The rise of the social entrepreneurs in Hong Kong

Nowadays, it’s not enough for entrepreneurs to come up with just another good business idea. In our current climate of social inequality and environmental grievances — we now see that it is increasingly important for entrepreneurs to strive for a lasting mission for a force for good. The mission is no longer just about making money anymore, but how a business can leave a lasting impact on its consumers and society.

This idea of “profit for purpose” gives rise to a realm of entrepreneurs called social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs seek to use ways of business to solve social or environmental challenges in an innovative way — they seek sustainable solutions to bring about change.

With Gen Z’s becoming increasingly aware of their ethical and carbon footprint, seeking out how to solve existing problems in the community not only requires thoroughly understanding the needs of the community to implement improvements but also has to be equipped with a practical mindset, business acumen to transform ideas into a reality.

Lucky for us, Hong Kong is not late to this social start-up and social enterprise scene where Gen Zs can take inspiration from a range of existing meaningful missions. As Hong Kong has had a track record of being consumer-centric, this means that it leaves plenty of room for growth when it comes to advocating conscious consumption and minimising waste. Looking to reduce waste in fashion, The R Collective seeks to create clothes using waste materials to build up a fashion brand that is sustainable while raising funds for its parent charity, Redress. Along the lines of upcycling existing materials, social enterprise VCycle looks to increase the living standards of the ‘cardboard grannies’ of Hong Kong by redirecting their work to sorting and upcycling plastic to create merchandise instead of scavenging for a living.

Aside from the pressing environmental issues, social entrepreneurs also look to addressing societal inequalities and elevate education. LUÜNA aims to raise awareness of menstrual education and provide chemical-free sanitary products, with every item sold they will donate a box of healthy organic pads to Free Periods HK which provides free sanitary products to low-income women.

With always room to better our standards in society and to uplift communities that are under-resourced — CoCoon aims to encourage your child to identify gaps and areas of change in current societies. With an aim to highlight the benefits of entrepreneurial learning, find out how your child can tune into this mindset early at https://foundation.hkcocoon.org/.