The founder of Green Nudge muses about the sacrifices he has had to make to forge a greener world for future generations.

BY ALYWIN CHEW
 

Heng Li Seng started volunteering at big events such as the Standard Chartered Marathon to raise public awareness about the waste generated.

As its name suggests, Green Nudge is all about championing the sustainability cause. The firm was founded in 2018 by Heng - an alumnus of the SIF’s Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) programme - who has since young harboured an ambition to do something for the greater good after growing up watching his father play an active part in organising community activities.

CONNECTING THE DOTS
He did not know how he would go about making a difference in the world, until he started connecting all the little clues that presented themselves at different stages of his life.

One of the first clues, he recalls, was a melting glacier that had cut short his hike in New Zealand in 2012. “This was the first time I got to see how climate change can really affect how we live,” says Heng, who was then a Nanyang Technological University exchange student there.

The second clue presented itself some years later when he was working at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where the sight of huge amounts of rubbish in the office pantry got him thinking about how much waste was being generated by humans.

After leaving the MAS to take up a role in Society Staples, a social enterprise geared towards promoting greater inclusivity for people with disabilities, he once again witnessed such sights at fundraising events.

During this period, he also started volunteering at large-scale events like the Standard Chartered Marathon, where he guided people on trash classification and collected wet waste like banana peels for composting. This resonated so much with him that he eventually applied for the OCBC Cares Fund for the Environment, a grant that allowed him to help reduce the carbon footprint of 10 other mass events.

Beach clean-up sessions organised by Green Nudge have over the years witnessed manifold increase, with the majority of the firm’s clients coming from the corporate sector.

TAKING THE PLUNGE
When he finally launched Green Nudge, the main service the company offered was organising beach clean-ups, during which he would share with participants the effects of waste on the environment and advocate the adoption of a greener lifestyle.

To say that running this business alone was challenging would probably be an understatement. He recalls he had to take a whopping 92 per cent pay cut to pursue this interest.

“Running a one-man show is tough. You cannot get emotional support from colleagues like in a large organisation. You do not really have anyone you can bounce ideas off. You have to learn as you go along,” he quips.

But word of his company soon got around and Heng eventually found himself with the capacity to hire staff and expand his service offerings. He notes that being a part of the YSE programme in 2018 had also helped his business.

“I signed up for the YSE programme because I wanted to learn how to better scale my own initiative. The programme helped to broaden my perspective and allowed me to look beyond Singapore.”

Heng Li Seng, founder, Green Nudge, Asean Youth Fellow, and SIF YSE alumnus

“I signed up for the YSE programme because I wanted to learn how to better scale my own initiative. The programme helped to broaden my perspective and allowed me to look beyond Singapore. In order to do well, I need to also look at regional ‘competition,’” he recalls.

“Furthermore, I learnt how to articulate my impact and collaborate with others from the programme.”

Today, Green Nudge has seven staff and offers a range of services, including organising beach clean-up sessions, sustainability workshops, and helping companies come up with an action plan to reduce their carbon footprint.

He points out that the number of bookings for beach clean-ups by Green Nudge has been growing rapidly in recent years as more companies are embracing the sustainability trend.

“Another reason why beach cleanups are popular is because they are an easy engagement that every employee, regardless of how much they know about sustainability, can be a part of,” he adds.

NOT JUST LIP SERVICE
But though awareness about the cause is growing, Heng admits that not all organisations have a genuine desire to go green. Through this experience of running Green Nudge, he has learnt that some just want to look as if they are doing the “in” thing of protecting the planet.

“I would not deny that there are some companies that are doing this solely for the purpose of branding themselves in a more positive manner. Nevertheless, I see this as a first step in the right direction,” he says.

Another thing he has learnt is that small and medium enterprises are usually unreceptive to sustainability calls as they are mostly focused on growing their profit margins and staying afloat. As such, the most effective way to convince such companies, he adds, is by dangling a carrot.

“They generally do not respond well to the ‘Let’s do our part to save the environment’ pitch. But tell them that going green will result in cost savings and you find that they are much more receptive to the idea,” he says.

LEARNING FROM PEERS
Some of his learnings have also come from the 2021 Asean Youth Fellowship (AYF), which was organised by the SIF in partnership with the National Youth Council of Singapore.

“I joined this programme to further deepen my understanding of issues in the region. I also wanted to find ways to connect with like-minded peers. Having a chance to learn about their experiences and viewpoints was helpful. Unlike the YSE programme, I could now bring in my personal experiences to my conversations with my peers,” he says.

“In fact, we continue to check in with each other till today. In January 2024, I visited an Asean Youth Fellow named Cynthia in Jakarta to understand more about the sustainability ecosystem she is building. This visit and connection were only possible through the AYF.”

Heng had also collaborated with the SIF to organise a beach clean-up as part of World Water Day 2022. He also spoke about the importance of preventing greenwashing during a panel discussion at the SIF’s Impact Media Fellowship (IMF) 2023.

Thanks to his participation in several initiatives spearheaded by the SIF, Heng admits that the learnings - from collective action to business decisions and networking - have helped him add value to his enterprise and, as a result, to society.

One particular takeaway from the AYF was insights into the Indonesian recycling industry, which was shared by a Singapore-based Indonesian Fellow. In return, Heng shared with his counterpart the nature of the industry in Singapore, and the two reconnected in January 2024 when he travelled to Indonesia to scour for new business opportunities.

“An important lesson I gleaned was from a Bruneian AYF Fellow, who shared that it is imperative that I advocate the cause to the right person for a better buy-in possibility.”

Heng Li Seng, founder, Green Nudge, Asean Youth Fellow, and SIF YSE alumnus

One lesson that he found particularly enlightening has even reshaped the way Green Nudge goes about promoting sustainability. “An important lesson I gleaned was from a Bruneian Asean Youth Fellow, who shared that it is imperative that I advocate the cause to the right person for a better buy-in possibility,” he recalls.

While he concedes that he still gets fleeting thoughts of giving up on the business for a more stable career, his ardent desire to do something purposeful for a living ultimately wins the tug of war in his head.

“You remember how the older generations used to tell younger people like us that we would end up picking up rubbish if we did not study hard? I find that quite funny because I studied hard and still ended up picking rubbish!” he muses.

“But here is the thing – I pick rubbish so that our future generations do not have to.”

CITIZEN AMBASSADOR The work of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) is not possible without the support of many Singaporeans who generously give of their time and talent as volunteers. Their collective efforts bring us closer to becoming a nation of responsible global citizens. Singaporeans play the role of Citizen Ambassadors (CA) when they volunteer to work alongside their overseas counterparts to shape new realities, while fostering greater intercultural understanding. A CA is a friend of the world – someone who recognises that Singapore sits within the global community and that there is a need for greater understanding and collaboration between countries in order to build a better, more peaceful and inclusive world. As key enablers of our work, all our CAs abide by the SIF Global Citizens Charter, which sets out the principles, values and behaviours expected of them, based on the SIF’s mission and core values. Scan here to find out more about our Global Citizens Charter