SINGAPORE – The escalating issues of environmental challenges and income inequality have prompted an initiative to encourage more companies to come forward and outline their efforts at being good corporate citizens – and to hopefully inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Steward leadership is where win-win-win prosperity is created, allowing employees, shareholders and society at large to thrive together, says Mr Rajeev Peshawaria, the chief executive of Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC), a non-profit organisation that drives the cause across the region.

In essence, it refers to the “desire and persistence to create a collective better future” where companies address issues such as income inequality or climate change.

Companies have begun taking up the challenge, a trend marked by the Steward Leadership 25 (SL25), now in its second year, which highlights 25 projects or enterprises that have demonstrated excellence in this area.

The 2023 list is being drawn up by the SAC in conjunction with graduate business school Insead’s Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society – which works to align itself with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – advisory firm WTW and The Straits Times. The chosen 25 enterprises will be unveiled at the Steward Leadership Summit in November.

Mr Rajeev noted: “As more companies around the world begin to incorporate the ethos of doing well by doing good in earnest, we hope to see a higher participation rate from businesses, small or big, from beyond Singapore. We hope that these stories and projects will inspire more businesses to strive towards creating a collective better future.”

Entry is open to both large companies and small and medium-sized firms, as well as social enterprises. Among those hailed for their steward leadership excellence in 2022 were social enterprises Foreword Coffee Roasters and The Social Kitchen.

Neither has been resting on its laurels.

Foreword opened its first full-service cafe in Serangoon North in January, adding to its other six locations. 

Co-founder and director Lim Wei Jie said the kiosks “were started with the idea of providing employment for persons with disabilities who do not easily qualify for mainstream employment and require more support”.

“We felt that there were many misconceptions regarding persons with disabilities and hence wanted to place them in a more visible job scope, as baristas, so that regular interactions with the public could help lower the social stigma and, in turn, lead to more people understanding persons with disabilities.”

Mr Lim noted that a cafe “allows us to be closer to the community. When our staff with disabilities interact with people in the community, this facilitates interaction and hopefully this is a push for more inclusion. At the same time, we want to create an environment which serves good coffee and good food.” 

Foreword has a coffee roaster at the cafe to ensure a steady supply and consistent standard. 

There are plans to open another cafe in 2023, although Mr Lim’s overall aim is to ensure the sustainability of the business so that it can keep providing jobs. His ultimate goal is to raise the rate of participation of people with disabilities in society.

A similar aim is being pursued by The Social Kitchen, which provides employment to disadvantaged individuals such as those with autism, bipolar disorder or Down syndrome.

The social enterprise has 11 outlets but has ambitious plans to take that number up to 50 within the next five years. It also hopes to raise the headcount of staff with disabilities from around 40 now to 500.

It works with partners on its various projects. For example, during Covid-19, it converted under-utilised kitchens into shared kitchens that were operated by established food and beverage (F&B) operators who hired the disadvantaged people.

Another initiative, one backed by DBS Foundation, involves people with disabilities being employed at the DBS Better World Cafe, the bank’s staff canteen at its headquarters at Marina Bay Financial Centre.

The Social Kitchen works closely with DBS and home-grown F&B company Chilli Padi, which operates the cafe, to ensure that the disabled folk are well integrated with the rest of the staff and to see where their roles can be expanded, such as by building up their supervisory skills.

The Social Kitchen director Avelyn Lee said: “We are always thinking of how to bring it to the next level.”

Ms Lee reckons the way to expand lies in getting more corporations and other partners on board.

“We hope to be able to work with lots more corporates, to build up the skills of persons with disabilities,” she said.

More information can be found at https://str.sg/stewardship2023. Applications close on May 15.