DIY – Soap Making Workshop

DIY – Soap Making Workshop

On the 27th of November 2018, we organized a hands-on soap making workshop at Makerspace which was conducted by Evelyn Marieta the founder of Wunderbath Co, a business that focuses on producing handmade bath products. We had about 20 participants who took part in the workshop consisting of a diverse group of students and university staff.

In conjunction with World Disability Day which was the week after the workshop, we had two guest speakers with disabilities to share some of their inspirational stories. One of them is a current student at Sunway University. Their talks helped to fuel a passionate short discussion on improving the quality and well-being of students with disability in campus.

Evelyn conducting the soap making workshop.

Shortly after, Evelyn gave an inspiring introduction on how she started off making soaps as a business venture and how young entrepreneurs could learn and do the same with skillsets that they would gain from the workshop. Participants were really excited about the workshop and everyone brought their own moulds to keep the soap that they make. We wanted to also promote re-using waste materials and it encouraged participants to bring containers like milk cartons, yogurt cups, coffee boxes, juice boxes, plastic bottles and etc.

Soap mixture ready for vigorous stirring!

Final step – pour the mixture into your personalized mould.

Soaps are now ready for use.

Sliced soap – with lavender.

One other desirable outcome from this workshop was that some participants felt motivated to want to learn about making handmade soaps using used cooking oil to reduce waste products. To make that a reality, we intend to reach out to Green Yards, a social initiative in Malaysia specializing in re-processing used cooking oil from the local community to be made into soaps and candles.

Participants, guest speakers and the organizing team.

Millennial reflections on social entrepreneurship & innovation – Chloe Tee

Millennial reflections on social entrepreneurship & innovation – Chloe Tee

As a student in business school, I’ve always been fond of topics revolving around entrepreneurship. For me, entrepreneurship is all about solving problems and improving lives, whilst being self-sustainable and even profitable.  As a major in Accounting and Finance degree, I’ve always wonder if there’s more to just monetary value which businesses can create. After a year trying to discover more meaning behind my studies, I was introduced to the idea of social entrepreneurship. I was amazed how it is possible to synergize the power of conventional business with core purpose of solving social or environmental issues, that leads to greater value generation, and this is more than just dollars and cents. I knew I needed to share that idea to my course mates, particularly because they were also from the business school and very likely to be involved in the business world in the future. I thought if the idea of social entrepreneurship can be instilled in their minds, it might trigger them to create innovative social projects or even business models that are both socially and financially sustainable.

However, conveying the idea wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, especially because social missions were never really a major discussion topic in our typical syllabus. Anything social-related was always a “side-dish” in our textbooks that students tend to deemphasize. Whenever I try to communicate how a social issue can be tackled through business models, my friends couldn’t grasp the idea. Social and financial goals are always black and white for them because social missions are always incorporated in a company under corporate social responsibility (CSR) and it often means money flowing out instead of revenue coming in to the company. There were some efforts by the university in trying to educate the campus community more about social entrepreneurship and social innovation ideas through forums and talks. But I thought we needed a more relevant way to do that so that people would finally notice. So, I decided to show the idea, literally, to the campus community because “seeing is believing”.

After assembling a group of close friends, we began to reach out to social enterprises across Malaysia and invited them over to the campus to run a social market – a marketplace for products and services that are created to bring better change to the lives of underserved communities and nature. The Good Tavern Social Market becomes more than a marketplace, it is where people share stories, spread ideas, and connect like-minded people. It wasn’t long until more and more people heard about the project and soon we expanded beyond campus, into one other university and also MaGIC Cyberjaya (also known as the Silicon Valley of Malaysia). We knew we were doing the right thing because people were finally listening. The simple idea of running a marketplace wasn’t just about sales, but it’s truly for the social innovators, social enterprises, and even the underserved community to share their stories, with the greater hope to inspire more changemakers for a better world.

I have been blessed to be in a university environment where I had supportive lecturers and friends to make The Good Tavern (TGT) possible. The team might have created TGT but TGT was the one that has built us to be more creative, compassionate, and agile as human-beings. We’re connected to many organizations and projects, like SEASIN, who constantly show support in making us better so that we can continue to innovate and improvise projects. As a proud millennial, I believe we are becoming more conscious of issues beyond our own daily lives, but of greater ones that can impact our future generation. Change for the better is possible even with the simplest idea. We just have to click the “start” button.

Chloe Tee, former student at Sunway University 

SUNWAY iLABS SUSTAINABILITY SERIES : PLASTIC

SUNWAY iLABS SUSTAINABILITY SERIES : PLASTIC

Plastics, don’t we love them? They are convenient and cheap.
We asked for more of it, but do we know what to do with it later?
Plastics are made to last forever but designed to use once.
How should we use this tool wisely to benefit us but not destroy our environment?

If you are interested in the questions above and want to know more about the story of plastics, we will hold a session on 3 May 2018 to explore the industry and the story.

Come join us and be surprised!
Register here: http://bit.ly/ss-plastic

See you there!

SUNWAY iLABS SUSTAINABILITY SERIES : FOOD

SUNWAY iLABS SUSTAINABILITY SERIES : FOOD

Hey Foodies! How much meat do you eat every day? Have you kept track of how much meat you eat every day? You probably should. You may know the price of a piece of meat but its true cost is hidden. To cover the cost on environmental damage caused from producing the meat, your meal will cost TRIPLE!

Join us on 7th June 2018 at 5:30PM – 7.00PM to uncover the secrets behind the production of meat and fishing. Find out the hidden story and cost with us!

See you there @ JSC Pre Function Room, Level 11 University Building, Sunway University.

Sunway SISU

Sunway SISU

Sunway SISU is part of Sunway Innovation Labs (iLabs) which is a unique, not-for-profit concept where Sunway University, Sunway Group, and Sunway Ventures (Sunway’s Corporate Venture Capital arm) work closely together in a collaborative space to foster entrepreneurship and stimulate market-driven and social innovations. iLabs sync with the wider start-up and social enterprise ecosystem in Malaysia and abroad through collaborations and strategic partnerships, to enable social innovators or entrepreneurs to scale their impact or business faster.

Find out more about iLabs here: https://innovationlabs.sunway.edu.my/

Sunway Social Innovators Club and The Good Tavern
Sunway Social Innovators Club (SSIC) organized The Good Tavern (TGT) Social Market Place on 14 – 15 March where social enterprises gather to promote social entrepreneurship amongst students by displaying and selling their products.

 

Find out more about The Good Tavern here : https://www.facebook.com/thegoodtavern/