Social Enterprise at My Khatulistiwa

Social Enterprise

What is social enterprise?
Social Enterprises are most of the time profit making companies with strategies to grow and contribute to the well being of its surroundings and causes. These are typically companies with business models tailored specifically to support causes the company believes in.

Our Eko Merchandize is our social enterprise business model. For every product we sell, 40% of the profit is channeled back into the company’s CSR fund, which supports the various causes we believe in.




Eko Bunting
Next time you need to print buntings, consider this; a fabric bunting that works and looks just like the normal tarpaulin bunting. Its made from fabric, gives a brighter color output, suitable for both indoors and outdoors and its recycleable = less guilt! Contact us for quotation.

Eko Print
Take your environmental responsibility a step further. Print green!

Soy inks are extremely beneficial for recycling process. This is because soy ink stains are easily removable from paper as compared to artificial inks, are easily washable and cause less damage to the paper fibers. Further more soy ink waste does not pose any threat to the environment. So it makes more green sense to print on recycled paper using soy ink. Oh and soy ink is produced from soybeans, how cool is that! Suitable for anything that needs to be printed on paper such as brochures, leaflets, name cards etc. Contact us for quotation.

Eko Bag and Planter boxes
Khatulistiwa’s Eko Beg more than just a green eco bag. Made from “recoverd materials” these are bags with character, each one of a unique design, making you the ONLY one that owns it! When you use Khatulistiwa’s Eko Bag, you promote the 4R concept. You REFUSE a plastic bag, REUSE a tote bag, REDUCE the amount of plastic bag that ends up in the landfill and finally RECYCLE the bag after its reached its lifetime. It’s definitely a feel good bag!

Tote bag
grocery bag
planter boxes
Colours Available: Variety

Made in Malaysia. Non-returnable because we cannot guarantee patterns or colors. Photo shows a representation of the product but designs will vary. Tarpaulin bags can be recycled once they have weathered naturally.

Eko Soap
Be environmentally-responsible when you shower! Khatulistiwa’s Eko Soap are earth friendly and made with Organic base oils. These soaps are biodegradable, not tested on animals (only on Petri!). Our packaging is minimal and of it recyclable. So next time you visit the waterfall, please don’t pollute the water by using chemical based shampoo and soap, use Eko Soap instead.. and be guilt free!

Eko Seedling Kit
Our Eko Seedling kits help instill a love for nature and gardening. It’s perfect for those who have never planted anything in their life, but would like to start now. Eko Seedling kits are suitable for children and as office plants. It is also our best seller as door gifts.

Khatulistiwa offers hands on, interactive workshops for soap making and seedling kits.

Ask us how!

Khatulistiwa's CSR project

For the past month we have been paving the 1 km only access road leading to the Raja Musa peat swamp. 5 lorry trips, 6 tonnes of rock and sand, countless hours of shoveling, lots of caffeine, so many days of body ache, a thousand mosquito bites, cuts, bruises, sweat and a couple of arguments, negotiations, phone calls, piles of dirty clothes later….We finally finished it last Tuesday :)

We had the time of our lives!

When the request came to look for a sponsor to pave the road, Khatulistiwa was about a month old. The road needed to be repaired to make it accessible for better transportation of tools, volunteers’ food, the marcots and the toilets, so that volunteers did not have had to carry these along the 1km road, plant trees until mid day and then walk the 1km road back again to their cars.

What better way to boost company morale than a CSR initiative of our own. Sort of a walk the talk. It fell in line with the company CSR policy which is connecting the dots, between the persons wanting to help and avenues needing help. Hence we used our first principle - 4R – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and decided to repair the road.

Repairing an unpaved road? ok, we can handle that.. Some physics, some engineering and some psychology.. ahh should be able to nail it. So yes, it didn't seem like much in the beginning. Just a simple job, get in there, pave the road, get out. Oh, how we were proved wrong!

Using sustainable way of living and reuse concept meant we had to find discarded rocks and sand piles to bring to “our” road, and we found lots of those, right in our taman. Its amazing what people throw out! So we dove right into work, bought ourselves a shovel each and started “work” every day at 9am, shoveling rocks into gunny sacks. At about 2pm, the lorry arrives and we then shovel our “treasure” and transport them to Raja Musa. During this time, we received lots of random kindness from strangers who helped us to shovel rocks, right up to loading 40 to 50 sacks onto the lorry.

Every day, this was our clock in and clock out at our office at wherever the rock piles were. Sometimes, we “did” the road at night, under the full moon light and return home from our “office in the wilderness” at 3 am!

As our way of saying Thank You to all tree planters past, present and future, to GEC and Forestry Malaysia for all the great effort they have and continue to put in to revive the Raja Musa Peat Swamp Forest, we sponsored an information board for them. So the next time you are at Raja Musa Peat Swamp, please take a look at the info board and pass the word around on how and ways we can revive the forest.

for pictures on FB please click
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181671&id=704801869&saved#!/album.php?aid=181671&id=704801869

Khatulistiwa comes to "first aid" rescue

Khatulistiwa will be assisting Reach.Org in their quest in helping the homeless in Kuala Lumpur. Starting this Saturday, for the next 8 Saturdays, Petri and Shyam will be offering basic first aid treatment for the homeless at Daya Bumi.

The call for medical help was answered after Shyam was contacted by Reach.Org, after their resident nurse, Jessica, had to go for a 2 month break.

Although Petri and Shyam are certified first aiders, Khatulistiwa is still looking for volunteer doctors who can spare an hour on Saturdays to help out. Help is needed for 8 Saturdays starting 18 June 2010 from 5.30 to 6.30pm. All medicine and dressing materials are provided. For more info, please contact Shyam at shyam@khatulistiwa.com.my

Khatulistiwa to "green" Zainal Abidin's 30th Green Anniversary Concert

Who could ever forget Zainal's Hijau? The song that we listened to while growing up nurtured inside us a love for the environment. So it is indeed an honour to work with the man himself.

Zainal's upcoming concert, themed 30th Green Anniversary Concert, will be a 3 hour celebration of his success and contribution in the music industry. In line with the environmental issues that has developed into one of the main concern in the society, the concert aims to offer a unique close-to-nature experience and will be held amidst the lust jungle of Kl Tower.

Khatulistiwa will be collaborating with Zainal's AfroZapin Network Sdn Bhd to fill the day with interesting green activities, keeping to the theme of the concert. We will update our blog with latest updates and news about the concert, so please do visit us often.

Thanks for dropping by. See you soon!

Being. Doing. Together.
Khatulistiwa

Tree Planting at Raja Musa Peat Swamp 24 April 2010

In supporting GEC and The Sai Group effort to plant 4000 trees in Peat Swamp Forest, Eco Warriors would like to invite and encourage members and volunteer groups to join the event.

The details:

Date : 24/April/2010 (saturday)
Time : 8 am - 12 pm
Venue : Raja Musa Peat Swamp Forest, North Selangor.
(Location Map : http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3874385&op=1&o=user&view=user&subj=108638689165191&aid=-1&oid=108638689165191&id=707955171)

Meet up point for Car Pool Arrangement :
Time : 7 am
A & W, PJ, Selangor.
(Next to 'Taman Jaya' LRT Station, opposite to Amcorp Mall)

What to bring :
a. Drinking water
b. light food for breakfast
c. your high spirit to contribute to mother earth

What to wear :
a. long sleeve shirt / long pant
b. boot

We targeting at getting > 100 volunteers to participate.
We welcome groups to sign up for the event.

MyCSR (Malaysian Youths for CSR)

An excellent social community information portal on all the CSR issues & happenings. A kick-start on introduction/practices on Corporate Social Responsibilities. They have set out with an aim to Create Awareness of Corporate Social Responsibilities among Malaysian Youths.

Earth Day Celebration Bangsar

Earth Day @ Bangsar is an awareness campaign jointly organised by a few merchants on Jalan Telawi in Bangsar Baru and NGOs championing green movements.

Our Missions:
- To increase awareness and participation of environmental protection movement among local residence
- To educate and impart knowledge on what local residence can do to participate in going green


The Organising Committee is as followed

Merchants:
For Fresh People Int’l Sdn Bhd
Yellow Stone Sdn Bhd (Lafuma)
Paper Creation (Keep It Green)
Simply Success

NGOs:
Bangsar Baru Resident’s Association (BBRA)
Malaysian Outdoor Trekking Hiking & Scuba (MOTHS)
Tzu-Chi Foundation
Word Wildlife Foundation (WWF)

Program:
Green Workshops, Fun Booths and Kid's Games, Music Performances, Environmental Movies Screening, Bangsar Nature Walk, Mini Rock Climbing and more!