People are more environmentally conscious now and are willing to take action if participation is easy and impactful but this idea would be hard for a retailer to adopt, because they cannot be seen as overtly promoting or de-promoting a brand. Also the growth of online purchasing of groceries makes implementing EcoCart on the Chrome browser a perfect solution to achieve the scale across all eCommerce websites and also achieve repeated impact every time they purchase.

In 2015-2016, Singapore and neighbouring countries suffered the worst haze causing more than 100,000 deaths. Deforestation and forest fires that causes the haze in Southeast Asia can be directly attributed to 4 companies that employ unsustainable methods to produce palm oil. Past campaigns and even interventions from the government have failed to curb their slash-and-burn methods of agricuture as demand for unsustainable palm oil as large commercial brand continues to fuel their business. It has been impossible to fully regulate these companies as efforts have failed due to corruption on the ground.

This devastation to the environment is expected to get worse as the demand for palm oil is expected to increase to 240m tonnes by 2050, with 3 billion people in 150 countries using products containing palm oil everday.

So how can we convince these companies to stop their unsustainable means of producing palm oil?

Most people are unaware that more than 50% of products in our kitchens contain palm oil and most are produced with unsustainable agriculture methods, fueling the burning of the forests. Even for those who may be more aware of this issue, checking every product we purchase can be too tedious.

Hence we created EcoCart, a Google Chrome extension that educates and intercepts purchases at the most critical time.

All they have to do is install the plugin and when a user visits an eCommerce website, every product selection they make is checked by the plugin against a database combined from RSPO, WWF Scorecard and other NGO sources.

Once an unsustainable product is detected, the plugin will alert the user and alternative brands are recommended. Every click to switch is tracked by the plugin and users are encouraged to share their action and new-found knowledge on their social network.

Global grocery eCommerce—specifically online food and beverage sales—expects sales will rise from the current S$130 million (US$91 million) to S$500 million (US$350 million) by 2020.

Online grocery buyers currently skew toward young, affluent and urban households that are pressed for time and value convenience.

It’s with this in mind that we believe we can make a dent in the demand for unsustainable brands in almost daily frequencies in starting in Singapore and eventually scaling to any country.

Since the idea would be hard for a retailer to adopt, because they cannot be seen as overtly promoting or de-promoting a brand, we decided to develop it as a Chrome plugin that could cut across any eCommerce websites and puts the control back in the hands of the users.

Chrome is also selected as the launch browser given it’s more than 50% of what the world uses followed by Safari.

EcoCart is programmed by analysing the URL structure of every eCommerce site and how products and brands are categorised. Then our database is structured similarly to reflect that so an alternative brand and product can be recommended.

Beta version of EcoCart was launched on 15 March and subsequently updated with enhancements. As there are thousands of products on shelves, we launched with first set of database covering main categories like milk, drinks, noodles, choclates, biscuits and others which are consumed on a daily basis.

The databse continues to be updated with other product categories and new products entering the market.

Campaign assets ran in targeted media space such as bus-shelter ads in the central business district and also office lift lobbies. PR and trade engagement will take place on 28th April followed by influencer engagement and social media amplification.

EcoCart can be scaled easily and efficiently beyond Singapore.

Given the recent launch, results of the plugin has not been aggregated but media results to raise awareness through messaging are as follows...

Lift lobby screens:

363,066 UNIQUE individuals / week (based on AXA benchmark: 726,132 unique individuals / 2 wks)

879,840 DAILY UNIQUE reach across 520 buildings (est. 1,692 DAILY UNIQUE reach per building)

Bus-shelter ads:

Based on footfall of 264,199, an estimated view of 180,983 can be expected.

The main outcome we want to achieve is significant numbers from plugin to show switches of each brand so that PMHaze can leverage this information to encourage more brands to use sustainable palm oil and get their brands to become recommended ones instead.