Vicky's Green Innovation

Green Innovation

Even though the two social enterprises that Ventures in Development has incubated so far are yak-related and seem to solve the social problems in rural China only, ViD is interested in both rural and urban challenges, and is open-minded to conducting all types of program as long as it has the potential to grow into a sustainable social enterprise that can promote economic development. The monthly social innovation salon thus serves the purpose of collecting new, creative and feasible ideas for the incubation of future social enterprises.

On my last day interning with ViD, I helped organizing another social innovation salon in Hong Kong. This time, we discussed an urban challenge that is closely related to our daily lives and is common to most of the modernized cities—municipal waste recycling. In a world where consumerism takes the lead, tonnes of wastes are generated every day. Therefore, it is important to think of a sustainable way to treat the waste products instead of incinerating or dumping them into the limited landfills. While I was researching on this topic, I came across many creative and feasible solutions from abroad. However, to my surprise, only 1% of the recovered wastes in Hong Kong are recycled into something useful locally—the rest of them are exported to foreign companies as raw materials for making other goods. Another problem I noticed from my research is that the high value-added wastes such as paper, aluminum cans and plastics contributed to 93% of the recycled wastes. Due to a longer treatment process and a lower return rate, a limited scope of other wastes such as glass bottles and putrescibles (food wastes) are recycled. Obviously, we need a more long-term and innovative way to change the situation. In fact, this recycling business can be a good social enterprise idea too!

Pie chart showing the composition of recovered wastes in Hong Kong in 2008.

To stimulate our salon participants’ innovative mind, ViD contacted ECOLS, a stylish store selling creatively-recycled products from worldwide, and hosted our salon there. Sitting on an armchair made of egg cartons and looking at a handbag made with the pull-tabs from aluminum cans, our participants came up with ideas of how to create an SE that is based on recycling and re-creating products made of glass, wood, rattan, putrescibles and rubber tyres.

Phoebe Yuen, co-founder of ECOLS, explained the store’s concept and philosophy to the salon participants

Out of all solutions, my personal favorite is the “Wood Bank” idea. The group that was assigned to thinking about recycling wood and rattan came up with the idea of opening a Wood Bank, which is essentially a repository for scrap wood and leftover wood from construction sites etc. Individuals who need the wood for other purposes (such as making small furniture for their homes) can come and buy the wood at a cheap price. A workshop will be set up in the Wood Bank where craftsmen will design and teach children how to make recycled wooden products. The selling of the recycled products will provide a stable source of income for this Wood Bank to become a financially independent social enterprise.

Our salon participants brainstorming on the “Wood Bank” idea

Although the feasibility and effect of opening a Wood Bank or adopting the other solutions suggested at the salon is yet to be determined, ViD has at least brought up the waste recycling issue to a group of socially-minded young professionals. The salon has also served ViD’s mission of spreading the awareness of social enterprises, letting the participants know that there are alternative approaches to solving a social challenge. Hopefully with the help of the word of mouth, more people will be aware of these social issues, join in discussing them at the salon and eventually share ViD’s vision!

- Vicky