Monthly Archives: March 2022

We are honoured to announce that ENGIE Factory Asia Pacific & ENGIE South East Asia have been named Corporate winners in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards!

These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

“We congratulate ENGIE Factory and ENGIE South East Asia for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Corporate category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “The award reflects their commitment to engage in responsible business practises that serves society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

ENGIE South East Asia helps customers decarbonize by reducing their energy consumption through affordable green energy solutions. They offer innovative energy solutions that enhance energy performance for businesses and communities. The company acts throughout the value chain and offers solutions to enable an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy transition for their clients. 

“Accelerating Southeast Asia’s energy transition towards carbon neutrality is ENGIE’s core focus and winning the Business as a Force for Good award is a recognition of the commitment from all our teams in the region to build a carbon free future. By integrating proven and innovative solutions, we are helping sectors such as Industry, Real-Estate and Data Centers, commit to a fast paced transformation journey to net zero,” said Thomas Baudlot, CEO Energy Solutions APAC and Country Head South East Asia.

To accelerate their decarbonisation efforts, the company has a dedicated corporate venture arm called ENGIE Factory (formed since 2018) which focuses on building new climate-tech startup solutions. ENGIE Factory works with founders to deliver investment-grade venture opportunities. They build their ventures by combining the best of both worlds: the entrepreneurial skillset and the established corporate assets. This results in commercialised climate-tech solutions that are customer-focused, affordable, and market-ready.

“As a corporate venture builder, ENGIE Factory takes a strategic approach to building and investing in new founders and ventures to accelerate the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. The promise of a financial return alone is not enough for us to invest in a startup. We balance the requirement for financial gain with strategic benefit for the wider ENGIE group and, most importantly, the benefit for the planet and society by targeting 100Mt of carbon abatement per venture, ” said Edwin Cheang, COO, ENGIE Factory.

ENGIE Factory plans to scale their Venture Build Program across Asia Pacific and the Middle East where they work with their founders to iterate, prototype and test ideas and together, build a startup fit for international growth. Founders will have access to ENGIE’s domain expertise, and ENGIE business units, as well as their client network across 70 countries. Their founders who successfully complete the program will also receive seed funding while retaining majority equity and the freedom to set the business direction and see their venture vision come to life. 

For more information, go to

• ENGIE Factory www.apac.engiefactory.com
• ENGIE South East Asia www.engie-sea.com

We are honoured to announce that RightShip has been named SME winner in the INSEAD Alumni Association (IAA) Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! 

These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate RightShip for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (SME category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “ RightShip’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serves society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

Judges were impressed by RightShip’s focus on human life, usage of digital solutions to target seafarers’ safety, and use of emission insights helping ports understand their environmental footprint and bringing transparency to the shipping industry. 

To drive ‘zero harm’ in the maritime industry, RightShip takes a holistic view of safety, sustainability and crew welfare. Enabled by technology, data and insights are fed back to stakeholders, enabling rational and transparent decision making which in turn contribute towards safer ships and cleaner seas. By taking on the toughest challenges for the shipping industry, RightShip has a positive impact on human life and our planet in general.

Gurpreet Singh MBA’14D, the Chief Commercial Officer shared, “We are honoured to be named the winner and look forward to contributing more and doing Business as a Force for Good.”

About RightShip

RightShip is an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) provider for members in the maritime ecosystem. They believe in using the power of data and analytics to provide transparency to their customers and partners. 

RightShip does this with the intent of helping customers achieve global safety and sustainability standards. At the core of RightShip’s offering is their vision: A maritime industry that causes zero harm. As a purpose-driven organization, they aspire towards that vision via three strategic pillars: safety, environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Ninety percent of international trade moves via our seas and oceans, and as such, the maritime industry as a key driver is important to many of us. It touches our lives in a variety of ways, whether it is from the reliance on food imports in a small market like Singapore, or from the kind of fuels that are transported between energy consumers and producers. 

With these numerous touchpoints, shipping is commonly seen as a barometer of the global economy. 

The very backbone of shipping is the 1.8m seafarers operating on 74,000 vessels globally, 24/7, who keep our economy running by navigating the seven seas and bringing various goods to our doorstep. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the role of seafarers came into the spotlight on the back of a humanitarian crisis where, due to international lockdowns, many of them were away from their families for extended periods of time. What used to be a three-month period at sea extended itself for some into a year, and in some cases up to two years. 

RightShip’s core impact in relation to BAFG

One of RightShip’s newest initiatives, the Crew Welfare Assessment, provides a barometer on the living and working conditions of seafarers onboard. In exercising care for our seafarers, there are positive knock-on effects such as reducing risks of incidents and accidents on the vessels they support. 

The maritime ecosystem is a complex one, with multiple parties including shipowners, charterers, ports and financiers. In progressing towards our zero-harm future, RightShip recognizes that no one party can achieve this alone. As such, they engage in active collaborations with partners in several ways: promoting joint product development or raising awareness and advocacy at an industry level. 

Through their solutions, in 2021, RightShip performed thousands of physical vessel inspections and vetted over 13,000 unique ships.

Ultimately, RightShip aims to work together synchronizing the improvement of conditions for our people, the planet and society. They do this via data and technology that overlays multiple parties, which are especially crucial in our complex maritime ecosystem.

We’re honoured to announce that INSEACT has been named start-up winner in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate INSEACT for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Social Enterprise category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “INSEACT’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serve society’s needs in a sustainable way.”  

 Michael Badeski MBA’19J, INSEACT Co-Founder & COO and Tim Van Vliet MBA’19J, INSEACT Co-Founder & CEO of INSEACT added, “We are honoured to be named the winner and we look forward to doing Business as a Force for Good”.

About INSEACT

INSEACT was founded as an INSEAD 19J student project to sustainably bridge the protein-population gap. Last January, the company had no employees and only partially secured seed funding. Today, they have 8 Singapore-based employees producing insect protein from the most advanced insect pilot facility in the country. Their first commercial-scale facility is scheduled to be built in Malaysia later in the year. After winning the 37th INSEAD Venture Competition and Coromandel Social Impact Awards, co-founders Tim Van Vliet MBA’19 J and Michael Badeski MBA’19 J raised US$1.3mn of seed funding. The company will raise a Series A later in the year.

INSEACT’s core impact in relation to BAFG 

Today it takes 2kg of wild-caught fish from the ocean to produce 1kg of farmed fish. INSEACT solves this by producing protein from insects called the Black Soldier Fly (BSF). INSEACT produces the BSF by feeding them with agri-waste from the palm oil industry which is currently thrown into landfill where it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

BSFs grow extremely quickly with low energy and water input, and the protein they produce is a high-performing feed ingredient for farmed fish and shrimp, which replaces a product made of wild fish called fish meal. By upcycling the waste as feed, not only is it closing the loop in the circular economy, but all of the methane emissions from the palm waste in landfill are averted because the emissions source is eliminated when the insects eat it.

We are honoured to announce that B1G1 has been named social enterprise winner in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate B1G1 for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Social Enterprise category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “B1G1’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serve society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

“B1G1 is entrepreneurial, Singapore-grown and impact-driven. It is also connecting businesses with social and community projects to create a multiplier effect. Truly deserving to win this award,” said IAA 2022 BAFG judge Virginia Brumby MBA’09J. 

Masami Sato, the Founder and CEO of B1G1 shared, “We are honoured to be named the winner of this award and hope that we will be able to inspire many more businesses to grow and scale the social impact of this collective work”.

About B1G1

B1G1 (b1g1.com) is a social-impact initiative founded and headquartered in Singapore. As a Social Enterprise and a certified B Corp, B1G1 helps businesses around the world integrate effective giving directly into their everyday business activities. It does this through an innovative giving platform that allows businesses to effortlessly create positive impacts regularly as well as measure and track their progress.

Nearly 3,000 businesses in 43 countries today participate in the initiative and they have created over 275 million giving impacts in all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The impacts B1G1 creates are enabled by a unique SaaS model where business members subscribe to the portal joining the community of like-minded businesses to manage their social impact activities, driving more support to high-impact projects that align with the Sustainable Development Goals. Their subscription fees cover the operation and development and allow B1G1 to ensure that fully 100% of the members’ contribution is forwarded to their chosen projects.

B1G1’s core impact in relation to BAFG:

With more than 400 vetted impact-based projects, businesses can choose to create impacts they want to see in the world – such as planting trees in the world or giving different opportunities to people in the world such as providing education to disadvantaged children, giving income-generating opportunities to low-income families, bringing life-saving resources to people in need and much more. And those small acts of kindness have accumulated to nearly 300 million impacts. 

B1G1 originally started with a simple idea, “What if every business activity can create a positive impact in the world?”

Today, B1G1 is ready to scale and make this idea a reality by empowering businesses of all types and sizes as well as by bringing in more projects from all parts of the world so that businesses in our world can come together to create a truly sustainable world.