There’s some huge impact there, Sam. Congratulations on all the hard work, and thanks for sharing a little bit more about your story.

Kuan Chen, let’s hear a little bit more about your project and the impact you’re creating. What was it that led to your passion in fashion?

[Kuan Chen] – Firstly, thank you Tom for inviting us to the podcast to share our beliefs and what we do to try and achieve some of the SDG’s. For my story, I have been in the fashion retail industry for almost 10 years, and I have to say that in the Asian market, not many people understand or notice the damage that the textile and fashion industry has on the environment.

As we know, the textile and fashion industry is the second highest polluter in the world already, and I think that not many people at least in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore understand or notice this problem.

When I was in the fashion retail market for 10 years, I didn’t realise anything about how polluted this industry was until I went to the UK to study my masters. I just realised that I should do something about it, since I have the background to use my expertise to solve this problem. That is the reason for my passion, that I want to help the fashion industry.

Wonderful. It certainly is a huge contributor to emissions around the world, so your work is obviously creating some great impact there. Thank you very much for contributing.

Let’s hear a little bit from you Allen, if you can please share a bit about PackAge+ and the impact that you’re creating, that’d be wonderful.

[Allen Ye] – Thank you for the introduction. Sharing the idea and business model behind the project is always the first question I answer when it comes to an interview or a speech. But today, I want to think of another way to talk about this project. PackAge+, the name of my project and the company I founded can be interpreted simply and aptly.

PackAge+ devotes all of its resources to making changes on packages used in the E-commerce market. We are offering circular package renting services, which are made from recycled plastic bottles. ‘Plus’ means not only an upgrade for packages, but also for the consumers’ future behaviour.

It’s easy to imagine that as the key point which makes our circular packages work, the fact that people need to complete recycling procedures, and consumers need to return the packages after they shop online every time. Obviously, it is not natural and common behaviour, so raising public awareness of responsible and sustainable consumption is significant and urgent, especially in the rapid development of the e-commerce era.

Don’t underestimate the impact of Taiwan and the economic scale of the e-commerce industry, as this small island’s e-commerce sector ranked number seven across the world.