Living Green

I had an interview with Callie who owns Justlife group. Justlife is an organic shop. They not only sell organic food, you will be surprised at the range of things that they sell. Apparently they have organic handkerchief, sanitary care, cosmetic and organic clothes. I have yet to check out their store, but I will probably drop by to take some pictures next week.

The concept of organic according to Justlife is everything that is good for the earth is good for us. This concept actually runs thru as their business concept as well. Callie herself preaches earth saving diet, meaning to go vegetarian. She herself is a vegan.

I was asking her how all these started and I was a little shocked when she told me that she herself is an accountant by profession. She actually started eating organic even before she started her business. She got introduced by a friend to eat organic. From there, she started the business with her siblings.

When I went into the office, I notice that all her staffs are very young, between 20+ to 30+ and I find it weird, maybe because it’s kind of like a stereotype that people who are into organic are mostly uncles and aunties in their late 40s. She was telling me, in this business, they need passionate people who truly believe in what they do. Therefore, that explains why the staffs are so young. According to Callie, they want to break the stereotype that organic is only for uncles and aunties. Organic is for everyone. Every single one in the team will have to go through a 2-3 months of shop assistance position (regardless of what your position is) when they first joined to see if they are really passionate about what they do. Some stayed back and some didn’t. For Callie it is alright because to her, education about organic to people is much more important. Most of the people that decided that this is not what they want to do will already have an understanding about organic and they do shop in Justlife for organic products.

The business of Justlife is not only in selling organic, but also to educate people. Aside from their core business, they also organized events; go to schools, colleges, kindergartens to educate the younger generation. The Climate change even was organized by them. At present, they are running a contest, The Most Natural. This contest is for youth and the grand prize is a Mini Cooper! Check it out at www.themostnatural.com.my

Stay tune to this site as I will be visiting the shop and will be posting some pictures of the shop here soon!

Meeting with MENGO.

MENGO which stands for Malaysian Environmental NGO is basically a community of 19 green NGOs formed under the DANIDA-supported (which stands for Danish International Development Assistance) programme for environmental assistance to Malaysia. One of its main causes is to facilitate an effective interaction and provide strategic input to the local government on environmental-related policies.

We met up with Dr. Sundari who is the main coordinator and holds a PhD in Marine Biology (plus a wealth of experience and knowledge on education and research as well) to give us an overview of not just what they do as a unit but also how they are impacting the society indirectly through their involvement in the government's planning process. Aside from that, it was also interesting to note that the members of MENGO come from pretty diverse backgrounds, from technology and development to consumer associations to tree savers to research - all coming together to promote environmental conservation and sustainable living. Shows that perhaps this 'business' is not all about stopping the cutting of trees huh.

It was our first meeting, so the overview opened our research parameters to a lot of possibilities (and work!) and also provided us with an understanding of how MENGO supports the relevant parties and in turn, receives some funding. I think as with the nature of any non-profit organisations, it is rather hard to employ and sustain professionals because they were 'never meant to earn any money'. Is that true at all? It's funny how the society wants the environment to stay clean, safe and ever green, yet when we need money to provide a livelihood for experienced professionals to do just that which is competitive to the business sector, we think of it as greed. To create great, effective and sustainable projects, we must first be able to effectively employ and sustain great minds, no?