Our story

Happy Birthday to us! 

The Purpose Business turns 7 with a refreshed purpose statement:

 We guide leaders to evolve business as a force for good.

We opened for business in 2015, driven by the desire to help build responsible businesses in Asia.

 Fast forward seven years and there are many reasons to raise a glass!

ESG has accelerated in unimaginable ways, while companies in Asia are now slowly making meaningful progress with increased sustainable finance and impact investments, decarbonisation action plans, alignment of reporting frameworks with global standards and a surge in the recruitment of Chief Sustainability Officers. We are immensely proud to celebrate our team, clients and partners who have successfully driven this critical change.

The sustainability landscape is dynamic and will continue to evolve. The last two years in particular have shown the need for genuine transformation of organisational and workplace culture, requiring stronger and more responsible leadership.

With ESG awareness and expectations having grown around regulations on energy transition, waste management and even biodiversity management (thanks COP26), the need to prioritise the ‘S’ in ESG, critical people issues, has never been more important.

To create long-term, positive impact - companies need to address multiple societal issues including an amplified focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as much-needed transparency around supply chain due diligence.

As TPB blows out our seven candles, we have an even more defined role to play in helping businesses activate their own purpose for the development of a just society. As such, we have refreshed our own purpose statement:

We guide leaders to evolve business as a force for good.

By guiding and empowering leaders and change agents to bring about positive impact, we will strive to fulfil our refreshed purpose and aspire to grow in three areas in the years to come:

• our impact, harnessing our relationships to create the next generation of sustainable Asian businesses

• our people, leveraging the network of specialists with the experience that makes sustainability attainable

• our business, driven by the right people in the right markets

As we push ahead together, we ask business leaders to rethink their purpose and make choices that fairly serve the interests of and maximise value for all of their stakeholders - employees, customers, communities and shareholders alike. Be profitable and drive positive impact, by evolving to be a force for good. We're here to support you as you do so.

Here’s to another 7 years - and more. Thank you to all of you who have helped us get here and we’re looking forward to the next 7 with you!

A behind the scenes peak at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden

Established by the Kadoorie Brothers in the 1950s, the farm originally aimed to provide agricultural aid to farmers in need of support, in order to help them lead more independent lives. Now, 70 years later, KFBG is a nature sanctuary that aims to raise awareness of ecological and sustainability issues, undertakes species conservation, restores ecosystems and reconnects people with nature. Their work spans areas of Hong Kong and South China.

Located in a rural part of the New Territories, KFBG’s mission is to harmonise our relationship with the environment, focusing on local plants and animals - exactly what we did during our private tour. Throughout the afternoon, we took four main stops – at the orchid nursery, compost facility, Wild Animal Rescue Centre and the constructed wetland wastewater treatment system.

1. Orchid nursery

At the orchid nursery they grow more than 550 species of orchids. KFBG believes in organic farming and sustainable agriculture and avoids using any pesticides or other chemicals that may affect the natural life cycle. They have adopted a scientific approach to species restoration for several native orchids. For example, through carefully monitoring relic populations of an endangered orchid species, they can understand the sorts of habitat that this species may thrive in, paving the way for reintroduction. They’ve also applied this technique to regions outside of Hong Kong, helping to plant more than 1,700 seedlings of the rare lithophytic orchid Phalaenopsis pulcherrima in Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan, China.

2. Aerobic compost facility

This was the smelliest part of the tour! Unsurprisingly, our team found this to be one of the highlights, reaching into the compost piles to smell them without hesitation. Most of KFBG’s plant waste materials and animal waste are sent to these composting sheds, producing more than 30 tonnes of compost every year. It takes about three months to go through one entire cycle and the ready-to-use natural fertiliser is used as soil in the orchards, greenhouses and vegetable gardens.

Change agent: From Scrum Master to Sustainability Advisor

By Ny-Ann Nolasco

“Explaining my previous job as a Scrum Master and my current job as a Sustainability Advisor is challenging. I get glassy-eyed looks from people with the occasional polite nod when I talk about my role.

Stick with me for a few minutes and I’ll show you the parallel lessons from these two roles and how you can use them to become a change agent within your organisation.”

What is my job?

As a Scrum Master for a Fortune 500 company in San Francisco back in 2010, I had the honour of being trained and certified by Jeff Sutherland, creator of the Scrum Framework - one of the Agile Methodologies wherein product and programme deliverables, especially in tech software, are accomplished with leaner resource management and a flatter reporting hierarchy in a short time frame. My team and I functioned under this framework to deliver an innovative multi-million dollar next-generation Software as a Service (SaaS) Healthcare Platform to support electronic health records (EHR) extensions across medical fields.

As a Sustainability Advisor with The Purpose Business, I work with some of Asia’s most prominent publicly listed companies to develop their ESG (environmental, social and governance) reports, craft their sustainability strategies and facilitate workshops to ignite organisational culture change.

Spoiler alert: Both are about how you engage the team and deliver results. The difference is where you apply those skills.

What are the biggest takeaways from these careers?

Simply put, they are the transferable lessons learned when delivering impact:

1. Operational integration is a must

Scrum Masters and Sustainability Advisors ensure the project gets done within the context of the business strategy. Scrum Masters buffer the team to allow hyper focus on the work within a two-week period. That group of work is not conducted in a vacuum but done in conjunction with marketing, sales, finance and compliance timelines, making the delivered programme or service more holistic and fool-proof. The same approach applies in sustainability. Generating a holistic conversation and encouraging candid feedback is key to getting the job done as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Communication is key in operational integration for any product, project or initiative. As a nerdy introvert, the communication skills were the hardest to learn. As a Scrum Master, I had to communicate with an equally introverted and technical development team, and later learned how to communicate concise, relevant, and clear messages with the senior management team to connect recommendations with the bottom line. To summarise (and re-emphasise), effective communication is critical to operational integration for any kind of project.

2. Piloting your way to scale is not enough

In both roles, you are changing how the work gets done and the culture of the company in order to scale. Whether Scrum or sustainability, a “pilot” cannot be an excuse for half-hearted transformation. Piloting a project allows for limiting risks but requires a clear set of key performance indicators to measure success, subsequent phases for post-pilot and its own governance committee. When a company decides to move beyond the pilot and further integrate a sustainability initiative or switch to a Scrum Framework, it demands heavy investment and buy-in from the top, both financially and theoretically - resulting in policy changes and positive impact.

You can pilot anything in the conventional sense, but in Scrum and sustainability – without a top down approach, piloting your way to scale is not enough.

For organisations adapting Scrum, it’s implementing the full methodology within one team before scaling to all others. It is a fully delivered system change within a limited environment. Quality over quantity is most effective - implement the full Scrum in a limited group rather than half-baked with the whole.

Scaling sustainability initiatives could mean testing a new process for limited operational change in an ESG area. For example, to improve resource management by reducing waste, apply the strategy on a few select sites. Once you’ve developed the right methodology to implement, track and scale change, you can then apply it to a company-wide sustainability initiative.

3. Learning to say no without saying no

If a CEO who is supportive of your project and excited to advocate it to the board requests for additional changes, do you say no? Not exactly - especially if the suggestion makes sense.

My mentor drilled in my head that you need 64 ways to say no without saying no (there are 64 crayon colours in a box). But cultural, gender and hierarchical factors make this particularly tricky. A key part of my job was to manage these factors so I was able to deliver something usable in two weeks. Scope creep and financial resource limitations are often the roadblocks when a project can’t be delivered, but as a Scrum Master or Sustainability Advisor, scope creeps are your bread and butter. You learn to manage, not tolerate, through negotiation and communication.

“Yes, X can be done in two weeks. Currently we have the following items to deliver - should we get more resources, or should we switch focus?” As a Scrum Master and Sustainability Advisor, it’s about empowering management to make decisions with transparent information. For both, a complete picture of not only change in scope but impact of the decision is critical for success. We switch the conversation from “can you do X in two weeks” to “what is the impact if we did this in two weeks?”

“As a Scrum Master and Sustainability Advisor, it’s about empowering management to make decisions with transparent information. For both, a complete picture of not only change in scope but impact of the decision is critical for success.”

What's clear is that as a Scrum Master or Sustainability Advisor, your work is never the same, day-to-day. Both roles are hectic and rarely clear-cut, yet they have also been some of the most fulfilling parts of my career. Those who work as Scrum Masters or Sustainability Advisors do so because they love the impact of their role. Whatever side of the fence you sit on - or maybe it's both - I hope that you can relate to these three lessons from my experience and hopefully apply them in your organisation.

Reach out to learn more about Ny-Ann’s specialties in agile working and how that drives positive impact.

[WATCH] Begin with empathy: Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace

By Andie Uy

Diversity and inclusion is more than just hitting targets on gender and race representation. It comes down to leading with empathy and having open lines for dialogue and engagement with staff in decision making.

Diversity and inclusion does not end when a company has x% female or y% nationalities in their workforce. Beyond numbers, leveraging diversity and activating an inclusive culture in business demands leadership.

Sustainability Advisors Kalmond Ma, Dr Merrin Pearse and Tiffany Lee gathered for a chat moderated by Andie Uy to talk about how diversity and inclusion can drive business value and push the agenda forward. Watch our conversation about their personal experiences of being treated differently in the workplace - along with best practices across different companies and organisations.

Key takeaways from the chat:

• Diversity and inclusion requires buy-in and focused efforts from the top. It takes leadership to build a culture of empathy and trust where employees are not only respected for their difference but can play their strengths to the betterment of the company

• Staff engagement such as feedback mechanisms, forums for knowledge sharing and even creating avenues for board members to listen to their custodians are just some ways companies can cultivate empathy and bring in diverse perspectives

• Promoting D&I results in higher staff morale that can lead to increased productivity. At the same time, having voices from different backgrounds heard on a team allow for more holistic and future-proof solutions to business problems

(Part 2) Creating the future we want: Insights from mothers at The Purpose Business

By Andie Uy

In the second half of our discussion, the mothers talk about the direct impact of the pandemic on their kids, how they support them in unpacking and responding to these global challenges and what that means for the future.

On the continuation of the afternoon chat with the mothers in the team, we hear the struggles in adjusting to the current normal, what they do to alleviate the stress and how their kids are shaping their own outlook on the situation and what can be learned from them. Listen to part 2 of our conversations here:

Key takeaways from Part 2:

• Sustainability calls for mitigation, adaptation and resilience to any type of risk. The saying goes not only for organisations but individuals as well.

• Interacting with nature and animals plays a key role in a child’s development both physically and mentally. The pandemic surfaces the importance of public green spaces in promoting overall health and wellbeing.

• Kids have the agency and autonomy to inform themselves and form their own views about systemic issues. Parents are there to facilitate that process and empower them to enact the change they want to see.

• The world is at an inflection point and the situation is just as real for children as it is to businesses and governments. Ultimately, children deserve a secure future and should not have to bear the brunt of the task.

Listen to the first part of our chat here

(Part 1) Creating the future we want: Insights from mothers at The Purpose Business

By Andie Uy

In this first discussion, the mothers in the team talk about navigating these unprecedented times with their children and the importance of role-modelling at home in teaching them to value the people, the environment and the world around them.

I gathered my fellow advisors - Scotia Ryer, Emmi Capili, Elise McAuley, Dr Margaret Burnett and Mavis Liu, for an afternoon chat and asked them about how they bring in sustainability into their homes as mothers. Listen to the first part of our conversations here:

Key takeaways from Part 1:

• A parent can only do so much to ensure their children grow up to care for the people, their environment and even global issues like climate change and social inclusion. It starts with being present and visible - role-modelling your own beliefs and values through the actions and kinds of conversations you have at home

• It takes a village to raise a child. Whether fellow mothers of playmates, grandparents or house help, it’s important to involve your community with the home environment you want to create, especially on areas where perspectives can differ

• Sustainable consumption and production is not only for businesses to manage but can be brought to the family level as well. We see the struggle when it comes to gift giving and how we can value shared experiences and stories over material things

• To be a responsible parent is to open your kids up to the big and complex issues that surround them and navigate these issues with them. Unpacking concepts such as privilege and human rights is key to molding them into socially responsible individuals

• Sustainable parenting also means not losing yourself while raising your children. Have clarity with your personal values. Find time to rest and regroup. Welcome this chapter of life and celebrate even the small wins

30 years in 30 mins: Dr Tang on why Millennials are key to sustainable business in Asia

By Andie Uy

Late last year, I spoke with a fellow Advisor at The Purpose Business, Dr Thomas Tang. As the youngest in our network born at the cusp of Millennials and Gen-Z, I wanted to learn all I could from his 30+ years of experience, notably his views on how sustainability has changed over the years and what the future holds for us in Asia.

1. Can you tell me about how you got started in sustainability?

It was back in 1989 when I was doing my MBA in the UK. This was when many national industries, like electricity, water and transportation, were becoming privatised. One of the instances that triggered my interest in sustainability was when a friend told me, “If you are to look at a subject that will be quite dominant in the future, look at the water industry.” This led to a lot of questions about how we manage the environmental impacts of privatisation. 

With a background in materials and energy, while taking up business topics like finance, strategy and marketing, I was trying to get my head around how to create positive outcomes from science and how to apply these in business.

2. So even then, the hope was for businesses to start doing more good by first looking at their impacts on the planet. Which skill did you find most useful in trying to achieve this?

Strategic thinking. It helps you be analytical with the situation while at the same time be empathetic to other people’s perspectives and situations. It’s about connecting the dots and making this understandable to your key stakeholders. The tendency to get locked into micromanagement and looking at issues granularly calls us to take a step back and see the larger ecosystem that connects all these things. For example, when you look at climate change, we think of stopping the burning of fossil fuels. But we must also consider poverty, economic development, employment, and urbanisation and how these are all related. With the right strategic lens, we can get to the root causes and tackle them holistically, rather than only treating its symptoms.

3. I agree, strategic thinking needs us to think big picture and involve your stakeholders to arrive at a sound solution. What was it like when you first entered the world of corporate sustainability? Was there even such a world and how has it changed since then?

I’ll talk about it in two parts. First, when I started out in a consultancy and then later on from the inside when working in-house.

In the first part, you’re seeing the organisation from the outside and its position in the bigger picture alongside their competitors within the industry and how it can be a good corporate citizen. Back then, there weren’t as much opportunities to implement these recommendations because organisations loved to listen about change but refrained from doing so themselves. That is why one of the most notable changes is that there’s more openness now, especially to hear from external stakeholders and engage in dialogue. Companies are less afraid to involve their stakeholders. Though there is still some apprehension, this is where consultancies come in as facilitators of this conversation. More companies are aware that the effective execution of strategies can only be done when they go out and engage with these groups.

For the second part, once you’re inside, it’s a different battlefield because you’re now dealing with internal stakeholders. Even with blessing from top management to go on and change the company, in reality, it is a big challenge to get the ball rolling. So with the onset of more in-house sustainability officers equipped with a body of sustainability knowledge such as the SDGs, science-based targets, and circular economy, there is a better appetite for these organisations to start asking questions like, “what is our company doing about sustainability?” and better capacity to start answering them. What needs to happen now is getting internal buy-in and building that culture to implement these changes.

4. It’s great to see more companies build up their sustainability capabilities and ask the tough questions. You mentioned the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How have they impacted businesses?

The author Jeffrey Sachs wrote a number of books including “The End of Poverty,” and he was also involved in the charting of the SDGs. I remember listening to him in a lecture in Malaysia when he explained, “the SDGs are holistic, but not perfect.” Implementation on the organisational and individual level still requires thorough analysis and planning to translate the SDGs to make them actionable by businesses, large corporations and start-up enterprises alike.

“'the SDGs are holistic, but not perfect.' Implementation on the organisational and individual level still requires thorough analysis and planning to translate the SDGs to make them actionable by businesses, large corporations and start-up enterprises alike."

The SDGs serve as a guide, but we need to be flexible and adaptable. Though things like poverty, water security, and inequality are still relevant, we are evolving from a labour intensive way of doing business and moving into the age of the fourth industrial revolution with the rise of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and the gig economy. It’s about being mindful of how the SDGs fit into these changing times.

The SDGs are an invitation to businesses to see their role in this and what they can do about these issues. It’s not about force fitting them into their targets and commitments. In a way, mapping the SDGs is an intuitive and iterative process – as you go along, the SDGs have to make sense to the overall strategy, striking a balance between the goals and the company’s resources, capabilities, and priorities.

5. You’ve seen how we’re transitioning to this truly virtual age and how the SDGs can guide businesses. From all your rich years of experience, what’s a piece of work you are especially proud of?

Working in an NGO was very fulfilling. I was working with passionate people who were determined to do something about their situation. One experience was volunteering in a community in the Philippines in Mindanao near General Santos where my church was providing scholarships to the kids there. It was meaningful to have worked with such an engaged group of people.

Another example was working in-house with AECOM. As the Corporate Sustainability Director, I was looking after 20 offices in Asia where we were measuring their impacts and managing their electricity, water usage and carbon footprint. I was also looking at how we could use sustainability to foster innovation. We led a lot of training programmes and saw the opportunity to incorporate sustainability into the business model.

6. Those are amazing feats, Tom. Working in both non-profit and private bore their fruits! Do you have any advice for people starting out in their career who want to do meaningful and impactful work?

First, find a purpose to steer your life. Work is more than just about paying the bills. Be part of something that makes a positive change in the world. When your purpose is clear, your decisions will align. If you don’t know what that is yet, this leads me to my second piece of advice.

Go out and learn. Beyond university lectures, theoretical knowledge and getting the degree, keep educating yourself to gain that global awareness and see the big picture. Travel – immerse yourself and explore. If you can’t go there physically, go on the internet, read and watch to learn more what’s out there. Having fluency in two or three languages is a huge advantage. When you get comfortable in different cultures, this is where the empathy comes through – you start to understand where people are coming from.

Be comfortable with data. With the internet and social media, there’s a rush of information – statistics, financial, scientific data, that we take in everyday, but it’s important to know how to use it in a sensible way. There’s no need to be afraid of it nor be driven by it either but live at ease with all the information.

And lastly, go out and do volunteer work. It might just be the most satisfying piece of work you could do in your life. I highly encourage to go and volunteer if you want to see the world differently and make a difference

7. Thanks for the nuggets of wisdom. These are very helpful particularly for my generation. All the research (and our experience!) tells us that Millennials and Gen Z are more aware of, and value sustainability. How is this changing businesses?

It’s got to be positive. The Millennials and Gen Z are the next generations to take the lead. If they understand the situation, they have to care and do something about it because this is their future. Frankly, us Baby Boomers understand the situation but haven’t been doing as much about it. The next generations almost have to reinvent the way things are run. By 2030, most businesses will be run by Millennials and they’re starting to see how the world works and define the impact they want to make.

8. That’s right – we are in a way the “stakeholders of tomorrow.” What do you think the future of sustainable business in Asia will look like?

The adage is that Asia is now the powerhouse of global economic growth. Asia holds a lot of opportunity. Where we’re going with sustainability is first, leadership, which is why I’m very bullish about Millennials. They understand that resources are finite and recognise the need to manage our impacts more carefully and look at society in a different way.

Another thing is that, the work of the future has to be different from the work of today. People may enjoy what they do but are not always passionate. Successful companies will have people who truly believe in what they are doing. That is how businesses can get far.

The last is respect and trust. With the current events, my hope is that more sustainable companies will put more emphasis on these values and put these at the center.

“Where we’re going with sustainability is first, leadership, which is why I’m very bullish about Millennials. They understand that resources are finite and recognise the need to manage our impacts more carefully and look at society in a different way.”

Dr. Thomas Tang advises companies on challenges including decarbonisation and net zero strategies for The Purpose Business. Feel free to reach out to get in contact with him.

Kindness Walk with ImpactHK

Building Internal Capacity: A Workshop on Facilitation

Luckily, within our network, we have seasoned and beloved Advisor, Dr Margaret Burnett (Maggie). With over 30 years of experience helping clients integrate sustainability principles into organisational culture and core decision making, Maggie shared her expertise with us in successful facilitation techniques and practices.

Earlier this month, Maggie held a hands-on workshop for the team. TPB folks in Hong Kong gathered together with colleagues in Manila over Zoom for a lively afternoon. The session was packed with learning, doing and sharing activities that were all aimed at improving our facilitation skills - recognising when to use certain techniques for different situations . In four hours, the team learned helpful tips and techniques to add to our toolbox for future engagements.

Key takeaways from the workshop

• Facilitation is the art and science of making a process easier without getting directly involved with the work. A good facilitator is both a mediator and an enabler.

• The facilitator must adequately prepare and quickly adapt to different scenarios to ensure that the meeting’s objectives are still met. Facilitating requires analysing the context, the task at hand, and the participants to effectively manage the flow of the discussion.

• Formulating and phrasing the right questions is critical to having rich and deep conversations to draw actionable insights from.

• A good facilitator does not have to be the expert on the topic at hand, but must possess great listening skills and the ability to break down siloes, connect viewpoints and build bridges.