Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Company (“Starbucks Malaysia”) emerged a winner among the 50 organizations honored at the recent CSR Malaysia Awards 2019, which was held in Kuala Lumpur recently. The awards this year paid tribute to outstanding corporations in Malaysia that have excelled in the role of change agents in the socio-economic transformation of the country.
The notable honor was in recognition of Starbucks Malaysia’s Green Outreach Program, which is
dedicated to environmental stewardship and creating meaningful and sustained change through its
business.
To this day, Starbucks remains committed to being a different kind of company – one that is built out of human connections, community involvement and environment preservation. Through the Starbucks Green Outreach Program, the company intends to hone a sense of togetherness and strengthening neighborhoods in the communities where their stores operate. Among other initiatives, it has championed community support of environmental causes, such as raising awareness of recycling and reusing waste materials towards the promotion of an eco-friendly lifestyle.
This was demonstrated in their collaboration with EcoKnights last year, which saw Starbucks raising funds through the retail of its reusable cups that was channeled towards the implementation of the Community Edible Garden project at Perumahan Awam Ruman Panjang Ikan Emas in Cheras. The initiative provided the B40 community with the opportunity to cultivate fresh produce on their own, while also nurturing a culture of sharing among their neighbors.
As part of its Green Outreach Program, Starbucks also organizes environmental workshops every month with the overarching environmental theme of upcycling household and material waste for gardening purposes. With the help of EcoKnights, the workshops taught several eco-friendly methods such as planting, propagation, composting, culturing effective microbes, upcycling, and other best practices for gardening.
“At Starbucks, we bring together our partners (employees), customers, communities, non-profit partners and civic leaders together to help make our neighborhoods stronger. And with a growing curiosity in environmental concerns among consumers, it has inspired us to do better in ensuring sustainability remains a priority in our business,” said Sydney Quays, CEO of Berjaya Food Berhad, and Managing Director of Starbucks Malaysia & Brunei. “This award is not only testament to our support of sustainable living and eco-friendly causes, but is also a nod to the trust we have built with our customers.”
In April this year, Starbucks Malaysia launched the second phase of its Green Outreach Program which will see the company collecting its used Flavorlock™ Whole Bean coffee bags from its customers, and upcycling them through YWCA’s onsite vocational school, Vocational Opportunity Centre (VTOC), to turn the coffee bags into purses and pouches. These end-products will start retailing in Starbucks stores across Malaysia from January 2020 onwards, with the proceeds channeling back to VTOC and the women of the B40 community who will help sew the bags.
Greetings from the Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia (FAAM)!
AMCHAM is pleased to invite members for Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia (FAAM)’s Inaugural Dinner which will be held in conjunction with the 56th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program in Malaysia. It is a collaborative effort between FAAM and the Faculty of Music, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) to entertain dinner guests.
This gathering provides an avenue for the Malaysian-American community to build networking opportunities and for the local and American Fulbrighters to connect with each other in educational and cultural exchange, further strengthening international relations. In addition to the meeting of East & West in terms of culture, cuisine and friendship, it serves to celebrate with a gathering of all the Fulbright recipients from Malaysia.
The Organizing Committee of the 56th Anniversary of Fulbright Malaysia Celebration Dinner, would like to invite AMCHAM members to participate in the sponsorship of their event and an opportunity to meet with the other esteem participants from the American community, Fulbright and local academicians, professionals from the government and corporate sectors.
Kindly complete and return the enclosed reply slip confirming the details of your participation so that they can include it in the dinner program no later than July 31, 2019. The event secretariat would liaise closely with members to confirm the guestlist for the dinner.
Please do not hesitate to contact the organizing committee by email at [email protected] or telephone 5544-4792/6016-3688926 for further information.
Once again, thank you very much for your kind consideration and we look forward to hearing from you and your participation in this event.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Dr. Catherine S F Ho
Sponsorship Committee
Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is in National Instruments’ DNA. NI is passionate about accelerating STEM education through impactful partnerships, employee volunteerism, and technology donations.
In 2018, one of NI Malaysia’s key STEM initiatives was the NI Autonomous Robotics Competition (NI ARC) – Malaysia edition. The competition was designed to encourage learning, development and innovation among students in the field of robotics.
11 teams comprising Universiti Sains Malaysia students participated in this competition that spanned five months. At the end of that duration, there was a Malaysian final that was co-hosted by NI and USM. The winning team went on a NI-sponsored trip to compete in the grand finals in Sydney, Australia.
Last year’s theme was “Fast Track to the Future” and the robots were expected to complete tasks such as going through hazardous terrain, bumps, avoiding obstacles all while optimizing performance to maximize efficiency with the objective of earning the most points.
After last year’s resounding success and interest from the academia, NI Malaysia is organizing the NI ARC again and it’s open to more universities and number of teams. Themed “Planet Exploration – Mars Exploration Program”, participants are required to design and program the hardware to gather specific materials for research, both autonomously and manually in a specific duration – all with the intent to determine if Mars could support life, to study the geology of the planet and to help prepare for human exploration. The competition is ongoing and the finals will be held in November.
NI takes pride in engaging in strategic, long-term collaborations with organizations in the communities where the company’s employees work and live, to fuel innovation and discovery among youth and inspire them to pursue careers in engineering and science. An initiative like the NI ARC provides NI employees to get involved to become the technical advisors, mentors, judges and others so it truly is a well-rounded opportunity for both the company and employees to contribute back to the community.
SELANGOR, July 5, 2019 – FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the world’s largest express transportation company, together with Junior Achievement (JA), have announced the six winners of the FedEx Express / Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge (FedEx / JA ITC) Malaysian Selections 2019. The winners will advance to the FedEx/JA ITC Regional Finals which will be held in Kuala Lumpur from August 18 to 22, 2019.
This year, the ten teams were shortlisted to present their market entry strategy plan (MESP) for a beauty product, with Indonesia as the target market. The students’ MESPs also highlighted their product’s unique value proposition, pricing strategies, marketing plans, market entry options, and sales and distribution channels.
The participants were also given the opportunity to experience being in a corporate setting, as they presented their business ideas to a distinguished panel of judges including SC Chong, Managing Director of FedEx Express Malaysia; Professor Roland Xavier, Professor at University Tun Abdul Razak and Tim Garland, Capital Markets Communications Consultant of TBWA Malaysia.
This year, the three winning teams are:
- Team M.S.S. Skin Care: Shamita Sheetal and Jodie Wong Jyen from SMK Convent Green Lane, developed M.S.S. Skin Care, a range of personalized halal skincare products aimed to cater to the various skin types and conditions through a quick face analysis via a QR code scan.
- Team Euphrates: Shveenita Alyza Kanapathy and Thivyashini Selvaseelan from SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 3, developed “The Re-Line Range”, a set of skincare products (consisting of the White Heaven Cleanser, Golden Honey Scrub, Dream Team Toner and Just-Chill Bag Mask) that incorporate traditional elements of the Indonesian culture. An emphasis on an all-organic product line, the products are packaged using bamboo sticks.
- Team Janus Mask: Mithun Balaji MG and Aditya Rajkumar from Global Indian International School, developed the Janus Mask, a biodegradable face mask that aims to address dry or oily skin types, which was identified to be a common issue faced by many Indonesians living in a tropical country. Made completely from natural products, Janus Mask is targeted at men and women aged between 25 to 54 years old.
The six winning students will represent Malaysia in a competition at the Regional Finals in Kuala Lumpur from August 18 to 22, 2019 with 54 counterparts from nine other Asia Pacific markets, namely Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. These students were selected based on their impeccable market research and market entry plans, which also showcased their creativity, hard work and entrepreneurial skills in presenting their ideas and in entering a new market. In an effort to further promote cross-border collaboration, the finalists will also go through a random shuffle to form new teams consisting of participants from different countries.
“For 12 years, we have seen through this program that over 5,000 Malaysian students have shared ideas that highlight a deep understanding of business and international trade. Year after year, we continue to support this competition with one aim – to inspire, support and nurture today’s youth to take on the roles of tomorrow’s business leaders in Malaysia. It has been an honour playing a part in fostering their learning and I am sure that our teams will make us proud at the regional finals in Kuala Lumpur in August with their creativity and understanding of international trade,” said SC Chong, Managing Director, FedEx Express Malaysia.
JA Malaysia is delighted to continuously bring the FedEx Express / JA ITC program to the Malaysian students and impart entrepreneurial knowledge and international business concepts to them. By participating in this program, the students have shown us how much they have learned and it is clear from their competition submissions that every student who participated is already a winner in their own right. We look forward to enhancing the student experience in the Regional Finals,” said Stuart Dean, Chairman of JA Malaysia.
Through a series of intensive workshops that were held earlier in April this year, the participating students had the opportunity to learn about the different facets of entrepreneurship and international trade from a team of trainers. In addition to that, a total of 47 FedEx volunteers also provided mentorship to the students by sharing their knowledge and real-life experiences, as well as guiding them through the development of their product ideas and plans during the workshops.
