Kidkid and social enterprise are companies that focus on using creativity to solve problems in order to create sustainability in the future. Starting from opening a store selling environmentally friendly products, it has led to the design of social and environmental projects, including the use of innovation and technology to create a better environment for Thai people nationwide because “Kidkid” believes that we can all make the world a better place with creativity.
Kid Kid Co., Ltd. is a social enterprise business that uses creativity to connect existing things with social and environmental problems to solve problems directly and create sustainability in the future. The company operates a business selling environmentally friendly products under the name ECO SHOP, which later became a learning center for designing products and various items that are not harmful to the environment. In addition, Kid Kid Co., Ltd. also works as a consultant for social and environmental development for various organizations, designing products and packaging to add value to products, and using innovation and technology to create a better environment.
In this episode, the admin will take everyone to get to know a social enterprise business that uses creativity combined with existing things to create results that can solve problems and help the environment on a large scale. It uses innovation and technology intelligently. Since people are addicted to technology, we just have to put helping society and the environment in technology. Everyone will get to know the creativity that this company has created through an interview with Mr. Top Pipat Apirakthanakorn, founder of Kid Kid Company Limited.
The beginning of a social enterprise
At first, Top himself was not interested in the environment at all. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree, Top became an actor, a presenter, a DJ, and then returned to study for a master’s degree in MBA. This was the beginning of his entry into the environmental world. Top had to complete his thesis, which had a topic that involved combining the environment with his interests. The topic that Top worked on was the tendency of consumer purchasing behavior towards environmentally friendly furniture.
“We, Kidkid, believe that we can make the world a better place through creativity.”
When he realized that he was interested in the environment, after graduating, Top opened ECO SHOP, a store that gathered environmentally friendly designed products. After opening for a while, more people started coming in, so ECO SHOP increased the size of the business. In addition to accepting design work, it also opened as a design learning center. When everything seemed to be going well, Top realized that if we were doing good, we should let the public know. So Top established Kid Kid Co., Ltd.
“We call ourselves an agency.”
Mr. Top said that Kid Kid Co., Ltd. can be called an agency, but it is primarily an agency for sustainability. It brings in innovation to create change and collect data. For example, it creates an organizational culture, creates an application as a platform to promote organizational culture as desired by the organization’s executives, or, for example, when it went to work for Air Asia, it went to the area to develop community products and then sold them on the plane.
What does our company do?
Think Think will work for companies that want to contribute to the environment but don’t know how. They will help link their products and core business to solving social and environmental problems to create creative results. When any organization thinks that they want to do something good for society and the environment, they deserve something in return. Therefore, Think Think development in this way helps organizations benefit while helping society.
- ECO LIFE Single-Use Plastic : This activity is an area where the company wants people to see what the company is doing in a tangible way. It wants people to see how much it is moving towards reducing plastic use. The company has organized activities to return plastics, return electronic waste, and plant trees. The company started this movement with students at various universities. When you click on the website, you will see information about each university, broken down into each faculty. There is a ranking so students feel like they are competing to help the environment.
- ECO LIFE Application : Starting ECO SHOP was a way to help society and the environment to some extent, but Khun Top wanted to expand the scope of helping society more widely, so he wanted to have a platform for everyone to join, and creating an application was a way to meet that need. The rate of mobile phone usage is increasing continuously, so Khun Top started developing the application, but at first it was not successful. There were only about 20,000 people who downloaded it, and the number of people who actually used it kept decreasing, so he realized that this application did not meet the needs.
“ECO LIFE is a way to help society that can be done right away without having to do business to help society.”
The new application update has made the plastic issue more visible. The development of this new application aims to make this application easy to use, fun, and engaging for everyone. Therefore, the ECO LIFE application that was developed this time will have a collection of points that can be exchanged for various privileges. And the extension of ECO LIFE does not end here because within 2 months, the QR code of the application will be installed at shops in more than 150 universities. Kidkid Company Limited has signed an MOU with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) to implement this operation. Using the QR code is very easy. For example, when buying water at a water shop in a university that does not accept plastic straws, we can scan the QR code to collect points to show that we do not accept plastic straws. After that, we can use the points to receive other privileges in the application, etc.
Why start with students?
Personally, Top sees the power of students. Whenever Top goes to universities, he sees talk about the environment all the time. Students are a generation that still has to live with this environment. They have good driving power. When starting with students, when they graduate and go to work, they will bring this habit of loving the environment with them. Moreover, after achieving success among students, it will be moved to high school and working age groups as well.
“When you do what you love, you feel energized.”
Mr. Top started with a sense of fun, exploring and liking it. When we do what we love, we will have more energy. Especially when what we love can be turned into a business and generate income, it becomes the power to continue doing it in the social enterprise business. Of course, being a business requires profit, but at the same time, there will be help for society and the environment. The more we do it, the clearer it will become. The more we join and help, the more credible it will be.
“On the day we feel discouraged, we just stay with it, don’t run away, and it will go away.”
Doing this kind of social enterprise business, when we are happy, we are happy that we can sell our work, the customers like our ideas, and we can successfully sign a contract. But there will definitely be days when we fail, days when we are discouraged, when the work doesn’t sell, when the customers don’t buy our work. These things will make us feel worse. But when we feel bad, we just stay with it, don’t run away, and it will go away. Because in the end, we have to come back to do our best work, do it properly, and get past those bad feelings.
Goals Ahead
Everyone has the right to access a good environment. More and more shops are joining the company now. There are companies that want to work with us. There are more and more things that make people access the environment. People have the opportunity to participate in creating the environment themselves. Because some people want to help the environment but cannot access a good environment. They cannot be in a position to reach out and help. The goal of Kid Kid Co., Ltd. is to create tangible access to environmental conservation no matter where you are.
Conclusion
Mr. Top said that he is an ordinary person. Therefore, no matter how much you love the environment, you still have desires. Helping the environment does not mean that you have to be clean and love the environment all the time. No matter how much or how little you want to help the environment, the end result is that you can help the environment. Therefore, try to find ways in which you can help the environment. Do it often. If there is a way that you are not comfortable with, do not force it. Try to change the way you help the environment. In the future, helping the environment will expand on its own.
“Choose a method that is familiar to you and that is you. This will allow you to do it for a long time.”
Thinking “Friends” of Society – The Practical Sustainability: “Friends” of Society Enterprises
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Contact channels
Kid Kid Co., Ltd. Address: 432/31 Ladprao64, Yak4, Wangtonglang, Bangkok Thailand 10310 Tel. (66) 44-065-744 Website: https://kidkid.co.th/ and Email: contact@kidkid.co.th
Supported by the Office of Social Enterprise Promotion (OSEP)
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