Steps Towards Sustainability | An Interview with Jo, founder of The Sustainability Project

We are excited to have our first interview with the founder of a social enterprise. Meet Jo, founder of The Sustainability Project!

With greater awareness of various social issues today, there is an increasing number of social enterprises. But they definitely have their fair, if not greater, share of challenges compared to regular businesses, having to balance between business goals and social causes they set out to achieve.

Here’s what you can expect in this article:

How Jo’s personal passion in environmental sustainability led to the start of the business

The real challenges and realities of starting a social enterprise

Tips to people who might want to walk a similar path

If you are someone who has similar passions for social issues, or have dreams of making social impact, this is definitely a worthwhile read for you!

Taking baby steps

Achieving bigger goals often start from baby steps, and this is nowhere more evident than from The Sustainability Project’s story. As Jo shares, her baby steps towards sustainability went back a long way, back to her Polytechnic days.

And it started with something we take for granted: paper.

“My course mates would tend to write on only one side of a paper. This was rather wasteful to me so I started collecting these used papers and made use of the other side before discarding them. This was also how I started out my recycling journey and took baby steps towards a zero waste lifestyle over a span of 6 to 7 years.”

This also set the stage for the start of the business later in university.

In university, she initially started The Sustainability Project as a blog to share tips about being sustainable in Singapore. As the blog grew, the idea of starting this as a business after graduation started to develop as well.

So when did the business actually start? It is definitely uncommon to hear of students starting businesses during their exchange programs, but that’s what Jo did.

“When I went for exchange, I then started thinking on what I wanted to do after I graduated and the importance of going zero waste was not strong in Singapore. So I then decided to sell some zero waste essentials and the business was then formed.”

Noticing a gap in the Singapore market, she decided to pursue the business.

Leading towards graduation, it would have been a point where many would consider a more stable job for their careers.

But not Jo. She did not consider finding a full-time job as she truly wanted to pursue this “baby” of her business.

“The Sustainability Project is like my baby so at that point of time when I graduated, it only felt right for me to continue this passion project of mine and see what impact I can bring to Singapore.”

In fact, she was very excited to pursue this business and follow her passion. Thankfully, her family and friends were also very supportive and some have even incorporated sustainability into their lifestyles!

Challenges of running a business

However, the business challenges of feasibility and sustainability soon reared their ugly heads.

In fact, she was not even drawing a salary in the early stages of the business.

“I did not go out to get funding so everything was purely self-funded and of course in the first year, there wasn’t any salary as everything had to be channeled back into the business.”

To cope with this significant concern, Jo still lives off savings and does some freelance work. She also acknowledges that the salary drawn from The Sustainability Project will not be as high as from corporate jobs.

As an accounting graduate from Singapore Management University, with little ambition to start a business, this whole process has also been a challenge for her.

As Jo tries to figure her way around the business, she now learns the importance of vital business aspects, such as business costs, profit margins and cash flow.

In fact, she names cash flow as her biggest takeaway from starting the business: “The importance of cash flow. Without it, you cannot even function sometimes.”

As with starting every business, meaningful rewards can often be found alongside challenges as well.

She cites many memorable parts of building this business, such as when people openly expressed their support, or when they took action to spread the cause.

“(My most memorable part of this journey was) when people messaging us and say they support our initiative/campaign, or even when people repost the tips and knowledge we share.”

Lessons from the journey

Jo, along with The Sustainability Project, has certainly taken an interesting journey dating from her Polytechnic days, University, to where it is today.

Given her unique experiences, what are some attributes she thinks are most important in youths who want to start their businesses?

First: Perseverance and hard work

“You need to know that starting a business is never an easy thing, if not, everyone would have started a business.”

Second: Being willing to make sacrifices

“You need to know that some sacrifices have to be made and some luxury you used to have in life might have to go while you are growing your business. Every single cent would make a difference because you are now living on your savings for a period of time.”

Her parting advice? Business sustainability is still the most important

“Understand that ultimately if you want to start a business for a good cause, it is still a business world. Everyone is fighting for their own survival and ensuring business sustainability is what’s most important. You must learn how to add value and do good at the same time and it isn’t the easiest thing to do.”

Indeed, starting a business is no easy feat. But starting a business with a strong social mission is far more challenging.

With such passionate and courageous social entrepreneurs like Jo, there is definitely greater hope to tackle the different social issues we have.

If you would like to lend your support, please visit their website here: https://thesustainabilityproject.life/

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