulbs Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and LED bulbs may cost more than incandescent bulbs, but they will save money over the long run, last longer, and use up to 90% less energy. Bring your own bags to the store Use a backpack or bag from home, or buy reusable bags that you can keep in your car and use again and again. Buy local Buying local produce and other items reduces shipping distances from food sourced overseas, and also supports local businesses and communities. Act local Get involved in environmental work in your local community. Local schools, governments, and non-profit organizations often offer opportunities for volunteers to get involved in cleaning up parks, restoring habitats, and other efforts to make communities greener.

Updated February 2023 E-Waste Recycling Centers in Singapore https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/waste-management/3r-programmes-and-resources/e-waste-management/where-to-recycle-e-waste List of Sustainable Vendors (Food) https://www.pmhaze.org/eaterydirectoryhhfs

We can all celebrate Mother’s Day with a minimal impact to the Earth, by contributing to Sustainability . Here’s how to celebrate our lovely Moms in a sustainable manner, with some thoughtful choices that can help the environment. Support Local Singaporeans spend a ton of money each year on flowers for Mother’s Day to tell their Mom that they love and appreciate them. But did you know some of the flowers at your local florist or supermarket might have been sourced from as far away as Kenya, Vietnam and Ecuador? The carbon emissions from importing flowers half way around the world to Singapore and refrigerating them isn’t helping the planet. These flowers are subject to higher use of pesticides to get through stringent Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) standards too. We can look locally and support florists that sell flowers grown in Singapore. Opt For In-Season Flowers Supporting Local and purchasing locally grown flowers means that you’ll be buying flowers that are in season and grown in their natural environment. They’ll last longer and look prettier. We can do our research to know which flowers in Singapore are in season, and when. Buy in Bulk Consider buying a potted plant, or purchasing flowers in bulk with friends and colleagues who are celebrating Mother's Day as well. The more the merrier! Plants help cool the air and reduce emissions and they look pretty good too. Excess flowers can always be donated to the nearest Senior Citizen's Home. The old folks there will be delighted to receive flowers out of the blue for sure! "Borrow" From Your Neighbours If you have warm or at least cordial relationships with your neighbours and they happen to grow their own flowers, it never hurts to try asking them for a bunch. Use the money saved from purchasing flowers to buy your Mom a splendid dinner! Maybe return the favour in future by sharing some of your home cooked delicacies, or running an errand for them. That's how good relationships among neighbours are formed! Give an Eco-Friendly Gift If you’re looking for something different this year, get your Mom a bike. It’s the gift that burns the right kind of fuel and keeps down emissions while boosting her fitness and helping her enjoy the outdoors. If your Mom isn't the outdoorsy sort of person, you can always get her an excercise bike instead, so she can work out from the comfort of home. If your budget is smaller, there’s still plenty of easy to find eco-friendly gifts; from reusable takeaway coffee cups to upcycled jewellery, the possibilities are endless. Make Your Presence Her Present Any parent will tell you a month of making lunches, or doing dishes, or perhaps a weekend sleep-in, is a present money can’t buy. It’s personal and usually fairly cheap. Or go on a hike with mum, and don’t forget to pack a picnic lunch.

Happy Belated Easter everyone! For individuls who always looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and celebrate the holidays more sustainably, Google reports that over the last five years, searches for “how to be more environmentally friendly” have peaked around Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, which suggests others are looking for ways to make their holiday celebrations more earth-friendly too. Here are 6 Sustainable ways to celebrate Easter: 1. Make Natural Easter Egg Dye Decorating Easter eggs is fun but using a store-bought kit can be harmful to the environment. Instead of picking up a kit made from plastic and cardboard, you can make your own natural egg dyes at home. Grab a few glass mason jars and us e our all-natural egg dye recipes to make gorgeous hues from things like leftover onion skins, turmeric, or red cabbage. To further reduce waste, enjoy your dyed hard-boiled eggs as a healthy snack. 2. Re-Think Your Easter Egg Hunt Hosting an Easter egg hunt may be cool, and there are a few easy ways to make the hunt less wasteful. Instead of hiding plastic eggs or real eggs that won’t be eaten, consider hiding small wood toys or DIY reusable treat bags instead. 3. Make A Reusable Easter Basket Rather than buying a cheap plastic basket at the store every year, make your own Easter basket and reuse it each spring. 4. Give Up Single-Use Plastics Consider giving up something harmful to the earth, like single-use plastics. These items include disposable plastic silverware, single-use grocery bags, and the clear plastic water bottles you might be buying by the case. 5. Repurpose Old Plastic Eggs If you have a bin of Easter decorations, you likely have old plastic eggs bouncing around. Instead of throwing unwanted eggs away and adding more plastic to the landfill, repurpose them into a piece of decor you can put up every year. Use leftover party napkins and decoupage to create this gorgeous Easter egg wreath that gives new life to your old items. 6. Skip The Individually-Wrapped Candy Easter chocolat e isn’t so great for the environment. Most of the brightly-colored foil coating on our milk chocolate treats, while technically recyclable if it’s clean, typically ends up in the landfill. Instead of individually-packaged candies, consider getting something more sustainable.

With a big celebration like Hari Raya coming up soon, you may find it hard to find eco-friendly ways to celebrate without feeling guilty at the easily generated trash and carbon footprint. Here are some tips to help you reduce trash and celebrate a Sustainable Hari Raya : Explore Straw Alternatives There are plenty of plastic alternatives, but the best one has to be lemongrass straws. You can easily get a large bundle of lemongrass for cheap, it adds a wonderful flavor to your drinks, and best of all these straws look awesome. Prepare Your Own Drinks No need for packaged drinks. All you need is a large pitcher, glass jar, or a drink dispenser. If you host parties often, it’s a good idea to invest in one that you can reuse each time. Mix your own cordials and be generous with a hearty dash of cut fruits. Reuse Duit Raya Packets If you already have a collection of your favorite packets, that's great. Keep the Hari Raya packets and let your parents reuse them next year. Or, if you are meant to give them out, ask your younger siblings or relatives if they can help keep the nicer packets. Have Your Guests Bring Their Own Containers Ask your guests to bring along their own containers and reusable utensils. Tell them that they are welcome to bring home food as long as they have their own containers.This way you won’t have food waste, your guests will be happy, and you don’t have to wash the dishes. DIY Your Own Pelita Lamps There’s no need to spend money buying Pelita lamps you would only use once. You can now make them easily out of anything, such as soft drink cans or glass jars. If you are worried about open fire, there are plenty options to buy reusable LED lamps that look like the real thing, and you can always keep them for future use. Hari Raya Clothes Exchange The best way to keep your Raya wardrobe fresh and up-to-date is a clothes swap. Find a friend of similar size and simply exchange Hari Raya clothes. If not, there are always pre-loved options on online platforms or clothes swap parties you can join. It costs so much less than brand new clothes and it’s so good for the environment as well.

Digital Technology has transformed the way many businesses operate and support their employees. From communications platforms and collaboration software to smartphones, apps and virtual services, tech is an undeniably powerful force which drives the entire world, something that has become glaringly evident in this day and age. But, when it comes to its impact on society, is it a force for good or for evil? Or perhaps, a little bit of both? And if that's the case, how do we focus on bringing out the good side of Technology? We would like to think that Technology For Good is a conscientious choice. Over the years, technology has undoubtedly done more good for humanity than bad. We are on the cusp of half the world moving into the middle class and having access to internet, while more and more people around the world lifting themselves out of poverty. Despite this boom, with the rise of Big Tech, these companies are failing expectations instead of leading by example, and their fall from grace is a wakeup call. Sexual harassment problems, tax evasion questions, election meddling, data privacy issues and questionable business practices are all raising the notion that the major tech companies are “too big to let be.” When the President of The United States of America, arguably the most powerful man in the world, can be censored on social media by Big Tech, it is indeed a scary thought to consider that literally anyone else in the world can be, too. Employee activism too is on the rise, pushing issues like diversity, inclusion, transparency, ethical coding, and weaponization of artificial intelligence to the top of management agenda. All of this points to the need for the industry to realize that with great power comes great responsibility, and for Big Tech to held accountable for their actions and decisions. On the bright side of things and to put your mind at ease, it is comforting to know that technology has always advanced with the purpose of making our lives better. Also remember that all technology was new at one point in time. Those who were open to new technology have been more likely to benefit from it. We should keep an open mind when new technology comes out or as current technologies continue to evolve. Today’s world is built on the technology that humans have invented and advanced over thousands of years. The rate at which technology has advanced has made life almost indistinguishable from what life was like even a century ago. We are very much dependent on the technology we have. This dependence doesn’t just refer to your inability to put down your phone for more than a few hours -- it refers to the many technologies that you likely take for granted that may have saved your life and made your current life possible without you even realizing it. Technology will only continue to advance, and because of how effective new technology is, it only means that it will continue to evolve at an even faster rate. The human race has been dependent on technology for its survival throughout its entire history, which means that the idea of stopping or slowing down is simply not a possibility. Technology must move forward and it will continue to evolve at a faster rate to meet the challenges of today.

Ever wondered what it is like to use social media for good? At Make The Change, we believe that as changemakers, we should not only be advocating for change offline but also online. Therefore, we came up with the programme called Social Media For Good ; to teach youths that they can bring about change in the cyber world where voices can become very powerful. On 20th and 25th May, we conducted our Social Media For Good workshop online with the girls from Girls’ Brigade. There are many ways to use social media for good, especially when there are several social media platforms readily available for the public. Rather than introducing a whole new platform for the youths, we settled for something familiar to them, which is Instagram. Along with the ability to create captivating visuals and impactful captions, Instagram can become a platform to advocate for positivity and to raise awareness about social issues and causes. As the girls were not new to Instagram, we skipped the introduction of it and went straight into teaching them how to master the use of it. The girls learnt how to create a business profile on Instagram, how to optimise their account, and most importantly what kind of content to create in order to reach out to the public. As a saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, to be able to create visuals that speaks for the social cause you are advocating for leaves a more lasting impact on the public. Hence, along with the mastery of Instagram, we introduced to the girls the art of photography. Photography is not restricted to only using a professional camera, with the current advanced technology, a phone camera is equally as useful as a DSLR when it comes to capturing photos. With the right skills and knowledge, you can maneuver your phone camera settings to achieve the same effects. The different techniques of photography were broken down into bitesize information for the girls to digest. Despite the online restrictions, the girls still showed interest towards the subject of photography and asked many questions via the chat option on Zoom. Some of them even shared different editing tools they used to edit their pictures and one of them was even a photography enthusiast! We were glad that the girls remained chatty on the chat function despite being shy. After the teaching part, to implement what we have taught them, they were given a task to create an Instagram account to raise awareness of a social issue. The girls were then broken up into smaller groups to discuss and come up with their Instagram handle, bio, the social cause that they wanted to support, and a unique hashtag for their Instagram page. We were pleasantly surprised to see a variety of social issues that the girls are keen to advocate for, ranging from domestic abuse, gender inequality, diabetes, education rights to migrant workers. As the first session came to an end, we posted a challenge to the girls which was to run their Instagram accounts and post as many posts as they like advocating for their chosen social cause. The winning team would be able to receive a $10 Starbucks card per person! We hope that this incentive would motivate them to create amazing content for their Instagram pages. We meet up with the girls again on the 25th to check up on their progress. We had seen the content they have created on their Instagram accounts and we were awed by their ability to create beautiful posts using Canva. Some even utilise the photography tips we taught to capture pictures representing their social cause. However, a challenge meant that there could only be 1 winner, so apart from the content that they have created, the girls were also judged based on how they run their Instagram account. Hence, they were given 30 minutes to come up with a short presentation on what they have learnt, what the areas of improvement, and what are the following steps after this challenge. Despite the short time frame they had, the girls were able to come up with wonderful slides and some groups even when beyond to show us what they have done to engage followers and how they studied analytics to reach out to more followers. In the end, we could not help but award 2 groups with the Starbucks card as we were amazed with the hard work and effort they have put into running the Instagram account. We are also very proud and grateful for the remaining groups for putting in their best, all groups are winners in our hearts. We hope that the girls from Girls’ Brigade were able to take away valuable insights from our Social Media For Good workshop and we hope that it has inspired them to become changemakers!