Organised by AIESEC Singapore, a global platform for youth to explore and develop their leadership potential, SDG Titans is a three-week business case competition held from 7 to 28 March 2021. Its vision is to promote social entrepreneurship among youths by enabling youths to work together to contribute to the sustainable achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Held for the first time by AIESEC in Singapore, the sustainability competition invited youths across Singapore to submit innovative sustainability-focused ideas to tackle selected SDGs.

The first stage of the competition involved teams pitching their sustainability ideas to a panel of judges.  The second stage required teams to pitch their marketing strategy, followed by the third stage where teams presented their prototypes. After several rounds of intensive pitching, five finalist teams were left standing to pitch their solutions at the grand finals, during the SDG Summit held on location at *SCAPE Singapore.

Singapore Management University’s “Team Coconut Consulting”, consisting of Joshua Poh, Year 2, YPHSOL, Maxine Hong Minxin, Year 2, YPHSOL and Slevin Chua, Year 3, YPHSOL & LKCSB triumphed over 18 teams consisting of over 44 participants from universities which include the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and tertiary institutions such as Raffles Institution, Singapore Polytechnic and Victoria Junior College.

The trio stood out in all rounds of the competition to emerge champions, winning the judges over with their solution of a mobile application named “PlatePoints”. The app rewards users with points that can be exchanged for rewards, in return for reducing food waste by clearing their plates. To craft a solution that was feasible and sustainable, the team underwent weeks of research and creative brainstorming to come up with the winning concept; targeting consumer-level food waste through a sustainable local ecosystem which connects all stakeholders involved.

Despite a gruelling timeline and numerous weekly checkpoints, the team emerged champions of the SDG Titans Business Case Competition, impressing an esteemed panel of C-suite judges from Draper Startup House, Start-Up-O, UNDP and back2basics with well thought analyses, creative solutions and eloquent presentation skills. They were awarded a $1,000 cash prize as well as an opportunity to work under mentors to make their idea a reality.

It was definitely a rewarding and enriching experience for Team Coconut Consulting. Team leader, Joshua Poh, shared: “We joined this competition because we are passionate about reducing food waste, an increasingly prevalent issue in our modern society. We hope that our solution will be able to make a change in everyday lives and motivate other people to join us in saving our environment, one plate at a time.”