Kleen-Pak reinforces CSR commitment after SBF’s Business Impact Training

Ms Sharon Chng, Kleen-Pak’s Human Resources Manager shares how the course helped it create maximum social and business impact for the long-term.

Once a month, the Red Cross Home for the Disabled receives 800 packs of adult wet wipes, donated by Kleen-Pak Products.

It is an arrangement that started in February 2022 and will be kept up for a period of two years.

Kleen-Pak is the leading manufacturer of wet wipes in Southeast Asia, employing more than 150 staff in Singapore and Vietnam.

It made the decision to adopt the Red Cross Home as its charity after it attended the CSR in Action: Business Impact Training (BIT) by the SBF Business Institute.

SBF’s BIT course made Kleen-Pak’s CSR efforts more systematic

“Prior to attending the course, we were already conducting annual CSR activities, such as helping with meal preparation and delivery of free meals at Willing Hearts, and participating in the annual International Coastal Cleanup,” reveals Ms Chng, who represented her company to attend the training session.

“But we lacked focus and when it came to decisions around giving back, we would always be debating about what the right amount was.”

Therefore, when Ms Chng was alerted to the BIT, she signed up immediately.

Motivating her was Kleen-Pak’s management, who was very positive about doing CSR and had always felt that they needed to have a proper long-term strategy.

Held over five sessions, it provides a range of frameworks that guide its participants towards this goal.

In addition to being systematic about the process, it also teaches them how to make sure their initiatives are sustained.

One of the frameworks used is empathy mapping, which involves putting themselves in somebody else’s shoes in a bid to understand how they live their lives.

“It really helped us identify who in society we wish to target – our conclusion was the elderly, needy families, the disabled and their family members,” says Ms Chng.

Additionally, the 4 ‘I’s Framework (Investment, Integration, Institutionalisation, Impact) and Asset Based Community Development approach provided guidance on how best Kleen-Pak could offer its internal resources – from its staff, to the products it manufactures – to the beneficiaries.

She elaborates that they were taught to align them with her company’s mission, which is to bring convenience to consumers by providing wet wipes of various applications.

Armed with this knowledge, Chng was able to draw up a more definitive CSR strategy that encompassed a regular monthly donation to the Red Cross Home for the Disabled.

As a result, the planning team has budgeted for an extra 800 packs of adult wet wipes to be manufactured at the production line, and the logistics team sees to their delivery.

Going the distance

But she did not stop there; 11 non-profit organisations were also identified and approached, based on the segments of society Kleen-Pak had decided to target.

These include Ren Ci, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore and Metta Welfare Association.

Each of them will receive an annual donation of wet wipes, based on their respective requirements. For instance, Ren Ci runs a hospital and will get baby wipes, which it uses for cleaning purposes.

Ms Chng points out that the long-term viability of this CSR plan is very important, “It is about how we can uplift the lives of the groups of people we have identified.

“I am very passionate because I feel we can really bring some relief to them and their families. I really truly believe in what we’re doing now.”

Another positive outcome of the training was learning about the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG), which she felt was very eye-opening.

It validated the fact that Kleen-Pak was on the right track towards building a more sustainable society, such as through providing employment opportunities for its more than 150 staff and contributing to the practice of good hygiene with its products.

She adds that the course made her think about what the company has done right and from there, incorporate those elements into the various frameworks learnt during the training to create a strategy to continuously keep up the act of giving.

It is therefore not surprising that Ms Chng is very glad to have gone through the BIT.

Not only has it ceased adhoc charitable donations, but it has embedded CSR into the company’s corporate culture, further helping to differentiate it from its many competitors. In fact, starting from the financial year beginning in July 2021, (each business unit is to implement a sustainable development project annually as part of its Key Performance Indicators.

“I encourage other organisations to sign up, especially those that have already started or intend to start CSR engagement,” she advises.

“The training provides a very systematic approach to developing a CSR strategy, which will hopefully create maximum social and business impact in a more sustainable way.”