Green Startup By College Students Are The Youngest Winners At Sustainable Business Awards 2021

• B2B Sustainable Procurement Solutions Provider MBF was recognised for its excellence in their corporate sustainability programme, announced winners for the pillars Waste Productivity and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

• As a team of Yale-NUS College students, MBF are the youngest winners at this year’s Sustainable Business Awards, among a pool of 100 applicant teams

• The recognition is proof that sustainability in business can be successfully led by the youth, and serves as a push for other young companies to embrace sustainability policies within their developing frameworks

• MBF seeks to become the one-stop solution to sustainable procurement (B2B) in Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE, December 8, 2021 - B2B Sustainable Procurement Solutions Provider MBF announced today that they have been awarded Significant Achievement at this year’s Sustainable Business Awards (SBA). Boasting the youngest team among this year’s winners, MBF is being recognised for their excellence in its corporate sustainability program, announced as the winners for the sustainability pillars for Waste Productivity and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They were also awarded “Significant Achievement” for the pillars Sustainability Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Stakeholder Management, Community, Business Ethics and Responsibility, and Land Use and Biodiversity. SBA, organised by Global Initiatives and held in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are a regional sustainability awards platform assessing sustainability programs for businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Winning the awards at the SBA supports the startup’s vision to become the one-stop solution to sustainable procurement in Southeast Asia, and also signifies the potential youth startups have in making an impact in business.

“Recognition at this year’s SBA shows our company’s progress in the sustainability space in the region. We strongly believe that all companies would benefit from taking that extra step towards sustainable procurement as part of their corporate social responsibility strategies,” says Johann Wah, CEO of MBF. “It’s also important for other young companies to realise that it is within their capabilities to work on improving their own sustainability frameworks to empower their own clients in their decarbonisation efforts. One key belief we have is that sustainability in business can, and should, be led by the youth, as we are one of the biggest stakeholders. It’s not easy, but we have to try.”

This mentality is especially important today, as a study by Schneider Electric found that only 2 out of 5 companies in Singapore have a climate action plan addressing climate risk. More than 80% of these companies reported that sustainability performance would be a potential barrier or key opportunity for success in the future. It is thus essential for companies to embed green policies into their practices, or provide services that solve the associated issues of going green for their clients. On this point, MBF has helped large companies procure a suite of products that have been sourced from sustainable alternatives to everyday materials, with a complementary carbon savings report that can be attached to their sustainability reports.

The recognition for Waste Productivity is an important moment of validation for MBF. The team has spent many months developing a policy of minimalist bulk-packaging designs, incorporating as little plastic and paper, if used at all, to reduce the amount of single-use disposables as possible. These materials are likely to be disposed of immediately, oftentimes not through the appropriate methods. MBF is looking forward to taking the next step with clients to further decarbonise, promoting recycling initiatives in tandem with already-existing packaging policies to further target minimising single-use material wastage. MBF will provide discounts to clients for their subsequent orders if they commit to returning used packaging or products back to MBF, where they will be discarded appropriately or recycled into new products once again.

“We have made significant progress in working with our existing clients to make sure they allocate their resources more efficiently, towards a greener action plan,” says Keith Wo, Chief of Sustainability and Design at MBF. “Now, we want to go further in our commitment to providing functionally sustainability policies for our clients to minimise their emissions and wastage. We believe actionable recycling strategies, where we do the work for them, is the added solution going forward.”

The MBF Team were the youngest winners at this year’s Awards, among a pool of 100 applicant teams. The SBA was held on 7 December, at Suntec City Convention Centre.

About MBF

MBF is a B2B sustainable procurement solutions provider based in Singapore, that focuses on empowering firms to gain access to environmentally beneficial solutions for their everyday sustainability needs. MBF incorporates functionally sustainable alternatives to everyday products and services, working with clients to produce company products such as laptop cases and sleeves, corporate gifts, and apparels. Founded by four university students in Singapore, MBF aims to be the one-stop go-to solution to sustainable procurement in Southeast Asia. Since its founding, MBF has empowered high-profile clients such as AETOS, The Adecco Group and Arup to lower their carbon footprint, and has worked with community partners such as Heartware, Earth School SG and Eco Youth Collective to improve environmental education and literacy among children and youth in Singapore. To find out more about MBF and to receive our MBF Catalogue, visit wearembf.com. To connect with the MBF team for business inquiries, email us at support@wearembf.com.

About SBA

The Sustainable Business Awards (SBA) was introduced in 2012 with a mission to recognize and celebrate excellence in corporate sustainability. The SBAs run annually in five key markets in Southeast Asia — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. To find out more about the SBA of Global Initiatives, visit their website.