S3 Ep5: Sam Shu Qin & David Jones on Diving Against Debris in Singapore

During the Surface Time today, I spoke with Sam Shu Qin (founder of Our Singapore Reefs) and David Jones (from Jackson Square Aviation) about their collaboration in the project, Dive Against Debris in 2022. It started off with David’s shower idea about doing something that can help to protect the coastal underwater environment, by engaging local community and leveraging available resources from his company. Little did he know at the time, there are already some unsung heroes, like Our Singapore Reefs and The Submersibles, doing the dirty work of sea clean-up.

Sam and her co-founding partners are marine biologist, specialising in coral restorations in Singapore Reefs. So they have the first-hand experiences of watching how the health of the reefs, especially corals, is damaged by waste. Waste that cannot be managed because they were created and thrown away into the water mostly by inconsiderate people.

I participated the costal clean-up with them. After we cleaned ourselves up nicely, we sat down to look at the data collected by Sam and her team just in 2022. This is like the end-of year performance review.

There are so many takeaways from this chat. First, although diving in Singapore water is like diving in miso soup, the biodiversity is truly incredible. Yet it is so vulnerable. In order to improve the ecosystem, it requires a lot of resources, especially, manpower, financial support and time. The collaborations between Our Singapore Reefs, The Submersibles and Jackson Square Aviation has started to set the changes on course. It is important to continue the momentum in order to maintain the sustainability.

And the most obvious and powerful force would be the Corporate (especially multinational ones). They have the resources to help drive the changes. When setting the ESG policies and guidelines (ESG standards for environmental, social and governance), the focus and emphasis should be on what we can do to create a positive and sustainable impact. Whether it is on the environment, the community or even the way we conduct our business. A wholistic approach should be taken in order to define your stance. As a company, other than making a donation, make your most valuable assets available. That is: your employees.

Naturally, as an employee, if you too like David tend to sprout ideas during shower, it would be good to explore these shower ideas before writing-off as fleeting thoughts. You’ll never know what the outcome will look like until you take the first step and follow through.

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